LGBT fashion is celebrated with a lively retrospective in New York-- the very first of its kind
Fashion has long been considered an artistic safe haven for the queer community. And now, LGBTQ contributions to fashion are being celebrated with a new exhibit at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York—the very first of its kind.
A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, opening September 13, tracks fashion’s ties to the LGBTQ community, also charting their mutual influence.
‘It is a really important topic and yet it’s one that has so little research on it,’ FIT museum director and exhibit co-curator, Valerie Steele, told MailOnline.
Varied adaptations: The FIT Museum's queer fashion exhibit traces the evolution of LGBT fashion from the 18th century to modern day and includes garments from Gianni Versace (R) among other esteemed designers
‘In fact for 300 years gays and lesbians have been contributing enormously to fashion both as individuals and as communities.’
Beginning in the 18th Century, the exhibit offers a chronological look at queer style’s historical evolution—one which took a particularly interesting turn following 1969's Stonewall Riots.
‘Pre-Stonewall the most visible gay male styles had been elite elegance camp or drag,’ reads an exhibit card.
‘Post Stonewall the “Clone” emerged to symbolize modern, macho gay style. Lesbian style also evolved, as traditional butch-femme dress codes were increasingly replaced by an androgynous “anti-fashion” style,’ it continues.
Sharp looks: This Christian Dior aubergine dress from 1953 (L) and Jean Paul Gaultier cone bust dress from 1984 are included in FIT's exhibition, opening September 13
Different strokes: The exhibit also details different LGBT fashion subcultures and appropriations like skirts for men (L, by Jean Paul Gaultier) and corsets (R).
The exhibit also allows contemporary designers and style influencers to offer stories about their own sexual experiences. Narciso Rodriguez explains that his parents cautioned him from working in the fashion industry: ‘[they said] you can’t do that, because you’ll go gay,’ he recalls in an exhibition placard.
Another display card discusses the strife that Alexander McQueen gleaned from his own sexuality-- a contention described as the driving inspiration behind his oft-tortured work.
Ms Steele says that the museum ‘made the decision that we wouldn’t out any living designers who hadn’t come out. But I feel like there I absolutely no shame attached to someone being gay so if someone is deceased, I think that they shouldn’t have to be hidden anymore.’
Taking a stand: The FIT museum's queer fashion exhibit is the first of its kind, and includes this Joyce Culver image--taken at a gay pride parade in 1989
With that thought in mind, the exhibit nods at the debated sexualities of famous designers like Cristobal Balenciaga and Christian Dior (the biographers of which, Steele says, ‘have in fact said that they were gay.’), as well as female designers like Madeleine Vionnet and Gabrielle Chanel, both of whom are rumoured to have engaged in homosexual relationships.
Some of the more colorful contemporary pieces on display include a red pleather costume worn by RuPaul and a Jean Paul Gaultier conical-bust dress.
Ms Steele says that she hopes the exhibit ‘strikes at least a small blow against homophobia which is on the rise internationally in a very ugly and frightening way.’
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