61% of Gen Z thinks fashion industry overlooks minority groups: Survey

The Gen Z Fashion Report by student affinity network UNiDAYS headquartered in the United Kingdom covered over 4,000 Gen Z students on the UNiDAYS panel, and analysed their perceptions of gendered clothing and marketing.

Barring some exceptions, the consensus is that brands could be doing more to champion inclusivity in their campaigns, believing that ‘style should not have a gender’ (61 per cent). When it comes to marketing, only 31 per cent of UK Gen Z feel that brands are getting it right when it comes to using inclusive and diverse gender representation.

Twenty six per cent of Gen Z believe labelling products according to gender is not inclusive.

For those brands deemed to be getting it wrong, over half of UK Gen Z (56 per cent) said they came across as ‘tokenistic’, with half (51 per cent) believing that brands weren’t doing enough to support wider inclusivity initiatives.

Thirty eight per cent wanted them to better support organisation that benefit non-binary individuals, and 45 per cent said they should market gender neutral clothing more explicitly.

Almost two thirds (65 per cent) of Gen Z felt that brands could improve the online retail experience by providing the option for shoppers to search ‘gender neutral’ ranges online, rather than being funnelled to search for either ‘men’s’ or ‘women’s’ ranges from the outset.

In fact, 46 per cent of UK students would like to see more diverse products ranges from fashion brands.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)