Skirting the Issue: Lesbian Fashion for the 1990s

Abstract

The contemporary lesbian is considered to be 'congenitally' unfashionable: too busy propping up Havelock Ellis's eternal mantlepiece, pipe in hand, gently flicking ash off her tweeds, to spare a thought for trend. Although lesbians do model in fashion magazines such as Elle, Marie-Claire and Vogue, these fabulous creatures are always assumed to be heterosexual because they 'look heterosexual'. So what do lesbians look like? Unsurprisingly, the majority look exactly the same as heterosexual women. Mainstream fashion rather than lesbianism exerts the strongest influence over their style. However, there are others who cast only a sideways glance at the mainstream, lesbians for whom style is a conscious statement of gay identity. For these women, dress provides a visible connection with their lesbian subcultures; identifying their politics and sexuality in relation to other lesbians. Many of these styles are controversial; displaying lesbians' new preoccupation with sexual practice. And with 'lipstick' lesbians and SM lesbians set against revolutionary lesbian feminists, their 'style wars' reveal deep ideological disagreement. There seem to be more ways of looking like a lesbian than ever before. But do they have anything new to say about our identities and politics? Certainly, lesbian fashion is making statements, and as such, invites interpretation. The feminist hostility towards fashion, characteristic of the 1960s and 1970s, is still alive in the late 1980s but it no longer enjoys universal support among all feminists. The argument has been that fashion epitomized women's constant striving towards the feminine. Seasonal adjustments of style kept them as much on their toes as the high heels that ruined their spines. As femininity symbolized women's oppression by men, so fashion was seen to be the gilded cage that had ensnared them in the mutilations of the feminine. Feminism celebrated the 'real' woman beneath her makeup and aimed to set her free from the confines of tight skirts and high heels.