Discover the stories of 25 North American fashion entrepreneurs who have created queer- and trans-focused fashion brands in the 21st century.
Illuminating their journeys of self-expression, identity formation, and resistance within the fashion industry, Queer and Trans Fashion Brands highlights the resilience, creativity, and cultural contributions of the interviewees, showing how they serve as agents of change, actively challenging heteronormative norms. Kelly L. Reddy-Best draws upon an intersectional feminist framework, to offer a nuanced examination of the production, distribution, regulation, and consumption of the products and media associated with these brands and their collective impact on the fashion industry.
Featured brands: All is Fair in Love and Wear; Audio Helkuik; Beefcake Swimwear; Bluestocking Boutique; Dapper Boi; FLAVNT Streetwear; FtM Essentials; gc2b; Greyscale Goods; Kipper Clothiers; Kirrin Finch; Lets Be Brief; NiK Kacy Footwear; Outplay Swimwear; Play Out Apparel; Queer Supply; Rebirth Garments; Show and Tell Concept Shop; Strapping Sacramento; Stuzo; THŚY Custom Clothier; TomboyX; TransGuy Supply; WE ARE MORTALS
Recenzijas
The way that information about specific brands has been interwoven with concrete concepts relevant to queer fashion is masterful. It is so interesting! And importantly, while the topic itself makes this manuscript inclusive, and of particular interest to queer readers, the book is quite welcoming to ALL; this book invites readers to celebrate queer fashion! -- Ann Paulins, Clinical Associate Professor, The Ohio State University, USA
Papildus informācija
A deep dive into the queer and trans fashion brands that have emerged in the 21st century, based on detailed interviews with 25 industry professionals.
Table of Contents
Foreword
Introduction
Saint Harridan and Tomboy Tailors
The Current Project: Questions, Perspectives, and Why it Matters
Chapter Overview
Part 1: Situating the Context
1. Identities, Style-Fashion-Dress, and Dressed Bodies
Queer and Trans Identities and Intersectional Subject Positions
Styling-Fashioning-Dressing, Identity (K)nots, and Situated Bodily Practices
Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and the Dressed Body in the Fashion System
Fashioning Queer and Trans Identities in a Western Context: A Selection of
Nuances Spanning the 19th Century to the Present
2. Political Landscapes and So-Called Heteronormative Ideals
The Revolution of the Queer and Trans Landscape in the United States: A Brief
Overview
The Dominant, So-Called Heteronormative Western Fashion System: A Selective
History
3. Gay Window Advertising and Capitalist Entanglements
Gay Window Advertising: Vodka, Cars, and Fashion
Entanglements in Commodity Activism, Corporate Pride, and Neoliberal
Capitalism
4. Marketplace Influences: Politics and Technology
Same-Sex Marriage, Consumerism, and Creating Space for Authentic
Negotiations
Social Media and Crowd Funding as Entry Points into the System
Part 2: The Brands
5. Queer and Trans Fashion Brand Entrepreneurial Beginnings: Before and After
the 2010s Surge
Overtly Serving Their Queer and Trans Communities in the 21st Century
Case Study 1: All is Fair in Love and Wear and gc2b
Case Study 2: FLAVNT Streetwear and Queer Supply
Case Study 3: Bluestocking Boutique, FtM Essentials, and TransGuy Supply
Case Study 4: Beefcake Swimwear and Outplay Swimwear
Case Study 5: Play Out Apparel and TomboyX
Case Study 6: Dapper Boi, Strapping Sacramento, Kirrin Finch, and NiK Kacy
Footwear
Case Study 7: Kipper Clothiers and THŁY Custom Clothier
Case Study 8: Rebirth Garments and Audio Helkuik
Case Study 9: Show and Tell Concept Shop, Stuzo, and WE ARE MORTALS
Case Study 10: Greyscale Goods
Part 3: Positioning Consumer Products
6. Vehicles for Queer and Trans Sensibilities
The Custom Suit Experience as an Identity Journey
The Button-Up Shirt: Masculine for Folks Assigned Female at Birth
Jeans: Mixing and Matching Gender Details
Unbifurcated Queerness
Femme and Masc Shoes in Every Size
Unisex Swimwear Styles / Supporting or Compressing the Chest
Boxer Briefs and Underwear for the Femmes, Too!
Trans-Supportive Gear: Functional, Fleshy Body-Shifting Fashions
Genderfuck Styles: Fucking with Gendered Fashion or a Big Fuck You to Gender
Styles
Subtle and In-Your-Face Pride
Queer Styling Services
Queer Makers and Queering Product Copy
Are My Socks Then Queer Fashion Socks? And Who Decides?
Part 4: Production, Pricing, and Media Considerations
7. An Ethical Balancing Act: Production and Pricing
Producing Here or There?
Pricing Tensions: Social Good in Capitalism
8. Queer and Trans Media: For Us and Them, Too
Representation Matters and Doesnt
When Representation Works and Doesnt at the Same Time
9. DapperQ, Qwear, and Contemporary Queer Fashion Shows Emerged on the Scene
Qwear
DapperQ
Fashion Events as Queer and Trans Community Making
Conclusion
There Will Always Be Haters . . . and Lovers!
Closing Thoughts and Opening Questions
Queer and Trans Fashion Brands Collective Contributions to the Fashion
System: Fashion Disrupters or Fashion Disrupting
Entangling and Disentangling the Ever-Fluid Queer and Trans Fashion Brands:
Meanings and Moments
Where Do We Go from Here or There?
References
Appendix
The Method
Limitations of the Research
My Positionalities
Kelly L. Reddy-Best is a Morrill Professor of Apparel, Merchandising, and Design at Iowa State University, USA and the Chief Curator and Director of ISUs Textiles and Clothing Museum. In her research she examines the interrelationships of dress, identity, consumption, regulation, and the fashion system through a social justice lens. She has taught courses across the apparel curriculum in design, product development, merchandising, culture, and history.
