Author Jill Gutowitz celebrated that “Lesbian fashion” has gone “mainstream cool,” and she said it’s thanks to A-listers like Kristen Stewart, Bella Hadid, and others sporting the anti-glam look.
“Sweater vests, Dr. Martens, leather trench coats—these are simply tools for warmth and endurance,” Gutowitz, author of “Girls Can Kiss Now,” wrote in a Harper’s Bazaar article, reported the New York Post in a piece published Tuesday. “They’ve also become mainstream cool.”
“Outfits that were once the domain of queer women have been popularized on red carpets and in street fashion,” she added. “Seeing a straight-identifying woman wearing overalls, Tevas, and a bandana is somewhat disorienting, sure. But as a millennial who came of age in a deeply homophobic culture, seeing lesbian fashion mainstreamed feels validating, like we were right this whole time.”
‘Dressing like a lesbian’ is the sexy and ‘powerful’ new fashion trend https://t.co/ohr3Z80uEu pic.twitter.com/ZbI6yBedmA
— New York Post (@nypost) March 15, 2022
The author shared what she thought were several examples of the lesbian look having arrived, citing “Kristen Stewart’s Spencer press tour, clad with tweed jackets, wide-leg pants, and two-piece skirt suits,” and straight stars like Dakota Johnson — who “wore an oversized suede jacket and baggy jeans, an outfit that felt crafted in a test tube by a lesbian scientist from the ’70s” — Zendaya, Cate Blanchett, and others.
To celebrate the release of my book ‘Girls Can Kiss Now,’ I wrote about the mainstreaming of lesbian fashion for @harpersbazaarus https://t.co/hJhUwg6e65
— Jill Gutowitz (@jillboard) March 9, 2022
However, she said while she’s excited to see the latest fashion trend, she’s “resentful” that straight women are being praised for adopting the style, which she said gay women were previously “shamed for.”
“While I feel joyful that lesbian fashion is so beloved today, part of me also feels resentful,” Gutowitz wrote. “Androgynous looks that lesbians were once shamed for, that were once visual identifiers among our own community, are now Urban Outfitters staples.”
Supermodel Bella Hadid recently told Vogue that she dresses like a boy.
“I dress like a little boy,” Hadid explained in a recent interview. “You couldn’t catch me in a dress willingly at this point in my life. I look outside and I see a hundred people dressed exactly like me, just because of what Instagram is.”
Not everyone seemed to agree with the author, and some took to Twitter to point out that the trend toward what she labeled Lesbian-wear instead looked a lot like a return to the fashion trends of the 80s — a time when stars and runway models sported a more so-called menswear look with oversized jackets, loose pants, and chunky Dr. Martens.
So… Lesbians dress like they’re from the 80s? https://t.co/j3l3HSleEo
— BiasedGirl (@BiasedGirl) March 16, 2022
There were even pictures of ads from that time.
It really was a thing… pic.twitter.com/9QsuZOnKnF
— Jonathan Sabin (@jonathanwsabin) March 16, 2022
One person asked since when was “dressing in a suit a Lesbian fashion trend.” Another wrote that “Lesbian is not some weird fashion noun.”
any person could “dress like a lesbian” because lesbians do not have one lone fashion sense that they share. wearing a suit does not automatically make you a lesbian. wearing a skirt does not automatically make you a lesbian. lesbian is not some weird fashion noun. https://t.co/WteyrsotQ0
— ice (@lgbtkendrick) March 16, 2022
Dressing like a lesbian or dressing because you’re in fact a lesbianhttps://t.co/VOY88UmOam
— Eve Barlow (@Eve_Barlow) March 15, 2022
any person could “dress like a lesbian” because lesbians do not have one lone fashion sense that they share. wearing a suit does not automatically make you a lesbian. wearing a skirt does not automatically make you a lesbian. lesbian is not some weird fashion noun. https://t.co/WteyrsotQ0
— ice (@lgbtkendrick) March 16, 2022
I need to have a word with my lesbian friends. They’re doing fashion wrong. https://t.co/MchrJx9YFg
— Paul Burston (@PaulBurston) March 16, 2022
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