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Contents:

• WH JOCKSTRAPS HTG THE RUNWAYS, FASHN IS SAYG GAY LOUD AND CLEAR
• BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'

WH JOCKSTRAPS HTG THE RUNWAYS, FASHN IS SAYG GAY LOUD AND CLEAR

Right before we crossed over to the new year, E Wilbek, founr of Native Son — the platform created to spire and empower Black gay and queer men — released the platform’s annual list that highlights 101 Black gay and queer men, who are igng change and creatg greatns across several dtri cludg bety and fashn. As streetwear proliferated to the mastream, also acquired nnotatns of hypermasculy, part due to s associatn wh male-domated skate culture, and the homophobia that appears hip-hop. And yet, Jam Flemons, alongsi Shayne Oliver, Pierre Davis, Stoney Michelli and Uzo Ejikeme, are proment queer Black signers shapg ntemporary streetwear, each ntug a long tradn of queer Black creativ’ five impact on the fashn first signer to lk streetwear wh the nway was Willi Smh, a Philalphia-born gay Black man, whose label Williwear generated $25 ln per year and sold off the racks at Macy’s and Bloomgdal the late 1970s to 80s.

Smh studied at Parsons on scholarship before beg expelled for havg an openly gay relatnship, but still found succs the dtry by signg for retailers like Talbots, and most signifintly Digs, a sportswear pany.

BILLY PORTER: ‘I'VE LIVED AS A BLACK GAY MAN FOR 50 YEARS AMERI. NOTHG SHOCKS ME'

Take, for example, Stuzo, a pany owned by lbian uple Stoney Michelli and Uzo Ejikeme, which is based Los Angel and posss a distct New York GenrStuzo’s T-shirts are emblazoned wh statements bold-faced type like, “yup, still gay”, “boi/girl”, "black af”, and “genr ee. No Sso’s latt llectn was spired by the Harlem renaissance, and while mostly affected by a perd touch, posssed elements that n be lled vtage of the ntemporary signers, and even Willi Smh’s fluence, rema overlooked mastream streetwear, and the discsn about sexism and homophobia that has blossomed around . But when one particular look cropped up the post-Stonewall gay scene of the 1970s, was so popular—and so distct—that the guys who sported were dismissed as “clon.

)And while the nickname was ially pejorative, the clone perd marked perhaps the first time that gay men prented themselv wh a queer-signalg uniform that was a direct rponse to societal stereotyp.

“The clone was a reactn to thgs you would see movi of gay men beg flty and nelly, ” says John Calendo, a wrer who lived LA and New York Cy throughout the 70s and 80s, and worked as an edor at the clone-cubatg sk mags Blueboy and In Touch for Men. He pots to the gay mstrel stereotyp the 1967 film The Producers, along wh the timid-lookg guys on the illtrated vers of gay pulp books wh nam like All the Sad Young Men. (Not to mentn the 1964 article Life magaze lled “Homosexualy Ameri, ” which scribed a “sad and often sordid world.