A RAINBOW runway served as Virgil Abloh’s introduction as the new men’s artistic director at Louis Vuitton. For his debut collection, for Spring/Summer 2019, held at the gardens of Palais Royal in Paris, he sent down models in all-white ensembles and accessories (referring to his personal label Off-White) and progressed into streetwear in a spectrum of colors with images from Wizard of Oz.
- LGBTQI. A nod to Dorothy and June being Pride Month, the rainbow made pleasant sense. Abloh, a Chicago native born to Ghanaian parents and who follows Ozwald Boateng at Givenchy and Olivier Rousteing at Balmain as trailblazing black designers of heritage fashion houses, stressed the importance of inclusivity in his presentation.
“Essential to my show concept is a global view on diversity linked to the travel DNA of the brand. The studio creates these show notes. We created this world diagram on the seats that shows the models’ birthplace[s], and the birthplace[s] of their parents,” he explained in an Instagram post.
On the RTW front, Swedish fast-fashion brand H&M offers a Pride collection, called “Love For All,” with a graphic 1970s vibe. “H&M believes in everybody’s right to love who they want. We hope people can use H&M’s Love For All collection to celebrate Pride and their belief in equal love,” Andreas Löwenstam, H&M men head of design, said in a statement.
The brand allotted 10 percent of the sales of the Pride collection to UN Free & Equal, the United Nations Human Rights Office (UNHRO) campaign which aims to build a world where no one should be afraid because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The support we receive from H&M will help the UN Free & Equal campaign work together with activists and equality champions to raise public awareness and mobilize for positive changes in laws and attitudes,” said Peggy Hicks, director of thematic work at the UNHRO.
- LGBTQIAP. The local retail response to the cause comes from lifestyle behemoth Bench, which unveiled a series of scents contained in colorful boxes. It calls them “Generation Fluid,” taking the initialism further: LGBTQIAP. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Ally, Pansexual. The Bench boxes, though, are labeled Love, Give, Belong, Touch, Quirky, Innocent, Attract, Powerful.
More and more letters get added to the initialism, confusing so many including me. LGBTTQQIAAP means lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual; while LGBTQQICAPF2K+ (C for curious, F for friends, 2-spirit and kinky).
For now, pending more education on the matter, I’d defer to Gregory Ward, a professor of linguistics, philosophy, and gender and sexuality studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, as quoted by the Chicago Tribune in June 2017:
“What can the public use successfully, and what will exclude people offensively? How do we strike that balance between maximum inclusiveness and coming up with a label that can be used without ridicule, and respect the community being referred to.”
- LESBIAN. Every inspirational woman appears in the Maroon 5/Cardi B video “Girls Like You.” Among them are Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, comedian Tiffany Haddish, transwoman Trace Lysette, Wonder Woman Gal Gadot, MuslimGirl.com’s Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, Native American activist Jackie Fielder, plus-size supermodel Ashley Graham and diva JLo. But the most exciting cameo is by Ellen DeGeneres, everyone’s favorite lesbian and powerful LGBT rights champion.
- GAY. In Reyna Elena, Libertad and other Stories, an art exhibit that runs until June 30 at the NCCA Gallery in Intramuros, gay painter Daniel Palma Tayona puts the spotlight on the bakla, and how the gay community reacts to the HIV crisis, discrimination and social empowerment. A compelling artwork is that of a crippled transvestite in Beautiful, who, despite her disability, still marvels at her own magnificent reflection in a mirror.
- BISEXUAL. We know of Cara Delevingne, Angelina Jolie and Anna Paquin among those who have proudly declared themselves bisexual. We’ve heard whispers of James Dean, Montgomery Clift and Cary Grant. Then there are confirmations of Marlon Brando’s bisexuality, from former lover Richard Pryor’s widow herself. Now I need to read Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me, which the greatest actor of all time wrote with Robert Lindsey. It’s been languishing in my shelf too long.
- TRANSGENDER. My latest TV obsession is Pose, the new anthology by Glee and American Horror Story writer/producer Ryan Murphy. Set in the ballroom culture in late-1980s New York, amid the AIDS epidemic and the rise of Trump, it serves glamour and heartbreak in equal measure. The groundbreaking show, which has the biggest transgender cast, has as writers trans activist Janet Mock among them.
But fashion, the stylish 1980s not the maligned 1980s, is the true star. Emmy-winning costume designer Lou Eyrich dressed Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson), with her Diana Ross/Dynasty references, in vintage YSL and Mugler, and Angel Evangelista (Indya Moore) and Blanca Rodriguez-Evangelista (MJ Rodriguez) taking inspiration from Linda Evangelista.
- QUEER. I’ve just seen the first episode of Netflix’s Queer Eye, the current incarnation of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I was curious mainly because of Jonathan Van Ness, the hairdresser whose parody recap of Game of Thrones, Gay of Thrones on Funny Or Die, is laugh-out loud. It touched on a prickly topic: religion and its intolerance for the queer community. Needless to say, everyone had an epiphany and spread the love all around in Gay, Georgia.
My all-time LGBT fare is, of course, RuPaul’s Drag Race, the finals being on June 28. Season 10 had its fashion moments from the Final Four (Aquaria’s Evil Twin, Eureka O’ Hara’s houndstooth ensemble, Kameron Michaels’ feathered fantasy, Asia O’Hara’s Tweetie Bird). Together with these eleganza extravaganza are the all-too-real issues that the queens faced on their way to starring in TV’s most delicious, shadiest episodes: parental disapproval, conversion therapy, rape and racial discord.
“All the pain, it was all worth it. Through this journey of a lot of pain, you have found what the true meaning is. This is why this ministry of drag is so powerful,” Mama Ru said at the Reunion episode. “We can speak from so much pain and so much heartache and so much—still—frustration. But we can walk that walk. And you’re doing it.”
Image credits: Ben Chan Facebook, NCCA Gallery Facebook