Fact that is news to no one: Highrise is mostly women. Over the years, we’re proud to have become a safe space for women-identifying folks to come together, socialize, create, and play.

Femme players are the majority… but they’re not the only players. Just about a third of our community identifies as masculine or nonbinary – and with most of our fashion drops catering to the majority, it can sometimes lead to the feeling of being left behind.

Or it DID.

Recently, we’ve been on a mission to better deliver masculine aesthetics with separate blind box sets in events and regular weekly drops. At long last, the guys are having their moment.

This Dev Diary goes into a bit more of the WHY behind this decision and shares a couple of behind-the-scenes with a very familiar face from the art team!

A super-femme history

In the yesteryears of our fashion history, circa 2017 or so, grabs always featured the same lineup: exactly one masculine set, and one feminine set.

At this point, we were firmly in our whimsy era… which meant fun, costume-y outfits that weren’t super wearable on the day-to-day for most masculine players.

Plus, this style of offering focused only on masc and femme: nonbinary or genderfluid folks had slim pickings for how to assemble a style that truly captured their vibe.

The delightful Toadstool Cool set from 2016, from whence sprouted the iconic Mush Tails

Over time, our community’s femme-dominated population became more apparent, and to be honest, masculine and nonbinary aesthetics kind of fell by the wayside. They didn’t vanish entirely, but item selection compared to feminine outfits dwindled to a bare trickle.

Even though a variety of gender styles dropped in the 2024 Spring Fling event, would you have known that from this poster featuring only gorgeous, bubblegum baddies? Probably not.

This isn’t to say we didn’t have a few forays into strictly masculine aesthetics. You might remember JBear, a brand strictly dedicated to serving the masculine community.

Or, you may have joined in our Guyrise Concepts: community-wide competitions asking for only masculine-themed outfits.

We received incredible submissions, and these contests definitely filled up a gap in our catalog. But, this approach also presented a few problems:

• They only ran once a year, which meant a dearth of masc content on the regular. And, while this provided items wearable by nonbinary folks, the infrequency of the drops meant even fewer options overall.

• Whenever you separate a certain aesthetic, you other it. The subtext was, “Highrise is a women’s world. Guys are there too, I guess.”

A New Era

We’re shifting the narrative: non-femme peeps, the love is here, and it’s here to stay.

In recent months, we’ve dropped entirely masculine sets with sleek, modern vibes, complete with casual outfits and Profile Backgrounds.

We’ve also begun incorporating a new masculine grab into every event. Items in these sets provide boost, so you can wear what you want and reap the in-event rewards. Not vibing with a particular gender style? Just spin the other grab for the week, no boost lost!

Sunset Burnout, a recent masc set. He isn’t just a guy, he’s the man.

Sainen, a longtime artist here at Highrise and owner of the recent Paradox brand, has led the charge to create more masculine sets in our weekly drops, and has this to say about styling:

When I design for male players, I aim to make the styles just as interesting and dynamic as any other. I like experimenting with different materials and silhouettes, because men’s clothing can be just as fun and visually engaging as women’s fashion. Exploring a variety of styles and asking players what they enjoy helps me create more unique and appealing masculine designs.

Sainen’s recent looks from the Nova Pop event

A Note On Style

Let’s rewind real quick. It’s tempting in this conversation to bucket “masculine,” “feminine,” and “nonbinary” into discrete buckets and call it a gender-preference-balanced day.

But these are wide brushstrokes, and your individual identity and style is precise, unique, and might not always fit into a neat little category.

This Dev Diary, and our recent art direction, focuses on masculine aesthetics because that’s our biggest area of opportunity. However, it’s important to acknowledge that this direction shift is part of a broader effort to deliver a great experience to every single Highriser, no matter who you are.

And that’s where you come in!

Our team is here to create the styles you want the most: so tell us what you’re into! Even if we’re not always visible, our staff pays close attention to what you wear, which items you love, and which styles you want more of.

More Variety Is Here To Stay

Over the last few weeks, we’ve split event blind box sets into masc- and femme-themed bundles, in addition to dropping way more standalone content. And we’re LOVING how you’ve been styling the new goods!

Adding more non-femme looks to the weekly rotation gives you way more options for expressing your identity and way more agency over the kinds of items that end up in your closet.

Have some feedback on how these new drops have been going down? Share your thoughts with us! We’ll be listening