Vote Polari!
I hope everyone is enjoying the four fashion polls from the fashion archives. Each has 64 outfits, brilliant outfits that have gone already and unfair match-ups, but only one has a right answer.
The best thing Louis Tomlinson has worn this year is the Polari top:
(photo from the LT fashion archive).
What is Polari?
Polari was a street language used by gay men in large cities pre 1967 (when sex between men was partially decriminalised). It was a way of communicating hidden messages in plain site and identifying who was safe among people whose existence was criminalised. There’s a short film in Polari and you can learn more by poking around the internet. It’s a really important example of culture created under oppression as a form of resistance.
Polari Clothing is using that history to create streetwear - calling itself ‘the language of the subversive’. They have different Polari words on t-shirts and sweatshirts. Their instagram is a celebration of gay culture. This year was the fiftieth anniversary of the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality - and Polari Clothing is part of the recognition and celebration of survival and resistance that that anniversary marked.
Why is it important that Louis is wearing Polari?
The peculiar history of Louis’ closet means that so many queer symbols aren’t available to him. At this point, it’d be difficult for him to look at a rainbow flag without being outted.
But Louis has long turned to much older gay culture to express himself. You see it right back in 2011, when his response to Harry mentioning Eleanor was ‘How Very Dare You’. You see it in the bears (as I have gone on about at great length). For a short while, Louis was consciously camp - describing himself as flamboyant and using the codes that previous generations of gay men had developed to communicate to each other who they were. But soon that wasn’t open to him anymore - what had been a secret sub-culture had become too public too known.
If you’d asked me if Louis could have worn a hoodie that said ‘Polari’ and remain closeted - I would have said no. I would have thought that it’s the sort of thing that might trend and lead to tabloid articles. Instead fan response was muted (so muted that it’s not even winning the fashion poll now!). Louis knew better than I did.
Louis has done what generations of gay men before have done before him. He has negotiated a way to be seen, despite the closet.
So vote Polari - it’s the best thing he’s worn this year.