From the Editor: Reclaiming fashion

Editorial duties on my high school newspaper staff were allotted by rotation – for every monthly issue we’d all head up a different section, so in each edition of The Standley Lake High School Overview I was “editor” of something new: features, news, and one month – lamentably – sports. Editors were expected to write personal columns introducing their sections, and when it was my turn to edit sports, my request to put my column on somebody else’s page (on the grounds that having to speak personally about sports was like forcing a dog to do math) was denied. I’d been staring glass–eyed at a blank page, indulging myself to stubborn resentment, for most of an hour when sudden angels of inspiration whispered the perfect title: “Sports Hated Me First.”

At first it was a joke, but when I actually wrote it, that column turned out to be a pretty triumphant moment for me – everyone in school (read: a couple people I overheard) were debating about it, and a popular guy gave me a thumbs–up in the hall (OK, he was a teacher). I bring this all up only because this is a fashion issue in an LGBT publication where many readers know the topic well, but I do not, and find myself strangely flashing back to that “sports opinion” column from high school.

I don’t actively dislike fashion, but lets just say I’m really grateful to have a job with no dress code. If you ever see me in something nice, understand – they’re probably my boyfriend’s clothes. When I’m supposed to go to an “important” event I’ll be looking into my closet sweating, and there’s a story that keeps coming up at the office: it’s from last summer’s “surprise staff-bonding activity” that we were told to “bring a change of old clothes” for; (if you’re curious, the surprise turned out to be throwing water balloons at each other in the parking lot). When it was time, I changed out of my khaki cargo shorts into another old pair of khaki cargo shorts I brought – and everyone here thinks that’s so funny to bring up again and again. I always point out that the second pair of shorts had an ink stain, so they were not identical, but I guess that only furthers what the story says about me.

Maybe there are some parallels between the role of fashion for gay men and the role of sports in a suburban high school. Each is supposed to be a huge part of “the experience” even though it’s only true for some. Each plays a role in identifying the community’s who’s who. I tend to instinctively reject things with an “elite” component – all the worst events in human history share the core feature of people considering themselves better than someone else. I can follow trends and understand what they’re about, and know the way I dress probably makes some difference in how people see me, I just can’t bring myself to participate until I have to.

But, I really like this issue’s cover story. That’s because the men and women in this story are doing something that seems different – not using fashion to place themselves in society, but to de-institutionalize fashion itself and in some cases use it to show what the whole world can be.

They all have a discernible look, a sense of class and an awareness of time and place, but never once in any of our interviews was a mention of an expensive brand or dollar amount, except when people were talking about what they used to wear. Not once was there a mention of what’s “in style,” what is “flattering” or “slimming” or “dated” – it was about what they want to say about their attitude toward fashion. I think it’s re–claiming fashion.

It’s re–claiming fashion as art, designers as artists, and the rest of us as curators who put it on display. It’s re–claiming our physical selves as canvasses for expression, which the human body has been used for for tens of thousands of years, and claiming masculinity or femininity as something you pull on like an outfit (or don’t) instead of as what a male has to be and a female shouldn’t be. It’s re–claiming fashion as a more conscious expression and dimension of human life, and I think that’s an idea we can all wear.