Flags and fashion: expressions of solidarity through lesbian clothing

Abstract

The clothes worn by lesbians are rich in meaning. Sometimes, they can help us to understand lesbian history and the social, personal, political, and erotic context of lesbian lives in the past. As LGBTQ communities have grown and the connections between groups within it have become at once stronger and more complicated, the clothes that lesbians (and others) wear can function as narrators. Lesbian fashion can be a tool for solidarity, our ideals worn quite literally on our sleeves. This paper is an analysis of how clothing has been - and is being - used by lesbians to show support for other groups within LGBTQ communities, through a fashion history lens. The focus is on printed t-shirts as well as clothing in different Pride flag colours, which I propose can be understood as a kind of “flagging.” Flagging, here, is a way to understand the intentional choices made by lesbians and other LGBTQ + people when signalling personal identities and intra-community solidarities through dress. When solidarity activism is placed directly onto the lesbian body, it is personal, and can craft specific messages. These messages, constructed from a language of identities, visual culture, and physical garments, are what this paper seeks to examine.

Keywords:

• Flagging
• lesbian fashion
• lesbian feminism
• queer
• transfeminism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Eleanor Medhurst

Eleanor Medhurst is an independent fashion historian and author of Dressing Dykes, an online blog about lesbian fashion history. She has degrees in fashion history (BA) and design history (MA) from the University of Brighton. Medhurst has also worked towards the sharing of queer histories through her involvement with Queer Looks and Queer the Pier, exhibitions at Brighton Museum. Her work appears in Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Contemporary Activism in Britain (2023).