Whether it’s Amazon commissioning a major television series about transgender fathers, a global fashion designer placing menswear on models of both sexes, or Twitter enabling a new, spirited voice to young feminists, it seems that gender issues are at the fore of our collective consciousness.
Dig deeper still, and it could be that, as we reach the mid-point of this decade, we find ourselves at a gender tipping-point of sorts. Where by opening up the gender conversation and dealing with its consequences, we’re in fact ushering in a period where gender falls down the list of things that define us as individuals, prioritising instead our values, character and merits.
Perhaps then a more accurate reading is ‘genderless’. We decided to act on these observations and dedicate this issue’s report to gender, exploring how this shift in gender perceptions is playing out within fashion, the workplace, the internet and our wider society.
Elsewhere this issue we have our regular coverage of the latest ideas and instigators. We speak to creative polymath and cover star Aitor Throup about his process that, time and again, manages to conjure up ideas that are genuinely original. We ask Parisian design studio Convoy about the state of digital media and how they so cooly captivate today’s online audiences. And we travel to Jakarta for this issue’s Guide to report on the young entrepreneurs rebuilding the city’s retail and hospitality for a modern consumer. All that and plenty more.
