Voice of London

Queer fashion is now taking over the industry to prove that the world is not black and white.

“A boy can look like a girl. A girl can look like a boy. I think it doesn’t matter so much anymore.

– Stephanie Cooper, fashion lecturer at the University of Westminster

The world of fashion constantly changes and year after year we see how boundaries slightly disappear. Not long ago, gender was one of the barriers that society imposes. Now, however, we can spot the liberty of the XXI century right there, on the catwalk. Brands like Nicopanda or JW Anderson care less and less about gender and show it on their fashion shows.

Queer fashion, however, is nothing new. In fact, it has always been there, waiting for the time to came out and be accepted by the public. And now, when the time has come, Stephanie Cooper, a fashion lecturer at the University of Westminster, will share her opinion with us in a small interview.

Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent are just a few of the names on the list of people, who were part of LGBTQ+ community. But until recently this was not a topic to be discussed.

“Since the early XX century we know that many fashion designers were gay, even that was never spoken of in that early days.”

– Petsa Kaffens, Fashion journalism lecturer at the University of Westminster.

In the last couple of years, however, the society evolved and queer fashion got out of the closet and up to the runways. LGBTQ+ even made it to their first cover in the 2017 September issue of Vogue Italy. As Joseph Kocharian, fashion director of Attitude magazine, said: “Queer fashion is one of the most progressive parts of the fashion industry. They are not trying to be anything, it is all about self-expression. And you can wear what you want, there isn’t a gender attached to it.”

Even for the designers, it brings an all-new level of liberty of what they can do. Tumisola Ladega, a second-year fashion design student, said: “The days of a brand that sticks to menswear or womenswear has changed. There is just freedom of dressing and freedom of wearing. It is the new edge on fashion and gives us designers more freedom to create.”

Talking with Gone Monteiro an LGBTQ+ activist we discover what queer fashion brings to the community, getting a more inside story of queer fashion.

Queer fashion is all about the freedom to express who you are without any limitations. It is helping to break the social structure of gender and to change the way we see sexuality. And the fact that it slightly finds its place in the fashion industry is a positive change that we all look forward to following.

Words: Omar Balde | Subbing: Zornitsa Valkova