& Other Stories Unisex Decoration: How to Style Gender-Neutral Pieces in Your Home and Wardrobe

There is something quietly revolutionary about the idea that beautiful things should not belong to any particular gender. A well-crafted ceramic bowl, a softly draped linen shirt, a sculptural vase that catches afternoon light — these objects do not care who owns them or who wears them. They simply exist in their beauty, available to anyone with the eye and the will to appreciate them. This is the philosophy at the heart of unisex design, and it is a philosophy that the Swedish-origin fashion house & Other Stories has long embraced with particular grace.

Whether you are approaching & Other Stories as a fashion enthusiast looking to build a more fluid, gender-neutral wardrobe, or as a home décor devotee seeking pieces that transcend trend and category, the brand offers an unusually cohesive universe of objects and garments that feel designed for people rather than for a prescribed gender identity. In this post, we explore what makes & Other Stories such a compelling destination for unisex decoration — in both the literal and the broader lifestyle sense — and how you can incorporate their aesthetic into your daily life.

What Does “Unisex Decoration” Actually Mean?

Before diving into the specifics of & Other Stories and what their collections offer, it is worth pausing on the phrase “unisex decoration” itself, because it carries more meaning than it might initially appear to.

In the world of interior design, “unisex” or “gender-neutral” decoration refers to spaces, palettes, and objects that do not code as either stereotypically masculine or feminine. It moves away from the cultural shorthand of pink-for-girls and blue-for-boys, soft florals for women’s spaces and dark leathers for men’s spaces, and instead builds environments around qualities like texture, proportion, material honesty, and restrained color. The result is a kind of decoration that feels welcoming and personal without being prescriptive.

In fashion, unisex design operates similarly: garments cut for the body without reference to gendered conventions, silhouettes that drape or structure without signaling a specific gender presentation, and accessories whose appeal is rooted in craftsmanship and form rather than in coded femininity or masculinity.

& Other Stories occupies a fascinating middle ground between these two worlds. As a brand that sells both clothing and a curated selection of beauty and lifestyle products, it invites customers to think about personal style as something total — a way of being in and decorating your world, including your body and your home.

The & Other Stories Aesthetic: An Introduction

Founded in 2013 as part of the H&M Group, & Other Stories quickly distinguished itself from its corporate siblings through a commitment to artisanal quality, considered design, and a distinctly European sensibility. With design studios in Stockholm, Paris, and Los Angeles, the brand has always drawn on multiple creative traditions simultaneously, producing collections that feel cosmopolitan and particular at the same time.

What defines the & Other Stories aesthetic above all else is a kind of refined restraint. Their palettes tend toward the muted and the earthy — stone, chalk, ochre, forest green, deep navy, warm terracotta — punctuated occasionally by a carefully placed pop of saturated color. Their materials are tactile and honest: natural linen, heavy cotton, brushed wool, smooth leather, unpolished metals. Their forms are often simple but not plain, relying on proportion and finish rather than surface decoration to achieve their effect.

This restraint is precisely what makes & Other Stories pieces so naturally suited to a unisex or gender-neutral approach to decoration and style. There is no ruffled collar or aggressively structured shoulder pad insisting that you read a garment in a particular gendered way. A chunky ribbed sweater is simply a beautiful garment. A wide-leg trouser is simply an elegant shape. A candle or a ceramic from their accessories range is simply a lovely object.

Building a Gender-Neutral Wardrobe with & Other Stories

One of the most practical ways to engage with unisex decoration through the lens of & Other Stories is to think about building a wardrobe that prioritizes quality, versatility, and personal expression over adherence to gendered sizing or styling norms.

Start with the basics and make them count. & Other Stories does essential pieces exceptionally well: a perfectly weighted cotton T-shirt, a classic white Oxford shirt with just a hint of oversized drape, a tailored but relaxed blazer. These are the foundations of a gender-neutral wardrobe precisely because they are so fundamentally about cut and quality rather than decoration. When you invest in pieces like these from a brand whose quality control and aesthetic consistency are as reliable as & Other Stories’, you are building something that will outlast any given trend cycle.

Proportion is everything. One of the central tools of unisex dressing is the manipulation of proportion. An oversized silhouette reads differently on different bodies, but it reads beautifully on all of them. & Other Stories’ collections consistently include pieces in what might be described as “relaxed” or “generous” cuts — wide-leg trousers that pool slightly at the ankle, shirts that fall past the hip, coats with substantial drape. These are garments that work with the body as it is, without insisting on a particular gendered shape.

Embrace tonal dressing. Dressing in a single tone or a narrow palette is one of the most effective ways to create a quietly striking, gender-neutral look. & Other Stories’ seasonal color palettes are designed with exactly this kind of tonal coherence in mind. A look built entirely from their shades of camel and cream, or from a spectrum of dusty greens and muted blues, communicates something about taste and intention rather than about gender.

Consider the accessories. & Other Stories has an exceptionally strong accessories offering, and many of their pieces — particularly their jewelry, bags, and belts — are designed with a gender-neutral sensibility that makes them appropriate and appealing regardless of how you present. A chunky silver chain, a minimalist leather crossbody bag, a wide woven belt: these are accessories that do the work of completing an outfit without narrowing its gender expression.

& Other Stories and Home Decoration: The Lifestyle Dimension

While & Other Stories is primarily known as a fashion and beauty brand, its sensibility extends naturally into the realm of home decoration. The brand has, over the years, offered various home and lifestyle objects — candles, ceramics, glassware, and small decorative pieces — that carry the same restrained, tactile aesthetic as their clothing.

Even when they are not selling home objects directly, & Other Stories communicates a particular vision of home life through their editorial imagery, their store design, and the overall lifestyle universe they construct. Paying attention to this vision can be a genuinely useful guide for anyone trying to create a gender-neutral home space.

The & Other Stories color sensibility translated into interiors. The same palette that works so well for their clothing — earthy neutrals, muted tones, occasional saturated accents — translates beautifully into interior decoration. Think of walls in chalky off-whites or warm greiges, textiles in natural linen or undyed cotton, ceramics in stoneware and matte glazes. This is a palette that feels both timeless and contemporary, and it resists any easy coding as masculine or feminine.

Texture over pattern. One of the signatures of the & Other Stories approach is a preference for texture over surface pattern. In clothing, this means ribbed knitwear, woven tweed, brushed suede. In home decoration, it means rough-hewn ceramic, woven rattan, hand-thrown pottery, raw wood. Pattern, when it appears, tends to be abstract or geometric rather than figurative. This emphasis on texture rather than representational decoration contributes significantly to the gender-neutral feel of the aesthetic.

Objects with presence but without ostentation. The & Other Stories aesthetic is not minimalist in the austere, everything-must-be-hidden sense. It is more accurately described as selective: a small number of beautiful objects, given space to be fully themselves. A single sculptural ceramic on a windowsill. A stack of art books on a low table. A candle in a handmade holder. These are objects that reward attention without demanding it, and they work beautifully in a unisex or gender-neutral decorative context because their appeal is rooted in form and materiality rather than in gendered symbolism.

Shopping & Other Stories Thoughtfully: What to Look For

If you are approaching & Other Stories with the intention of building a more gender-neutral personal style or home aesthetic, there are a few specific things worth keeping in mind as you navigate their collections.

Prioritize natural materials. & Other Stories pieces made in natural materials — linen, cotton, wool, leather, ceramic, glass — tend to age better, wear better, and feel more harmoniously integrated into a gender-neutral aesthetic than synthetic alternatives. They are also, as a general principle, more sustainable choices that align with the considered, quality-over-quantity approach that a truly gender-neutral wardrobe tends to embody.

Look for pieces that work across contexts. One of the great virtues of gender-neutral dressing and decoration is its versatility. A piece that can be worn or used in multiple contexts — a blazer that works for both a professional meeting and a weekend afternoon; a ceramic that looks as good in a kitchen as on a bathroom shelf — earns its place in your life more fully than something narrowly specific. & Other Stories does context-crossing versatility particularly well.

Pay attention to the details. & Other Stories is a brand that invests in its details: the quality of a button, the hand of a fabric, the finish on a hardware piece. In unisex dressing and decoration, where the statement is often carried by quality and restraint rather than by bold decoration, these details matter enormously. They are what elevate a simple piece into something genuinely special.

Consider longevity. Trend-free and gender-neutral are not synonyms, but they are related. The pieces from & Other Stories that read most strongly as unisex tend also to be the ones that will feel relevant and beautiful in five or ten years. Investing in these pieces rather than in more trend-driven items is both an aesthetic choice and a practical one.

Styling Ideas: Bringing It All Together

To make this more concrete, here are some ways you might actually combine & Other Stories pieces into a coherent unisex aesthetic, whether you are dressing a body or a room.

For a relaxed daytime look, consider pairing one of their oversized linen shirts — perhaps in a warm ecru or a faded sage — with straight-cut trousers in a complementary neutral. Add a wide leather belt at the waist if you want to introduce some structure, or leave it loose for a more fluid silhouette. Finish with a pair of their simple leather mules or low-profile leather sneakers and a minimal crossbody bag. This is a look that works beautifully across genders precisely because it is built on proportion and quality rather than on any coded visual signal.

For a more formal occasion, their tailoring is worth exploring seriously. & Other Stories does a particularly good single-button blazer in their seasonal suiting fabrics — a heavy crepe or a textured wool — that reads as elegant and considered without being gendered. Paired with wide-leg trousers in a matching or complementary fabric and a simple crew-neck top underneath, this is a suit that anyone can wear beautifully.

In the home, you might build a small vignette on a shelf or side table using the kind of objects that the & Other Stories aesthetic suggests even when they are not selling home goods directly: a few smooth river stones collected from a walk, a single stem in a small-mouthed vase, a handmade candle in a neutral wax tone, a worn paperback with a beautiful spine. The principle is curation and space — letting each object breathe — rather than accumulation.

Why Gender-Neutral Style Matters Beyond Aesthetics

It would be possible to engage with all of the above purely as an aesthetic exercise, and there is nothing wrong with that. But it is worth noting, at least briefly, that the movement toward gender-neutral design and decoration carries some genuine cultural significance beyond its visual appeal.

When we choose objects, garments, and spaces that are not coded by gender, we are, in a small way, loosening the grip that gendered expectations have over how we present ourselves and inhabit the world. We are saying that beauty is for everyone, that quality is for everyone, that the right to a carefully considered and personally meaningful aesthetic environment is not contingent on gender identity or expression. These are not radical ideas, exactly, but they are good ones, and they are embodied more fully in everyday choices than in grand gestures.

& Other Stories, with its restrained beauty, its commitment to materiality and craft, and its quietly inclusive sensibility, offers a genuinely useful set of tools for anyone wanting to live in this direction.

Final Thoughts

The appeal of & Other Stories as a resource for unisex decoration — whether of the body or the home — lies ultimately in the brand’s consistent fidelity to a set of aesthetic values that transcend category. They make beautiful things. Those things are made honestly, in good materials, with attention to how they will actually be used and lived with. They are not trying to tell you who to be or how to present. They are simply offering beautiful objects and trusting you to know what to do with them.

That trust, and the freedom it implies, is the real gift of gender-neutral design. In a world still full of products that try to narrow your identity before you have had a chance to define it yourself, there is genuine pleasure and genuine liberation in reaching for something that simply asks: do you find this beautiful? Is this useful to your life? Does this feel like you?

With & Other Stories, the answer is very often yes.