Lord Commander Gear... IC.(in character)

[Theodric]

It's absolutely fine for some pieces of gear to be designed exclusively for one particular gender. Given the abundance of gear designed exclusively for female characters it is completely fair for something like Aymeric's armour to be limited to male characters - and before people bring out the usual 'they should make the female gear gender neutral as well' argument, I'd point out that that doesn't do a whole lot to appease those of us who play male characters and are perfectly fine with having some gear designed to fit a male character first and foremost.

A lot the 'unisex' gear and hairstyles are quite blatantly designed in a feminine or androgynous manner. This is very evident with a lot of caster gear sets and some of the hairstyles. When gear is more neutral in appearance or is designed with a specific gender in mind, however, it is typically allowed to have more depth to it. I'd point to the Songbird attire as an excellent example of this. We received two sets, one for male characters and another for female characters. I'd like to see more of that moving forward since it's an excellent compromise. The equivalent of Aymeric's set, for female characters, is Minfilia's attire.

[Kotei]

This I will agree. It is nice to see the males get something to show off their awesomeness with. The only thing I disagree with, for future reference, is something that is so highly anticipated such as Aymeric's gear. With that being said I wouldn't want any neat looking type of NPC female gear to have female restrictions placed on it either. It's one thing to do it to new gear produced in Eorzea. It's another thing to do it with Mog Station items. A variation of the same attire is of little consequence if the item in question is priceless.

[Rokke]

This I will agree. It is nice to see the males get something to show off their awesomeness with. The only thing I disagree with, for future reference, is something that is so highly anticipated such as Aymeric's gear. With that being said I wouldn't want any neat looking type of NPC female gear to have female restrictions placed on it either. It's one thing to do it to new gear produced in Eorzea. It's another thing to do it with Mog Station items. A variation of the same attire is of little consequence if the item in question is priceless.

While I get that Aymeric is a popular NPC, I don't see why people expected his outfit to be unisex. We've known it was locked since the dataminers first found the files for his set.

[Serilda]

The equivalent of Aymeric's set, for female characters, is Minfilia's attire.

This is true, and even in that situation the females are given preferential access to Aymeric's hair style while male characters cannot use Minfilia's - illogical pricing structure or otherwise.

I do find it disappointing that many players of female characters only care about the problem when it's something they want (and I'm honestly surprised that it's been Aymeric's coat in so many threads, of all things)... but at this point in the conversation I'm not even sure what's being argued any more. The RP approach was cute and novel, though I agree the wording made it hard to understand the point being made. So I'll just say I'm sorry that you had a shock, Kotei, and if you could join us in requesting less genderlocked gear (especially without equivalents) now you understand that it's an issue I think everyone stands to benefit in the long term. The reason they're locking these NPC costumes in the first place is an attempt to atone for treating those with male characters worse historically. We need to fix this issue so everyone gets more clothes.