Dressing Dykes

Dressing Dykes

Lesbian Fashion History

Latest Posts

Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion

Hello! I’ve got a massive announcement for Dressing Dykes today… My first book, ‘Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion’ is coming out in June 2024, and is available to pre-order NOW! “From Sappho and Suffragettes to t-shirts and TikTok, a fascinating journey through the culture, politics and social history of lesbian clothing.” I’ve poured my…

Lesbian Chic Lives Forever, Apparently

30 years ago, lesbian chic leapt into the world. As unexpected as it was provocative, lesbian chic cemented lesbianism firmly into the zeitgeist of the early-to-mid-’90s  – if only in its ‘chicest’ guise. Lesbian fashionability has its boundaries, and the kinds of lesbians that could be described as ‘lesbian chic’ were very different from most…

Coconut Thumb Rings and Brazilian Lesbian Fashion

A couple of years ago, I posted an article about rings as lesbian fashion signals, particularly those worn on the little finger and the thumb. The response to this article by Brazilian lesbians exposed me to a lesbian fashion signal that I hadn’t previously encountered, and that has lingered in my consciousness ever since: the…

Clothing Culture at the Lesbian Conference

If you’ve been reading Dressing Dykes for a while, you might have noticed that it’s been quiet here for the past couple of months. While I’ve been posting more frequently on Instagram and TikTok, full articles take a lot of time and research and my time has been taken up by spreading the history of…

The Lesbian History of Short Hair

Appearance is more than just clothing. It is our skin, our nails, the tilt of our mouths or the furrows of our brows, the tattoos that may adorn us and the hair on our heads – or our legs, or our armpits. Of course, most of my work culminates in a study of garments, as…

Sailor Outfits and Lesbian Culture, 1920s-1930s

The sailor aesthetic is irrevocably intertwined with queer culture. The job description of “sailor” has a straggeringly gay history and the aesthetic has been used time and time again in gay fashion, media, music and more; think Tom of Finland or Pierre et Gilles. I use the word “gay” because, more often than not, these…

From Ugly to Chic: Lesbians and Dungarees

Dungarees – or overalls – have lived many lives. The word “dungarees” originally referred to the fabric that was first used for them, which came from the Indian village of Dongri and was named “dungri.” When, necessitated by the industrial revolution and enabled by the British Empire, the fabric was exported to England to be…

‘Roots’ Style: Black Lesbians in 1980s Britain

I recently came across the term “Roots”, or more specifically, “Roots lesbians.” It was while I was researching for my article on lesbian feminist dress codes, and I made a note to come back to the term and find out more about it. However, once I got around to doing this, I found it to…

From Anne Lister’s Closet: Top Hats or Bonnets?

When studying the history of lesbian fashion, someone who I come back to again and again is Anne Lister. This is because of the wealth of evidence that she left behind, not just of the clothes that she wore but how she felt about them, from the perspective of a woman who we know loved…

Cross-Dressing Dykes, an Eighteenth Century Spectacle

A confession: This article was never meant to be about cross-dressing dykes as an eighteenth century spectacle at all. In fact, it started out as an analysis of the fashion of one cross-dressing dyke of the eighteenth century, Mademoiselle de Raucourt (1756-1815). I will be writing about Raucourt, in all her theatrical, French, lesbian glory,…

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Instagram

Today I received a final, finished hardback copy of my book, ‘Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion.’ It’s so exciting to see this book — years of work! — coming to life. Happy 233rd Birthday, Anne Lister! I wasn’t able to present at the Lesbian Lives conference today, so I thought I’d share the paper with you all instead! This video is about 13 minutes 🕰️ Okay, maybe not the MOST lesbian-fashion focused post, but what’s a more lesbian accessory than a cat? Sharing this gorgeous stack of ‘Unsuitable’ proof copies because it brings me joy and — who knows — maybe you’ve somehow missed the news that my first book UNSUITABLE: A HISTORY OF LESBIAN FASHION is coming out on the 1st June! It’s all reading and research at the moment - which took me to this fantastic photo from ‘Tugo’ (‘Together’), a lesbian magazine which was circulating in Hong Kong and Taiwan in the late 1990s. 💜 lecture alert! 💜 What was the hot femme lesbian hairstyle in 1960s London? Happy New Year everyone ✨🎉 here’s to learning & sharing more about lesbian fashion history in 2024! Forever obsessed with Brassaï’s 1932 photos from Le Monocle, a Parisian lesbian club. They show such a variety of lesbian fashions from the 1920s & ‘30s: monocles (of course), high collars and ties, short Eton Crops and fashionable finger-waved hair, super-feminine dresses and blouses, lipstick and sailor uniforms. Do you have a favourite?

19th Century 1920s 1930s 1980s Accessories Anne Lister Barbara Smith Black feminism Black lesbians butch butch/femme colour Combahee River Collective commune cottagecore craft cross-dressing drag kings Dressing Dykes femme Kitchen Table Press landdykes Lavender Menace le monocle lesbian camp Lesbian feminism Luce Irigaray Mabel Hampton male impersonation modernism mourning pink Radicalesbians reclamation rings Sappho sensible footwear sex wars shoes Stonewall Stormé Delarverie T-shirts the gateways Tipping the Velvet vintage

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