90s gay fashion

According to fashion historian, Jayne Shrimpton in Victorian Fashion, the protruding bustle was virtually gone by 1892.

Bell-shaped skirts gored to skim smoothly over the hips, defined the new S-Shaped silhouette. Image: Wikipedia. (Were some of you even alive in the '90s?) For LGBTQ+ teens coming of age during this time there was certainly less worldwide acceptance and media representation than there is today.

Still, queer teens growing up in the late '90s had plenty of pop culture icons, movie/TV shows, and fashion trends to latch onto.

Image: Claremont College Digital Library. One of those colors was mauve.

Social media has transformed the men’s fashion industry, giving rise to a new generation of digital influencers, style icons, and even gay stores. There are even gender-fluid stars like Bad Bunny and Harry Styles that are inspiring a new wave of self-expression and male empowerment.

Menswear fads tend to dip in and out of fashion as fast as the wind blows. There too, the wealthy became increasingly so, while the working class struggled harder than ever. Instead, menswear should be a celebration of your own individuality, whether that be with gay outfits, crop tops, or wide-leg pants.

More importantly, queer influences have played a significant role in shaping men’s fashion trends over the decades.

Where to begin with the gay influences of the 2010s? We just can’t get enough of queer celebrities like Billy Porter and Jaden Smith. Image: Gordon Morales, Flikr. Thanks to the LGBTQ+ community, we’re constantly reminded that social stigmas shouldn’t dictate the way we dress, either. Image: Image: Claremont College Digital Library.

Gay Nineties Spring Fashion Featured New Colors

Gay Nineties Spring Fashion trends bloomed with stylish new colors and comforts.

But Perkins changed a few minds when he stumbled on aniline dyes.

His discovery opened the world of fabrics to an amazing array of colors. Finally, people weren’t afraid to shop at gay clothing stores or embrace their unique identities. Hats were often heavily decorated with flowers, feathers, veils, netting and ribbons.

Thankfully, the use of real feathers was becoming increasingly tone deaf, given the rise of environmental awareness.

Hats for Spring 1902 by Myrtle Tyrel Kirby.

But the fashion of the time was sublime.

Following is just a quick overview of Gay Nineties Spring Fashion.

Advertising by Charvet and Gelot, April 5, 1896, International Herald Tribune. Gay men in particular adopted camp fashion as a form of coded communication and self-expression, wearing sequined outfits, bold patterns, and oversized accessories as staple elements of their looks.

Drag culture began to later blossom in the 1950s and 1960s as queer performers took to constructing hyper-feminine personas.