Don We Now our Gay Apparel - Poynter

Contents:

• DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL
• NO, GAP DON'T STAND FOR "GAY & PROUD," BUT THE SCHOOLYARD TNT STILL FOLLOWS ME TODAY
• GAY APPAREL MEANG, GAY APPAREL FN | ENGLISH COBUILD DICTNARY
• GAY APPAREL FN, GAY APPAREL MEANG | ENGLISH DICTNARY

DON WE NOW OUR GAY APPAREL

Throughout the twentieth century, clothg has been ed by lbians and gay men as a means of exprsg self-inty and of signalg to one another. By the eighteenth century, many ci Europe had veloped small but secret homosexual subcultur. London's homosexual subculture was based around ns and public ho where "molli" ngregated.

Male homosexuals ntued to cross-drs both public and private spac throughout the neteenth century. In the 1920s, the Harlem drag balls offered a safe space for gay men (and lbians) to cross-drs.

Cross-drsg performers, monly known as drag queens, ed women's cloth to parody straight society and create a gay humor. The tradn has been rried on by gay drag performers such as Amerin performers Dive and RuPl and Brish televisn star Lily Savage. Overt gay men, who did not want to go so far as to cross-drs, sometim adopted the most obv signifiers of female mannerisms and drs: plucked eyebrows, rouge, eye makp, peroxi blond hair, high-heeled Women's Sho blo.

NO, GAP DON'T STAND FOR "GAY & PROUD," BUT THE SCHOOLYARD TNT STILL FOLLOWS ME TODAY

Adoptg such an appearance was dangero, for was risky to be overtly homosexual.

Drsg as a "flamg queen" was a means of enterg to the subculture of gay society. The adoptn of effemate drs s began to wane wh the rise of gay liberatn, but has ntued to play a role gay life. The illegaly of homosexualy and the moral disapproval that attracted forced gay men and lbians to live virtually visible liv the first part of the twentieth century.

Up until the gay liberatn movement of the late 1960s, the most important crern of drsg public, for the mass of gay men and lbians, was to be able to "pass" as heterosexual.

GAY APPAREL MEANG, GAY APPAREL FN | ENGLISH COBUILD DICTNARY

Ined, the lor green had been associated wh the effemate and sometim sodomil maronis of the 1770s and ntued to have gay associatns clothg through the first part of the twentieth century. " Other signifiers for gay men clud a red necktie (worn New York Cy before World War II) and sue sho (one of the most ternatnal and endurg gay signifiers).

GAY APPAREL FN, GAY APPAREL MEANG | ENGLISH DICTNARY

Durg the "menswear revolutn" of the 1960s, the associatn of fashn and homosexualy began to dimish.

Carnaby Street fashns were ially sold to a gay "theatril and artistic" clientele by a former physique photographer by the name of Vce om a shop near Carnaby Street. " worn primarily by gay men, was sold om "boutiqu" Greenwich Village, New York, and Wt Hollywood Los Angel. Gay Men and Masculy.

By the late 1960s, lbians and gay men throughout the Wtern world had begun to qutn their posn as send-class cizens and their stereotype as effemate "queens" or "butch dyk.

" Along wh the mands for equaly and regnn, lbians and gay men began to addrs their appearance.

There had always been gay men who drsed a nventnally mascule style, but the early 1970s, gay men New York and San Francis looked to the epom of Amerin masculy-the wboy, the lumberjack, the nstctn worker-for spiratn for a new drs style. The hypermascule image has ntued to be important even after the supposed ath of the clone the late 1980s, when the image beme associated wh an olr generatn of pre-AIDS gay men. Gay men have terpreted and monstrated their mascule looks through the celebratn of mcular "gym" bodi and clothg that shows off those bodi, as well as the emergence of other mascule subcultural styl such as the shaven-head, boots and brac wearg, but not necsarily racist skhead.

The advent of both the women's and gay-rights movements led to a qutng of the stereotyped drs choic prevly available to lbians. Inially, the move was toward a feme look for men, but the radil lbian and gay muny rejected this favor of a more mascule look for both men and women.

Drs styl signaled a move away om the tradnal butch or radil-femist styl and allowed out gay women to velop a fashnable urban look that bed signifiers of lbianism or masculy wh fashnable women's drs. The large proportn of gay men who have worked creative fields of fashn and the theater and service dtri, such as terg, has been well documented by historians such as Ross Higgs, whose study highlighted the volvement of gay men at all levels of the fashn dtry Montreal. Throughout the twentieth century, many of the top uture fashn signs were gay, even though social prsure lled for them to keep their sexualy quiet if not secret.

Ined, many of the greatt nam twentieth-century fashn were gay or bisexual, cludg such figur as Christian Dr, Cristobal Balenciaga, Yv Sat Lrent, Norman Hartnell, Halston, Rudi Gernreich (who was one of the foundg members of the first Amerin homophile anizatn, the Mattache society), Calv Kle, and Gianni Versace.

As signers took over om tradnal tailors and gentleman's outfters men's fashn, a new gay fluence beme evint. Bee gay men were often more willg to experiment wh new ias, styl, and fabrics clothg, signers such as Jean-Pl Gltier began to look at what was happeng at street level and gay clubs for ias for their men's llectns.