Street Fashion’s Problem With Queerness
Working in the fashion industry, my fashion roots have never been in high fashion. While I have always had an appreciation for the avante garde, my true love and passion has always been street fashion and urbanwear. Growing up, I always had more of a love for Baby Phat and the Rocawear as opposed to Chanel and Prada. As I began working within fashion, I saw that as a black trans woman, street fashion didn’t have much love for me.
The fashion world, as a whole, is known to be a safe space for LGBTQ people. The queer community has literally built the fashion industry and has had integral parts of its development. From the designers and heads of the fashion houses to other roles such as photographers, stylists, fashion editors, and PRs, queer people have more than contributed to the fashion’s growth. Now, with the industry’s vast scope, and many different categories, areas have been able to grow that aren’t as LGBTQ-friendly.
Street fashion’s roots exist within the sub-skateboarding and hip-hop cultures. Those two groups created their own style and fashion movement as a result of class and racial bias targeted against the marginalized youth comprising of the groups. Their unique clothing and style were worn and used as a visual expression of their identity and a way to identify others within the culture. With media outlets (TV stations such as MTV and BET in the 90s, as well as YouTube, SnapChat, and Instagram in the 2000’s) helping to contribute to the explosion of street fashion onto the fashion scene, soon the culture was front and center for the world to digest.
Hip-Hop culture, even as a representation of marginalized black and brown people, has always been notably homophobic, transphobic, and very anti-LGBTQ. Hip-hop has never shied away from using homophobic slurs or denouncing any behavior that was not cis-heternormative. Queer people are often mocked, ridiculed, threatened, or worse. And hip-hop’s street fashion, even coupled with the LGBT-friendly nature of the fashion industry, kept in line with hip-hop’s cultural stance.
Large, urban fashion companies are prone to backlash if they come out with any pro-LGBTQ apparel. Just last spring, Supreme, perhaps the biggest current street fashion brand with billion-dollar revenue, premiered a collaboration with legendary photographer Nan Goldin. The collaboration was to highlight and feature Goldin’s photography on Supreme shirts and hoodies. Some of the photos used for the collaboration included some of drag queens and trans-persons. The backlash was swift, and harsh; with transphobic comments haunting this collection to this day.
Hip-hop and street fashion continues to support the overall culture’s homophobic and transphobic attitude. While many queer designers and fashion professionals in the general fashion community can afford to be out and comfortable with their orientation and gender expression, those working within street fashion cannot be afforded that luxury. Many working within street fashion tend to downplay or keep their sexual orientation private to avoid being shunned, blacklisted, or worse. In the current social-media obsessed world, street fashion professionals who have come out as queer or queer-friendly are often cyber-bullied beyond reproach.
How do we fix it? It’s a question that is easier asked than answered. The key is to change the narrative that there are no queer people within the hip-hop community and street fashion. LGBTQ people exist within every community and social group, and the hip-hop community is no exception (especially at the intersection of hip-hop culture and fashion.) Within street fashion, we have to normalize the LGBTQ people within it and give them proper representation. Queer persons have certainly played a part in building this sub-culture, and positive representation would give a more realistic view to the world at large.
There are signs of change, as the same social-media world that has often bullied the queer people within the hip-hop community has also given them visibility and a platform to showcase their love for the culture. Instagram has become a tool to both easily view and showcase black and brown queer street fashion. Websites like Qwear Fashion show LGBTQ person’s interpretation of urban style.
Visibility and real representation are vital to change. And it is that reason why I will forever be that girl rocking her Baby Phat.