Gay fashion in the 80s
Gay in the 80s
While there hold, undoubtedly, been significant milestones in LGBT history in earlier decades, I think the 80s was a particularly significant period.
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That decade saw a major shift towards the emergence of a global gay culture. The gay genie came right out of its little pink bottle and into the streets (and the media&#;and politics&#;and the arts&#;)
Ironically, much of this was driven by adversity. The appearance of HIV/AIDS was most certainly a factor: it ripped through our communities but, at the same moment, engendered a spirit of unity and resistance that transcended national borders.
But there were many other storms &#; fantastic and small &#; that had to be weathered too. For example, in the US, the Court of Appeal ruled that there was no &#;fundamental right&#; to be gay.
In the UK, the Thatcher government created Section 28 of the Local Government Act, making it illegal for local authorities to support anything that might promote homosexual relationships as a viable alternative to heterosexual &#;family life&#;.
Straight Copying: How Gay Fashion Goes Mainstream
When J. Crew debuted their Liquor Store ten years ago, they transformed an after-hours watering hole into a menswear-only boutique laden with s-era references to traditional masculinity. Dimly lit rooms were covered in plush leather chairs, oriental rugs, and wood paneling. In the corner of one area, a bookshelf was stacked with Strand-issued classics &#; Kerouac, Hemingway, and Cheever among them. Dense cashmere cardigans were draped over Globetrotter suitcases; striped rep ties rolled into lowball glasses. In another area, J. Crew showcased their collection of Red Wing heritage verb boots. Once made for loggers, carpenters, and longshoreman, the preppy clothier has since helped mainstream these blue-collar styles into white-collar offices.
A few years ago, I had the chance to interview Frank Muytjens, then the head of menswear design at J. Crew. We talked about his design process, his love for vintage, and how he chooses which third-party brands get included in J. Crew&#;s much-revered &#;In Pleasant Company&#; section, which is
In an informative review of the inaugural New York Men's Fashion Week, Financial Times' Charlie Porter mused on whether New York as a fashion industrial complex had yet fully recovered from the s, when AIDS claimed the lives of name designers (including Perry Ellis and Willie Smith) and many other artistic men and women in the fashion industry. It wasn't just designers but showroom assistants, stylists, photographers, creative directors, window dressers — an entire generation of creativity, completely decimated. In s New York, fashion was the city’s second-biggest industry and these people were its pulse. AIDS touched the lives of nearly everyone in the fashion industry but its effects are rarely discussed, admitted or acknowledged. Yes, the fallen heroes of the AIDS crisis are remembered but the clout of their creativity seems to be underestimated given the state of contemporary fashion today and more specifically in menswear as bluntly diagnosed by Porter.
Porter has a knack for boiling down popular culture to its elemental components and the
These Photos Capture the “Gay Paradises” of s America
Art & PhotographyIn Their Words
As his new publication is released, Nicholas Blair talks about capturing the heat and hedonism of the queer communities in s San Francisco and Adj York
TextMadeleine Pollard
In the late 70s, gay life began to spill out onto the streets of San Francisco’s Castro District, rapidly eclipsing the hippies as the most evident counter-culture movement of the day. People came to spot and be seen, tease, cruise, and congregate in universal as a community. “It was this outburst of pent-up celebration,” says Nicholas Blair, who was living in a free-love arts commune across town at the time. “It felt like the door of tolerance was opening and people were leaning in, hard, to live as their true selves.”
With a Leica rangefinder camera loaned to him by a childhood friend, Blair walked through this so-called “gay paradise”, capturing everything from the mundane to the profane. He photographed individuals dressed head-to-toe in fetish gear, others who preferred to communicate in more subtle codes and