Monica Kong

Capstone Title

Queer’d

Description of Capstone Project

American actor, drag queen, model, and recording artist RuPaul Andre Charles said, “you are born naked and the rest is drag.” Androgyny or gender neutral means of no gender or resembling ambiguity in gender. This project is about the development of binary gender category segregation in fashion retail (i.e. male and female), specifically in the area of shopping for androgynous or gender neutral clothing. Why is there a binary gender divide in retail store layouts? The topic is related to fashion in that the focus of this research is based on why there is still this hypersensitivity to wearing androgynous clothing for genderqueer people in the eyes of the hegemonic society of cisgender people. Aesthetic values, cultural meaning, and intrinsic essence of a brand are the challenges of creating one, especially designing clothing products that fit both men, women and all genders. To have each individual style of clothing to fit multiple body types, is one goal for product development, but to create clothing that is gender neutral or androgynous is the main challenge. Also, researching branding concepts that resemble neutral themes for androgynous clothing lines that can translate into a store layout shopping experience. The goals of this project focus on questions such as whether the gender binary gap should be bridged? If so, what are the possible gender neutral solutions for the industry, consumers, cisgender and LGTBQ* people?