An Overview of LGBTQA+ Fashions Throughout History
Happy Pride Month, everyone!
In honor of pride month I wanted to research a very particular topic which, unfortunately, isn't very widely studied. Being part of the LGBTQA+ community myself, I know that we have a very particular way of communicating through fashion, and I was wondering - in a world where homosexuality was punishable by death, how did LGBTQA+ people dress differently, or communicate their sexuality to other members of the community?
As I already mentioned, there is very little known about these things as nobody would openly document how they made others understand they were, for example, into the same sex, but we do know a little.
But first, we have to understand the circumstances in, let's say, the 18th century.
Homosexuality didn't really become "a thing" until the late 1800s, as in it didn't have a label, and it really wasn't "that big of a deal" in Rococo's upper class. Not to say it was common, but it was generally common in the upper class to have several sexual partners, and it was not a rare occasion that a rich man's mistress actually turned out to be another man. Though it was technically, by law, punishable by death, the more common punishment for "indecency", was public humiliation. The fact that it was especially common in the upper class really surprised me, as today's upper class tends to be much more conservative than the middle or lower class. But I guess it was the wealth that made their sexual encounters be swept under the rug while the lower classes were punished for the exact same things.
A big part of 18th century LGBTQA+ culture were Molly Houses, aka an equivalent of today's gay bars. Historians assume they first appeared in the middle of the 17th century, but very little is known about them for reasons already mentioned, but they were the place to go if you wanted to meet other LGBTQA+ people. However, if the wrong people found out about them, they would be raided by the police and... you can imagine the consequences.
But now, let's get to the actual topic: the fashion.
What we know, and what we can even derive from today's trends, is flamboyance. We know now that some LGBTQA+ people love extravagant fashion as a way to express themselves. I'm saying some because I don't want to stereotype, and I think it's awesome that we're slowly starting to normalize dressing however you want. But flamboyance was key in the 18th century. But now we wonder, in an era where extravagance was everything, what was even more extravagant? Â
Unfortunately, I only found explanations of how men dressed, but they used an exaggeration of aristocratic costumes and elements from female fashion to express themselves. There are multiple paintings and drawings out there, but I didn't really want to include any in this post since the ones I found were bordering on (or straight up) caricatures and, if you put it nicely, works of their time. They do give us, however, an idea of what this extravagance could mean as they show people who were perceived as male at the time with high updos and sometimes even completely in traditionally feminine outfits. And in fact, there are mentions of people cross-dressing within the security of Molly Houses, but obviously they wouldn't do it publicly in a time like this. The only reports are, unfortunately, from police raids and those who did cross dress were given a much harsher punishment than those who didn't.
Let's look at a picture of Lord John Harvey, a bisexual man who lived in the 18th century.
When I first saw this picture, I could immediately tell it was different from the rest, I just couldn't pinpoint exactly what felt so off but then I realized - it was the way his left was just so casually propped on the... thing, and the silk draped over his arm. It's something I'm used to seeing in female portraits, and it has a sort of sensuality to it that just isn't common in male portraits. Sure, sometimes there can be a piece of silk draped around a man in a portrait, but I've never seen it done like this. I'm not gonna go into the fact that he's quite literally pointing at his crotch, I don't know enough about him to say why that is, but you're free to interpret that however you'd like.
Another interesting 18th century personality I found through my research is Ulrika Eleonora Stålhammar who became a Swedish corporal and married a woman. Long story short, she posed as a man and enlisted in the army, then went on to marry a maid named Maria Löhnman. Löhnman eventually found out about her wife's gender, but it didn't matter to her and they stayed together. They were put on trial but claimed they had lived in a marriage without sex and were subsequently acquitted from the charge of homosexuality, but Ulrika still got a sentence for posing as a man and her wife for not revealing the truth. After serving their short sentences (a month and fourteen days, respectively), they lived a quiet life at their family's estate. Unfortunately, there seems to be no picture of her out there!
I apologize for this short anecdote, I just thought that was really cool and wasn't expecting not to find a picture, but now let's get back to the fashion. Another great info I read was that in 18th century Paris, gay men wore shoelaces instead of buckles! Interesting!
Let's jump forward into the next century. Here's where flowers become important! The language of flowers was a huge deal in Victorian times, and who would've guessed - certain flowers could communicate your sexuality to others. For instance, in 19th century England, the color green indicated homosexuality. Irish author Oscar Wilde, a homosexual man, popularized pinning a green carnation to the lapel.
I've seen this picture colorized with the carnation being red but no, it is green so don't let google fool you!
For women, the color violet and violets became the symbol of same-sex attraction.
These women are wearing 18th century clothing but from what I could find, this is actually an engraving from 1838.
In early 20th century New York, LGBTQA+ men wore red neck ties or bow ties as a subtle signal.
Speaking of early 20th century - I just thought I’d add these adorable pictures of actresses Lily Elsie and Adrienne Augarde. They’re from a show called The New Aladdin, and while neither of them are LGBTQA+ (as far as we know), they’re still worth a mention.
Nowadays, we are more fortunate to be able to be ourselves than these people ever were, and we can be thankful for that without forgetting about the fact that we still have a long way to go. Some countries, unfortunately, haven't seen any improvements at all. But I also know that being LGBTQA+ even in today's society can be scary, and sometimes signalizing it through fashion is a lot easier than going up to someone of the same sex and just ask them out. There is this slim line between stereotyping and genuine signals we send, and most of the time we do it so subconsciously that we're not even aware of it at all times. What I want to say with that is, take my research with a grain of salt. A lot of this information stems from a time when the LGBTQA+ community wasn't exactly respected and a lot has been interpreted from caricatures. But the most important thing to take from this is that no, LGBTQA+ isn't just a "modern trend", we've always been there and we always will be. And it's also important to mention that the reason for me starting my post with the 18th century is that before that, it really wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, the further back you go, the less of a big deal it was. And while today's society is still healing from the cruelty that came after, we can thank everyone who came before us for the rights that we do have now. Without them being their brave selves, we wouldn't be where we are today.
So here are some important historical figures who were part of the LGBTQA+ community.
Benvenuto Cellini (1500 - 1571), Italian sculptor and goldsmith, homosexual or bisexualÂ
Pope Julius III (1487-1555), homosexual Â
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian painter, homosexualÂ
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), playwright, probably bisexualÂ
Thomas Cannon (18th century) author, wrote the first defense of homosexualityÂ
Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), German art historian, homosexualÂ
Anne Lister (1791-1840), diarist, "first modern lesbian"Â
Walter Whitman (1819-1892), poet, homosexual or bisexualÂ
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), poet and playwright, homosexualÂ
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), painter, bisexual
Josephine Baker (1906-1975), entertainer, bisexualÂ
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), writer, bisexualÂ
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), African American leader in civil rights, socialism, nonviolence and gay righs, homosexualÂ
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), painter, bisexualÂ
