Smashion Special Feature
Pride Style Guide: 1977-2021
Smashion plumbs the bowels of its LGTBQ “fashion” archives in search of actual gay style.
The results might bore…er, surprise you!
Homemade Gays Against Guns T-shirt, 2016
2000-2019: Married, Militarized and Guccified!
The past twenty years have been a mixed LGBTQ bag; we’ve come a long way, baby, yada, yada, yada. But there’s still a long way to go. Waves of progress on mainstream, heteronormative goals like repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and legalization of gay marriage have been offset by atrocities like the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse nightclub and the continued failure of Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Trans visibility on shows like Pose contrasts with the record high murder rates for trans black women. Corporations have embraced us but at what cost? Sex has been reliberated by apps and Truvada, only to fall under the purview of algorithmic body fascism. And the beat goes on.
It only follows that gay style over the past two decades has been a mixed bag, too. Heteronormativity, or what it means to be a “respectable” gay, has come up against a surge of queer, intersectional activism where serving a fierce look is a prerequisite. Below are some of the ways these clashes manifest in Smashion’s closet.
Vintage
Vintage iron-on patch. on thrift shop satin jacket
Mineshaft T-shirt, 1980s
With the internet vastly expanding access to expertise and goods, and vintage clothing markets exploding into a huge global industry, the new millennium made it much easier to acquire elusive gay ephemera. But does wearing something from an edgier time in the movement mean that we are losing our edge to nostalgia? Or is Smashion just overthinking things?
Gay Shame and Corporate Fashion
Gay Shame vomit bag, San Francisco, 2002
As Gay Pride got more corporate in the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, along came the Gay Shame minimovement to question whether selling out for mainstream acceptance was the right approach. The actions were provocative, the DIY graphics awfully cute. The debate persists to this day, though Gay Shame fizzled.
One of the corporate sectors that has long wanted to be the gays’ best friend is corporate fashion, particularly at the luxury end of the market. Every time you turn around, another queer cultural icon is posting on Insta kitted out in free Gucci, and the company even underwrites the work of serious activists through projects like CHIME Zine. Corporate sponsorship of identity, anyone?
Smashion isn’t really buying it. We don’t buy the products of the Western corporate fashion system (exception: Rick Owens) and we don’t buy the idea that luxury product placement in a liberation movement is a good thing, especially when that struggle has an important class component. That said, good intentions need to be taken into account, and allies can be found in the unlikeliest of places.
But does a Lesbian Avengers T-shirt sold by the GAP raise consciousness or create false consciousness? Are we a movement or a market…or both?
Corporate fashion hack: Rick Owens shopping tote dyed black with homemade cotton appliqués. (Rick Owens is the only corporate fashion Smashion fucks with, btw.)
Corporate aversions aside, Smashion isn’t above a logo hack now and then. And at least we know Dolce & Gabbana always gets it wrong when it comes to the gays (and the lesbians!), so that’s one mega fashion company that won’t be coopting the movement any time soon.
“I don’t want to be called gay, because I’m simply a man…full stop,” Stefano Gabbana told the press in 2017. Apparently he doesn't want to be called a lesbian, either.
“Post Gay”
FFTWINZ T-shirt decal, 2019
Remember the early 2000s when gay conservatives, who’d gained access to the larger discourse through the doors opened by their more radical, progressive LGBTQ comrades, were using their ill-gotten platforms to tout the “post gay” crap? They were human beings first, not gays (see Stefano above), even though the larger society still hadn’t really thrown the community a single civil rights bone. It was time to move on, and anyone who was still militantly fighting for said rights was hopelessly passé. Yeah, okay.
Anyway, this T-shirt featuring an FFTWINZ decal is Smashion’s attempt to pass as post gay. Is it working? Are we being blasé enough?
Still Very Gay
Over the past two decades, some designers were still keeping things really, really gay, serving identity on the runway with a pride that makes the milquetoasts blush. Case in point: Bernhard Willhelm’s Spring Summer 2008 collection. The lookbook and calendar featured porn star Francois Sagat modeling the skimpies in some not-so-standard poses. This collection wins the Olympic gold, queen. Deal with it.
Honorable mention: this Ashish Fall 2017 look
Image: bernhardwillhelm.com Click on the photo to be transported.