June marks the start of summer but if you live in the UK, there’s no guarantee of blue skies. However, there is one attribute of June that is now certain; it’s Pride Month, a time to celebrate LGBTQ+ identities and raise awareness of issues facing the community around the world. For the 1.5 million members of the LGBTQ+ community in England and Wales, the month involves attending parades and sharing the love. However, for fast fashion brands, it includes proving their undying support for the LGBTQ+ community by flogging as many products as possible.
The fashion industry is no stranger to commodifying the queer community. In December 2020, Vogue was praised for their first cover to feature a man – the man being the extremely good looking, cis-gendered popstar Harry Styles, wearing a voluminous periwinkle Gucci dress. It was coined genius to have Styles subverting traditional gender norms on a mainstream magazine cover even though expression through clothes has been an integral part of queer culture since the 1890s, when Oscar Wilde wore a green carnation on his lapel to signify his sexual identity.
While Hollister selling white t-shirts with hearts on and Abercrombie and Fitch selling a gender inclusive collection could be viewed as an opportunity for profit, Sam Brown, designer of Studio Sam Brown, an ethical, handmade, gender-neutral clothing brand, says that the fashion industry embracing and celebrating more fluid fashion is positive when handled with care.
“It can be a positive thing especially for young kids, who will look at this and see it’s a normal thing and start to play around with what they wear and figure out who they are through that, it feels less scary and less of a big jump,” they said. “But if the focus is only on people like Harry Styles it takes away from the voices and the bravery of all the people that have been doing it before him. It needs to be careful that it’s not erasing the voices of people who bought it to the forefront.”
Mainstream fashion brands revolve around categorisation, even when they attempt to push out of those boundaries. This was evident during London Fashion Week when high-fashion brands still had separate runways for menswear and womenswear.
“Personally, I want it to become more of a normal thing, people just wear what they want. It shouldn’t be revolutionary for a man to wear a skirt – it’s just an item of clothing,” says Sam. “With my designs, I try not to focus on the gender-neutral aspect, I’ll just design from what inspires me and then it’s just clothes that anyone can wear. My selling point is not like ‘oh wow this is revolutionary, its gender-neutral’; it’s just like if you want to wear it wear it, if you don’t, don’t.”
Reflecting on the latest Pride collections released by an array of mainstream fashion brands Sam said, “I feel like part of the problem is in a lot of the pride collections at the moment, they’re labelled as gender neutral but it’s just mens size ranges and relabelled menswear and that’s the easiest way for them to do it because historically, women have worn more menswear than men have worn womenswear and it’s just kind of catering to making it easier for the male audience.”
Sam’s designs are inspired by the world around them, making their clothing collection a creative outlet for any person that chooses to wear them. Really, that self-expression is what fashion is all about. So, this pride month instead of buying a rainbow t-shirt from the high-street, why not shop small?
Pictures: Calyn Da Silva
Designs: Pius Bentgens