OUTSIDE OUR WALLS ISSUE 48
A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk
Sep. 13, 2013–Jan. 4, 2014 The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology Tom Saettel, Editor, The Archive
Installation view A Queer History of Fashion: From the Closet to the Catwalk, Pretty Gentlemen platform. Photograph The Museum at FIT, New York̶ Mural: Oscar Wilde in Aesthetic Dress, Napoleon Sarony, 1882; Left to Right: Vivienne Westwood, 18th-century Style Suit Worn by fashion editor Hamish Bowles, 1991; Man s Three-Piece Suit, 1790-1800, France; Man s Banyan (Dressing Gown), c.1750-1760, Germany; Molly House Ensemble, 1700, England.
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A Queer History of Fashion:
From the Closet to the Catwalk is the first exhibition to examine the relationship of LGBTQ people to fashion—from haute couture, to ready-to-wear, to the street. Many visitors to the exhibition will have the background to interpret the more than 100 garments on display. I found the accompanying book and videos invaluable guides to the goals of the exhibition. A Queer History of Fashions, arranged in chronological order, is a walk through the queer interface with and contribution to fashion in the last three centuries. The exhibition opens with examples of 18thcentury clothing—one is clued in on mollies, men milliners, and macaroni men. Kicking off the exhibition, an apparent Little Red Riding Hood costume is actually an ensemble worn by a cross-dresser from a molly house in 1700. Molly houses were the clubs where homosexual men met for sex and companionship. Raids on molly houses and subsequent trials,
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executions, and torture are well documented in British archives from the early 18th century. Men milliners made, decorated, and sold women’s dresses, hats, and accessories, taking over the field from women in the 18th century. At a time when sobriety was subduing men’s clothing and manners—perhaps as a reactions to this burgeoning flamboyant group generally known to be homosexual—the men milliners continued to wear fancifully embroidered garments and elaborate hats, and behave with exaggerated fastidiousness. Macaroni men refer to a broader category of flashy dressers—heterosexual and homosexual—better known as fops. The term “macaroni men” refers to Italy’s reputation at the time as a land of libidinous sexual freedom. The exhibition continues with the dandy. Dandies adhere to the sartorial style of the day, but with such precision as to set them a part. The style of a dandy is above reproach in its adherence to
The Archive: The Journal of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art ● NO 48 ● WINTER 2013
the norm and in that sense is a form of “passing.” However, his exacting detail, fancifulness, and elitism, served as an important signifier of his homosexuality to other homosexuals. Oscar Wilde is represented with clothing and a huge photo of the author. Elite menswear looks became an important style for lesbians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Several examples are on display from the 1890s to the 1930s. Lesbians dressed in tailored suits—usually skirted, but not always— as an identification with masculine power and a signifier to other lesbians. The period heralds the evolution of the butch/femme styles. The huge photo of the Monocle Club in Paris is a wonderful document of how lesbian butch/femme style played out in the 1920s and 30s. The book explains, “Although the garçonne style was worn by innumerable fashionable heterosexual women, it was also associated with lesbianism, which was increasingly visible in the