Beau Novo: A Gender Neutral Clothing Brand Out Of Sheepshead
SHEEPSHEAD BAY – Two millennial cousins have created a gender-neutral clothing brand, Beau Novo, aimed at representing everyone.
Beau Novo stands for “new man.” One day, Bobby Vincent Bruno (a marketing student at Brooklyn College) and Brian ‘Sene’ Marc (an actor, model, and musician) met a young lady at a bar. Her name was Beau, and Beau is normally attributed to a male admirer or a rich, fashionable young man. For Bruno and Marc, it was a bit serendipitous as they were going for a brand with no designated gender. But why?
Because women birth humans. And that is one thing the majority of people can agree on, the cousins say.
“Everything else has been someone else coming around (more times than not, a man) and being the authority on what jobs, emotions, clothing, etc. are suitable for what sex,” Bruno told us. “Fashion shouldn’t be that way. It’s literally something you are choosing to wear to express yourself and for that to be under the guise of a predetermined gender already adds connotation to the choices you are making from a fashion standpoint.”
To break down that barrier, Bruno and Marc believe, one has to simply acknowledge that these are just clothes, not specifically belonging to a man nor a woman.
“We want to wear what we want to wear, and we want you to do the same. Your birth certificate might say ‘MALE’, but you may slay in a dress. We love it,” they write on their website. “Your High School yearbook may show you as head cheerleader or prom queen. Maybe now you’ve traded in your pom- poms for oversized graphic tees and piercings. Good for you! Free yourself. Be yourself.”
Marc and Bruno have been working on their brand for a while now. It first began as a merchandising idea for Marc’s fans, and then somehow turned into a “selfless thing,” Marc said. The online shop currently has 40 items ranging from t-shirts to a baseball cap– all black, white.
Since Bruno is a marketing student and knows plenty about how to sell an item (he created his very own website to teach others how to market), and Marc has an eye for style and design (and has featured in movies such as Nerve), they make the perfect team.
“We are in a time of change. People are fighting to be freer than ever,” Marc said. “We want to be a part of that. We are a part of that. With our votes with our opinions, and now with our brand.”