Predicts The Future QUEER

Words

In 2019, the Met Gala got everyone excited with the theme ‘Camp’. Camp, a term widely used in LGBTQ+ spaces, is defined by the OED as ‘Ostentatious, exaggerated, affected, theatrical; effeminate or homosexual’ yet a lot of the celebrities invited opted for plain, muted clothes, rather than what you would witness on a Drag night or even Sasha Velour’s SS19 Opening Ceremony takeover. It is on social media that we see creators, even just in the last few years, bring camp fashion, maximalism and hyper-femininity into the public eye. Queer Tik-Tokers such as Chrissy Chlapecka (@ chrissychlapecka) and Griffin Maxwell Brooks (@griffinmaxwellbrooks) have embraced an extravagant style, that seems heavily inspired by feminine lesbians, with pinks and mini skirt, low cut shirts and crazy hair colours, and heavy on accessorising.

We can see queer influences in most fashion trends, a notable example being androgynous fashion, which Fibre2Fashion traces back to the 17th century. Yet we can see it in more recent fashion too, from David Bowie to Jaden Smith to the trendy rack in your local Urban Outfitters. The return of Y2K crosses the gender clothing line, with teenage girls posting outfits inspired by figures such as Jesse Pinkman and Adam Sandler, expressing the pleasure of dressing in typically masculine clothing. Even the ‘cleangirl’ aesthetic can be traced back to LGBTQ+ fashion, due to lesbians having worn suits for years to proms, weddings and red carpets as a form of self-expression. These trends cannot be separated from their history, but they create a