Queer and Trans Fashion Brands

Table of Contents
Foreword

Introduction
Saint Harridan and Tomboy Tailors
The Current Project: Questions, Perspectives, and Why it Matters
Chapter Overview

Part 1: Situating the Context
1. Identities, Style-Fashion-Dress, and Dressed Bodies
Queer and Trans Identities and Intersectional Subject Positions
Styling-Fashioning-Dressing, Identity (K)nots, and Situated Bodily Practices
Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and the Dressed Body in the Fashion System
Fashioning Queer and Trans Identities in a Western Context: A Selection of Nuances Spanning the 19th Century to the Present
2. Political Landscapes and So-Called Heteronormative Ideals
The Revolution of the Queer and Trans Landscape in the United States: A Brief Overview
The Dominant, So-Called Heteronormative Western Fashion System: A Selective History
3. Gay Window Advertising and Capitalist Entanglements
Gay Window Advertising: Vodka, Cars, and Fashion
Entanglements in Commodity Activism, Corporate Pride, and Neoliberal Capitalism
4. Marketplace Influences: Politics and Technology
Same-Sex Marriage, Consumerism, and Creating Space for Authentic Negotiations
Social Media and Crowd Funding as Entry Points into the System

Part 2: The Brands
5. Queer and Trans Fashion Brand Entrepreneurial Beginnings: Before and After the 2010s Surge
Overtly Serving Their Queer and Trans Communities in the 21st Century
Case Study 1: All is Fair in Love and Wear and gc2b
Case Study 2: FLAVNT Streetwear and Queer Supply
Case Study 3: Bluestocking Boutique, FtM Essentials, and TransGuy Supply
Case Study 4: Beefcake Swimwear and Outplay Swimwear
Case Study 5: Play Out Apparel and TomboyX
Case Study 6: Dapper Boi, Strapping Sacramento, Kirrin Finch, and NiK Kacy Footwear
Case Study 7: Kipper Clothiers and THY Custom Clothier
Case Study 8: Rebirth Garments and Audio Helkuik
Case Study 9: Show and Tell Concept Shop, Stuzo, and WE ARE MORTALS
Case Study 10: Greyscale Goods

Part 3: Positioning Consumer Products
6. Vehicles for Queer and Trans Sensibilities
The Custom Suit Experience as an Identity Journey
The Button-Up Shirt: Masculine for Folks Assigned Female at Birth
Jeans: Mixing and Matching Gender Details
Unbifurcated Queerness
Femme and Masc Shoes in Every Size
Unisex Swimwear Styles / Supporting or Compressing the Chest
Boxer Briefs and Underwear for the Femmes, Too!
Trans-Supportive Gear: Functional, Fleshy Body-Shifting Fashions
Genderfuck Styles: Fucking with Gendered Fashion or a Big Fuck You to Gender Styles
Subtle and In-Your-Face Pride
Queer Styling Services
Queer Makers and Queering Product Copy
Are My Socks Then Queer Fashion Socks? And Who Decides?

Part 4: Production, Pricing, and Media Considerations
7. An Ethical Balancing Act: Production and Pricing
Producing Here or There?
Pricing Tensions: Social Good in Capitalism
8. Queer and Trans Media: For Us and Them, Too
Representation Matters and Doesnât
When Representation Works and Doesnât at the Same Time
9. DapperQ, Qwear, and Contemporary Queer Fashion Shows Emerged on the Scene
Qwear
DapperQ
Fashion Events as Queer and Trans Community Making

Conclusion
There Will Always Be Haters . . . and Lovers!
Closing Thoughts and Opening Questions
Queer and Trans Fashion Brandsâ Collective Contributions to the Fashion System: Fashion Disrupters or Fashion Disrupting
Entangling and Disentangling the Ever-Fluid Queer and Trans Fashion Brands: Meanings and Moments
Where Do We Go from Here or There?

References
Appendix
The Method
Limitations of the Research
My Positionalities