Written by Ilman Ramadhanu | Read in Indonesian

“Fashion for me is a shield, a liberation of identity, and also a safe place for me to get away with everything”, said Indonesian queer activist Noval Auliady on his innate relationship with fashion.

In a society where repressive laws continue to make attempt to fade their visibility, the queer community across the globe has historically been using fashion as a sartorial shield to protect the authenticity of their identity, including Noval.

The close relationship between the queer identity and fashion dons itself a name that now popularly known as the queer aesthetics. Understanding the concept of queer aesthetic is a tricky thing as the definition of queer aesthetic puts less emphasise on its visual characteristics but rather its essence. 

As pointed out by Adam Gecsy together with Vicki Karaminas, in their book “Queer Style”, queer aesthetic is an outward representation of queer resistance to the sartorial gender ideals and traditions.

To further understand queer aesthetic, it is best to take a look into how fashion has been used by the queer community as well as how the queer community has influenced fashion throughout history.

Queer aesthetic as visual semiotics

In 1895 Victorian England when homosexuality was still a criminal offense, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde was put on trial for the crime of gross indecency. The trial came after his homosexual affair with Lord Alfred Douglas was made public. The trial of Oscar Wilde expostulated homosexuality not only as a sexual preference, but also as an outward expression.

As pointed by Gecsy and Karaminas, the one detail that seems to be overlooked by many is that Wilde was not charged because he was caught red-handed for having a homosexual affair, but rather he was accused as ‘posing’ as a homosexual. 

The prosecution put into evidence Wilde’s literary works, political views and his flamboyant style of dress to prove his homosexuality. According to Dominic James, author of the book “Oscar Wilde Prefigured”, the prosecution side provided a statement during the trial that went, “I do not say you are it, but you look it, and you pose at it, which is just as bad.”

Wilde was never one to shy away from transgressing the sartorial norms for expression, as his style was often described as eccentric or peculiar. His famous long hair accentuated his effeminacy which made him even more a controversial figure of the time.

Wilde’s biggest sartorial stunt happened in 1892 when he and a suite of young gentlemen arrived in the opening of his play “Lady Windermere's Fan” wearing a matching vivid green carnation on their lapels. James noted that the carnation and the unnaturalness of the green were supposed to be a symbolism of homosexuality. 

Individual expressions for men that borders on effeminacy has always garnered suspicion of sexual deviance, but Wilde was able to get away from it under the disguise of the aestheticism. The aestheticism was an art movement in the late nineteenth century that was built upon the notion of “art for art’s sake”.

The followers of the movement were known to often disregarded the traditional norms of dressing of the time in favour of beauty and self-expression. The movement blurred the line between self-expression with one’s sexual or gender identity which gave people like Oscar Wilde and assuming other gay men of the time to be themselves. Queerness in fashion was then considered an expression of an artist rather than a indication of one’s sexuality. 

Public perception consequently shifted after the Oscar Wilde trial. According to Shaun Cole, author of the book “Don we Now Our Gay Apparel”, the public started to associate aestheticism with homosexuality. What followed was a series of moral panic that was materialised through a series of police raids and homosexual witch-hunt in the early decade of the twentieth century. Cole wrote that throughout 1930s to 1950s, many homosexuals in England and America lived in fear of blackmail and imprisonment. 

Cole explained that many gay men at the time used fashion in the same manner as Wilde and his compatriots used the green carnation as a visual signifer to communicate with other gay men. Articles of clothing such as pinkie ring, suede shoes and red necktie were popular sartorial codes for gay men at the time.

Cole further explained that suede shoes were a sure sign of homosexuality back in the 1930s, which forced many gay men of the time to come up with an excuse for wearing them, such they work as an artist, actor, or at a museum.

Gecsy and Karaminas provided an explanation that the connotation of homosexuality surrounding suede shoes was created due to suede’s impracticality. Suedes are difficult to maintain as they are not supposed to be worn in the rain or during work. This type of fashion item that constrains a man’s mobility to do hard labour was in contrast with the idea of masculinity and  therefore an indication of someone being a homosexual.

A cultural shift occured throughout the 1960s to 1970s as there was a new sense of power that was infused into the identity of the queer community. When the stonewall riot took place in 1969, it kickstarted the fight for queer rights in America that subsequently spread out globally. This revolution was reflected in the fashion they wore.

As pointed out by Gecsy and Karaminas, fashion became a matter of choice rather than a necessity. Queer people had more liberty to express themselves which gave birth to rich and distinct subcultures that helped build the image of fashion as we know it today.

Sartorial signifiers became more than just a code for one’s sexual identity. They were also a way to communicate one’s role and preference during sexual intercourse. According to Hal Fischer, author of “Gay Semiotics”, during the 1970s gay scene in America was filled with gay men wearing earrings and handkerchief or keychains in their back pockets.

The colour and the position in which such fashion items were placed played a significant part in deciphering the meaning behind it. For instance, a blue handkerchief that was placed in the right hip pocket would have meant that the wearer prefers a more passive role during intercourse.

These sartorial signifiers were not only a communication medium for gay community in the West, but also in different parts of the world, including Indonesia. This could be seen from a collection curated by Queer Indonesia Archive which included an investigative report done by Indonesian magazine Matra that provided a glimpse into the life of Indonesian gay men in the year of 1999.

An unnamed Indonesian gay man who lived in Jakarta explained what, when, where and how they liked to meet and communicate with one another, including through fashion symbols. The quote from the report explained that “...many young gay men still believe in code, they often wear earring on the right side of their ears, ring worn on their pinkie as a code for same-sex desire, or sticking handkerchief in their backpocket.” 

These sartorial codes underpin the significant role that fashion had in the livelihood of the queer community throughout history. With the emergence of social media, the use of these sartorial codes as a means for communication is now becoming obsolete and its imagery becomes a fashion artifact that signifies queer resistance against a prejudice society. 

Queer subculture and its impact on fashion

In 1966, Yves Saint Laurent debuted his most iconic design that, even over half a century later, is still relevant to today’s fashion. He introduced the first ever classic tuxedo jacket tailored specifically for women’s bodies that he called le smoking.

As quoted by the Musee YSL Paris, the name came from the smoking jacket that was originally reserved only for men to protect the clothes from the smell of cigars. The design was both cutting-edge and radical as it was the first of its kind in the realm of couture and put forward the idea of gender-bending fashion to the mainstream. 

Images from his 1966 autumn/winter collection showed a sleek cut of tuxedo jacket worn in pair with a ruffled white shirt and satin cummerbund. The traditional men’s bow tie was subverted into a feminine satin bow that also matched the hair band on top of the classic 60s bouffant hairstyle worn by the model, making le smoking the perfect confluence of masculinity and femininity. 

Prior to the emergence of le smoking, androgyny style was rather popular among the lesbian subculture in the early 1920s Paris. During that time, Paris was a safe bohemian heaven given its liberal point of view and lively nightlife scenes. It attracted many artists, writers and freethinkers, including of those who identified themselves as queer.

A nightclub in Paris called Le Monocle became the epicentre of lesbian subculture throughout the 1920s to the 1930s. The name itself was derived from an accessory of clothing that was closely linked to lesbians, a single round eyeglass called the monocle. As noted by Gecsy and Karaminas, many crop-haired lesbians were seen hanging out at Le Monocle while wearing menswear attire which included the monocle, fedora hats, cigarettes on their hand, completed with sharp tuxedos.

This style was catapulted into a more mainstream platform by actress Marlene Dietrich. Dietrich, who was openly bisexual, and according to Another Magazine, a frequent in Berlin’s nightlife drag scene in 1920s, was never a stranger to daring, provocative and gender-bending fashion. Her most impactful performance was a nod to the lesbian subculture of the time.

In one of the scenes from her 1930 american film debut “Morocco”, Dietrich wore a tuxedo and top hat, completed with a cigarette on her hand and proceeded to kiss a women on the lips, making it one of the first lesbian kisses on the screen.

Gecsy and Karaminas further explained that Dietrich’s performance along with other androgynous celebrities of the time like Greta Garbo helped the tuxedo lesbian look become a fashion statement that symbolised gender fluidity and defied norms of sexuality. 

The lesbian subculture continued to flourish until the 1940s when the Nazi started to occupy France. The persecution of queer people by the Nazi drove lesbian and other queer subculture of the time to go into hiding, including Le Monocle that closed its door around the same time. The legacy of the lesbian subculture in 1920s Paris was then commemorated by Yves Saint Laurent through the sleek design of le smoking.

Le smoking provides one example from many iconic fashion staples that are derived from the expression of the queer community. It highlights the role of fashion in providing a medium for the queer community to authentically express their sexual or gender identities and to form underground communities that are filled with distinct aesthetics, even during the time when it wasn’t as permissible to do so.

Therefore, the aesthetic that they wore, like some of the lesbians in the 1920s with their tuxedos and monocles, became a symbol that transcends fashion and also symbolised the resilience of the queer community.

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