The gender shift megatrend will transform the fashion industry. The demand for gender-sensitive products and services is increasing. The image of the fashion industry may appear gender-fluid; however, the development and production of garments continues to reproduce binarities, with garments still being designed and produced in a gendered way. The ambivalence of the binaries and fluidities of fashion was explored through expert interviews. These show how the fashion industry adapts gender individuality and how new codes replace the old normative system. Tapping into the potential of new gender constructs, «Cutting Fashion» provides the solution: gender-fluid modifiable clothing, conceived as a fashion brand, visualized in three outfits that make diversity a normality.
«In her Master’s thesis, Rahel explores the subject of gender identities in fashion. She conducted excellent expert interviews which provide particularly deep insights into the challenges and opportunities of an industry that faces necessary and integral change. In addition to her comprehensive collection, Rahel’s project also includes a video, a web store, new communication and a manifesto. The collection, based on three topics, is ready for production; manufacturing sites have been identified, user groups defined, prices calculated and sales and communication concepts developed. Both in terms of theory and design, this is a topical, original and very substantial work on diversity which allows and promotes a playful approach to gender. It thus makes a contribution against stereotyping and for a fluid and gender-sensitive consumption of fashion.» – Excerpt from the supporting statement of the Subject Area Trends & Identity
«The fashion brand «Cutting Gender» creates gender-fluid modifiable clothes which can be adapted in width, depth and length, leaving room for hybridity, diversity and individuality. My project is currently not for sale. At a later stage, I would like to set up my own business with the fashion label «Cutting Gender» and make my clothes available to purchase.» – Rahel Schmuckli
«As a future independent fashion designer I would like to counteract the binary manufacture of clothes by devising new cutting techniques for new gender constructs and establishing diversity as a normality.» – Rahel Schmuckli
