How This Brand Is Setting A New Standard Of Gender Equality

Fashion campaigns — both luxury and affordable — exist for several reasons: 1. They're a talking moment for the brand. 2. They're a way to reach the outskirts of the industry (i.e., the customers or those who don't directly work in it). And 3. They're a selling point. (Because really, what is a brand without its advertisements?) But today, fashion campaigns are also used to make cultural statements. And the new AG spring 2016 campaign, which uses a woman to showcase both the men's and women's lines, is setting a new standard. Shot by photographer Cass Bird, the campaign stars barefaced supermodel chameleon Daria Werbowy modeling a selection of men's and women's clothing as she frolics around Los Angeles to the tunes of Tussilago. All of that, in combination with the high-quality jean-and-T-shirt ensembles, makes for a fashion campaign we can actually relate to. And by relate, we mean the looks are so down-to-earth — and so...us — that they remind us of every intimate moment we've had wearing our own favorite piece of denim. And Bird's experience working with Daria (which stretches more than a decade) was exactly that: "The inspiration was for the images to feel authentic and like her; to feel like a partner or friend was taking the photo," she told Refinery29. "And to be intimate, rather than a typical fashion campaign."

More present than before is the idea of agender fashion — fashion that surpasses the notion of gender and is all-encompassing. It's not just a really good thing, but the reason why AG decided to use Werbowy to show both lines: "It’s not often you have the opportunity to work with someone like Daria," Johnathan Crocker, the company's Director of Global Communications, said. "And part of those advantages are that your parameters, so to speak, are limitless. We saw the recent trend of some designer brands shooting men in womenswear and thought doing just the opposite could/would be interesting and noteworthy. We didn’t see any other brands doing it, so we thought the timing was right. We truly [believed] no one could do it better than Daria."

Crocker is right: As fashion becomes increasingly genderless, each season brings a bevy of brands doing their part to make sure that this fluidity happens sooner rather than later. In the past 12 months alone, Louis Vuitton's spring 2016 campaign featured Jaden Smith showcasing womenswear, Acne's fall 2015 campaign showed an 11-year-old boy modeling its womenswear line, and & Other Stories' capsule collection last summer was modeled by transgender trailblazers Hari Nef and Valentijn de Hingh. AG's use of Werbowy is yet another step in the right direction.