QUEERTEXSTYLES

LGBTQI+ gender non-conforming voices & their clothes that speak | A G(end)er Swap archival project

[queertexstyles]

"I was lucky to grow up with full autonomy on how to dress and present myself. As a kid I was obsessed with the musical Oliver! so I dressed as a Victorian boy, in a waistcoat and flat cap, for a lot of my childhood. Since my teens, my style has oscillated between tomboy with long hair, to more masc with a buzz cut and a binder"

Al is 1/3 of the Lost Souls Club. A social meet up based in St.Leonard's on Sea

[queertexstyles]

"My style aesthetic is in perpetual motion,

It runs across a spectrum in tandem with my gender identity.

Whether it's high waist Levi's with a vantage corduroy shirt, or pink zebra print trousers and a baggy tee shirt, it really just depends where I am that morning".

Kai is 1/3 of the Lost Souls Club. A social meet up based in St.Leonard's on Sea.

[queertexstyles]

"I love my parents but NO MORE DRESSES, PLEASE! Raised within the church, traditional gender roles were applied and abided by. But, F**K THAT!

Black or darker shades of clothing give me confidence in my body and mind, which suits well with my current style aesthetic. This is inspired by the ‘Dykes on Bikes’ community with a hint of nerdy vibes.

TATTS, DOCS, CHAINS AND RINGS."

Hannah is 1/3 of the Lost Souls Club. A social meet up based in St.Leonard's on Sea.

[queertexstyles]

Someone once said that you have to be a tradesperson to wear workwear, while I do believe that’s BS, I did end up converting a campervan without any experience and made it into my entire personality. Seriously though, workwear is super comfy and having a chronic illness means that my every day style has to revolve around soft, warm items with loose waistlines that don’t grip against my joints and cause any pain. It’s meant that I have always stolen a lot of my clothes from my dad’s wardrobe and now he has passed it’s a way for me to feel close to him.

TYGERMYLK (she/they) is a LGBTQ+ singer-songwriter from the UK South East. Blending etherial electronic elements with a nostalgic indie-rock band and unique lyrical perspectives, their forthcoming debut album, ‘Local Girl, Always Tired’ is an exciting come-back after multiple throat surgeries and challenging chronic illness.

[queertexstyles]

Stringers represent more to me than perhaps the average gym-bro.

I spent years training in binders. And although I started to feel proud of the body I was building, I never felt able to show it until I had top surgery. The feeling of one piece of fabric against my chest is something that I will always be grateful for.

Blake is a personal trainer and the creator of the trans masc training app. Learn more over on IG at @trainwith_blake

[queertexstyles]

Stemming from a rebellion against strict catholic schooling. I've always made sure from a young age to reflect as much personality into my style as I can afford. My obsession with pop culture influences a lot of my style, with a wardrobe full of about 100 vintage tees. Thrifty and nifty. Find me in a charity shop near you.

Bio:

I'm James, your local queer doofus. I balance my time working with my family in our mixed European cafe over in Bexhill along with running Laundry Day, THE queer club night of St Leonards. If you see me DJing across town under the alias Max.Load, come and say hey!

Social media handles:

@max.load

@laundrydayclubnight

[queertexstyles]

We are Mastolf and Mastej. We are inspired by the avant garde, the freaky, and the out there. Our looks are always matching in the colours of our universe; pink, black, red and animal print

Follow them on @mastolfandmastej (IG)

[queertexstyles]

My name is Aiman and my clothing is an expression of my culture and my gender.

I'm from Pakistan where the traditional clothing is a kameez, which is a straight long tunic and a shalwar, which are basically a pair of loose pants. They don't have a specific body shape to them so they are rectangular, straight and shapeless. They are easy to move around in and make me feel like I can express myself in many ways and colours.

Shawls or dupattas can be used to cover certain parts of your body that you don't want to draw attention to and because the clothing is so loose you have more control over your silhouette and over how others see you.

And that is how I combine queerness and traditional clothing.

[queertexstyles]

Throughout my early transition I struggled to find clothes that both fit my aesthetic and kept my body dysphoria minimal. I would frequently wear bulkier, baggy pieces and layer- in spite of the Californian heat.

When I had the opportunity to get top surgery, I was so excited at the prospect of all the new garments I could now feel comfortable in, especially a traditional button-up that would fit correctly.

About a month after top surgery I finally took myself to the mall and bought this shirt. It’s not so much my style anymore but it has always held a certain amount of sentimental value to me- I brought it to London after all !

Jack Zisfain he/they

Trans man from Los Angeles, currently studying a BA in fashion design. A young, queer creative trying to figure it all out. 

Follow Jack on @zisfain (IG)

[queertexstyles]

It’s difficult for many queers to decipher whether our presentation communicates our true selves or is a by-product of constant self-policing in the face of hostility.

Are we sculpted by shame into shapeless heteronormative blobs? Are we exercising aposematism like garish poisonous frogs?

I’m unbearably personable, but my style, superficially at least, attempts to keep people away from me. I want to appear venomous and inscrutable, so I might interact with the world on my own terms.

The way I approach drag has more to do with style than costume. It’s an extension of the way I dress when I’m more male presenting. I’ve worked as a stylist for over a decade under the name Aaron Francis Walker, but the freedom to flex my styling muscle that drag allowed, without compromise for a client or title, was key in reconciling my creativity and gender. Saying that, I’m still very much incomplete and I’m not sure I want to be. Where’s the fun is resolution?

Photo - Nigel Glasgow

Hair - Jenny Green

Dress - Tayler Malynn

IG @ airysomething 

website: https://www.aaronfranciswalker.com/

[queertexstyles]

For me, the real magic of fashion is finding a way to alter, restyle, or remix a piece in an exciting way. A capitalist hegemony tells us that the only style solution is to endlessly consume. I try to resist this by giving strange and garish garments a second chance to be seen, often with a bit of a faggy twist. I feel the most confident when the first reaction to me isn't "man" or "woman," but "huh?"

I bring fabric scraps, unabashed DIY, and unfinished edges into my performances for the same reason– as a reminder that the queer future we dream of won't be obtained by leaving things– or people– to rot once they're no longer "new."

Hugo Crick-Furman (she/it) is a drag artist and puppeteer based in London. Her work blends a powerful interest in folklore and mysticism with a desire to plumb the depths of modern queer despair and come out holding something small and precious. You can find her on Instagram @tiresias.ii.the.sequel, or in real life wandering with no clear purpose around tunnels.

[queertexstyles]

[Post Top Surgery] I am now experimenting with all my old clothes, from shirts to boiler suits to simple jeans and t-shirts, to even more ‘feminine’ pieces (something I would have never done before top surgery.) Colours I never dreamed of wearing before surgery suddenly finding space in my closet. Tight t-shirts and jumpers are a new everyday staple. I have yet to brave the stores, buy new outfits, and try new things on, but I am on a style journey and loving re-discovering my style by trying out everything I already own. 

Read the full story on our instagram @genderswap 

Marley is a freelance writer and speaker, parent of one and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community with a passion for Diversity, Equity, Justice and Inclusion and Trans rights. They combine their experience with writing, blogging and speaking with their lived experience as a Non-Binary person and parent to help improve Trans and LGBTQ+ inclusion and rights. They are passionate about creating resources for Trans/Non-Binary parents and that is why they share their journey and stories as a Tran/Non-Binary parent through their IG. Marley is British Italian and is based in London, UK.

[queertexstyles]

I love to bring my intersectionality out in my style. I often promote visibility and encourage empowerment for better disabled representation through fashion, and this led to me walking my first London Fashion Week this year as a disabled intersectional being on a runway with a mobility aid. Open, proudly queer and fully visible. This for me was both beautiful and empowering. The messages I received from other intersectional disabled humans was absolutely priceless. To be able to be part of a group of 30 strong disabled runway models in one show and being only one of a few intersectional and queer people in adaptable clothing was an iconic moment. Not only for myself but for the wider disabled queer community.

Roxy is a Pansexual Disability rights and sex positive advocate living with Multiple Sclerosis. She is the founder of The Sick and Sickening Podcast.

[queertexstyles]

My style is - in essence - a reclamation of femininity. It wasn't something I thought could belong to me, but as I came into my queerness, it was very much as a queer femme. Hoop earrings were something I loved, that reminded me of the rap queens of the 90s and 00s a part of me wanted to emulate. They were also something that the white, unqueer, stuffy and corporate environments I worked in forbade. But now, working jobs I believe in, with a community that loves me, I can be the outrageously glamorous femme in a muted wardrobe with hoop earrings big as I can manage.

Maz Hedgehog is a writer and performer working somewhere between poetry and theatre. A founding member of Ink and Curtain, they’ve taken work to stages from Edinburgh to Brighton. Outside the arts, Maz dabbles in knitting, baking and excessive swearing. Find them on twitter and instagram @MazHedgehog

[queertexstyles]

“The summer I was 16 I cut the sleeves off of all of my graphic t-shirts and wore them loosely draped over tiny sport shorts - not yet knowing what gender or dysphoria were but knowing my chest made me uncomfortable and my legs lanky and muscular were somehow miraculously already made of boy. 10 years later and cutting the sleeves off my t-shirts still affirms like nothing else”. 

[queertexstyles]

“Clothing is one of many ways in which I am fascinated with translation. In fact, when I look back over my life, a lot of seemingly disparate interests—Ancient Greek and Latin, poetry, fashion, pedagogy, philosophy, bi-cultural identity—all have something to do with translation. I believe that our need to communicate ourselves to others is a foundational, universal drive. We are all bound together in the messy work of trying to express what exists on the inside of us to the external world, with some semblance of accuracy and grace. As a trans man, this has been a particularly complex endeavor, though I don’t see it as a difference in kind so much as degree.

Since an early age, clothing has been one of the most powerful tools available to me to signal selfhood. But it has also been a double-edged sword, because I don’t think we tend to see clothing separate from body. When I was twelve and observed my breakdancing teacher—a muscular, cis man—wearing baggy Levis, it was an easy and understandable imaginative leap to assume that if I bought the Levis they would fit me in the same way. It was just another small slide into letting myself believe that the Levis wouldn’t just fit me like they did him, but that by wearing them I would magically transform into him. That Levis could make me a muscular cis man.

This danger is just one subset of the challenges I think trans and gnc folks face when navigating a fashion world built off of the binary. For me, so much of my identity has been constructed—lovingly, intentionally, and intricately—in my mind. When confronted with trousers that are tight at the waist and way too long, a t-shirt that bunches at the hips, or swimwear that is hopelessly gendered, it is as though that identity I have worked so hard on is starved of oxygen. There is nowhere for it to go, no embodiment to inhabit.

On the flip side, clothing that fits and that also expresses the nuance of our individuality through style is a kind of magic trick of translation. I call it a magic trick because I think that clothing—when it functions in an ideal way—is simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible. It is our internal self externalized, writ large for all to see. But by the same token, if it is really an accurate representation of us, then it is a kind of natural extension of ourselves that is so obvious as to hide in plain sight. It is a frictionless translation: we signal ourselves to the world, and we do it so successfully that the world simply accepts it without thinking twice.

Some obstacles lead to creativity. Other obstacles—in my opinion—are needless. Navigating and expressing the self is obstacle enough, as is—we shouldn’t have to do it within the impossible world of binary fashion. That’s why I founded Both&, a grassroots clothing company for the trans/gnc community that bases all of its designs off extensive conversation with the folks we are creating for. It is my hope that by building the first sizing and fit system specifically for trans and gnc bodies, we can do our small bit to aid in this challenging and exciting act of translation.”

#finneganshepard, founder of @bothandapparel

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Finnegan Shepard

he | him | hisFounder & CEO | Both&

www.bothandapparel.com

[queertexstyles]

My attire of choice is draping South Indian Sarees, especially Sarees from Tamil Nadu. My affinity towards Sarees stem from the fact that I’m a Lower caste, Tamil, Gender non-binary person who grew up in a patriarchal, sexist, racist and LGBTQIA hating household; where all the women went to bed and got up in Sarees. As a child I would wrap myself in those gorgeous fleets of fabric, until I was too big of a boy to do that. Post colonialism and westernization of South Asia, reserved Sarees to biological women and restricted it to other genders. To many women a Saree became a symbol of confinement but to me it’s freedom. Freedom to embrace the liberty to drape a piece of fabric which is restricted and controlled by patriarchy. By draping a Saree, I challenge the notions of gender, morality, ethics, culture and tradition constructed by upper caste patriarchy and westernization. Most Sarees that I wear are exclusively handwoven and/or printed by artisans and craftspeople. I drape a Saree with the knowledge and the satisfaction that I’ve contributed to nurture the craft.  To me a Saree doesn’t carry a gender, it’s just a piece of beautiful fabric and as a gender non-binary person, I don’t work towards becoming a version of a man or a woman, rather a version of me and my Sarees are a part of me and my identity.

Bio:

Ajayini Sathyan is a Gender non-binary/non-conforming LGBTQIA activist, certified LGBTQIA peer counselor and artist. Ajayini studies Gender and Diversity in Germany and when possible, Ajayini actively represents queer refugees/queer people of color, engage in politicized topics like race, (Neo) colonialism, Critical whiteness, gender and sexuality through the spoken word/poetry, art and conducting interactive lectures, workshops and discussions.

Find Ajayini on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/true.diversity.queer.poc/

https://www.facebook.com/truediversity.Queer.LGBTQI.POC/  

https://www.instagram.com/gender.non.binary.saree.draper/

https://www.instagram.com/goth_of_color/