Closet Cases: Queers on What We Wear

Jean jackets can be armor. Bracelets, spiritual totems. Belts can save lives, or take them.

As a verb, "fashion" is exceedingly queer. Our queer community learns to fashion identity from and through the clothes we wear, the costumes we choose, the fabrics we desire--and the statements these make. No other community allows clothing to serve as such a primary, dominant marker of subjectivity, both individually and collectively. We don't simply permit fashioning; we rely upon what we put on our bodies to tip off, to signal, and to serve as evidence of who we are.

This is much more than a "fashion book." It is a collection of artifacts that testifies to the power of fashion as a verb as it unfolds the complex and lovely strategies governing what we do in the LGBTQ+ community to build authentic selves that are both comfortable and seen.