A genuine shift toward valuing personal preference over strict gender marketing, combined with a wave of well-regarded niche houses building unisex fragrances from the outset, has pushed genderless perfume from a niche idea into a mainstream category over the last decade or so.

What’s actually driving it

Consumer attitudes have moved away from the idea that fragrance should be assigned by gender at all, with many shoppers simply choosing based on what they enjoy rather than what a bottle’s marketing suggests. Niche and artisan perfumers have led much of this shift, often designing fragrances without gender framing from the start rather than adapting existing men’s or women’s lines. Retail categorisation is also genuinely changing to reflect this, moving away from rigid his-and-hers sections toward scent families and moods instead.

  • Broader cultural shift away from strict gender categories generally
  • Niche perfumers designing unisex from the outset rather than adapting existing lines
  • Consumers increasingly choosing based on personal preference over marketing labels

This shift has also opened up far more experimentation with fragrance families traditionally coded as ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’, giving wearers genuine freedom to choose based on the notes themselves rather than the marketing around them.

Our unisex fragrance guide explores this shift in depth, alongside our complete guide to perfume, and our unisex collection if you’d like to explore the category yourself.