Smashion Special Feature
Pride Style Guide: 1977-2021
Smashion’s take on the ‘90s club kid
Smashion plumbs the bowels of its LGTBQ “fashion” archives in search of actual gay style.
The results might bore…er, surprise you!
Exhibit C: The ‘90s Drag Revolution…
As AIDS continued to rage in NYC, gay male style began to be influenced by other factors within the LGBTQ community. Drag was on the rise, as the seeds planted the previous decade—by Lady Bunny’s Wigstock, Pyramid Club and the Boy Bar Beauties, for starters—bore fruit. Drag was style, drag was political, and it challenged the way gay men viewed the rigid gender binary, if only for a moment. And if gay men were uncomfortable with their feminine sides, they could always learn to man up from the drag kings making the rounds.
Perhaps most importantly, the ‘90s drag renaissance meant visibility for the larger LGBTQ community. Maybe at the time it wasn’t obvious, but RuPaul, singing “Supermodel” on MTV's Spring Break 1993, was revolutionary. It was a time in the history of the movement when style was finding a sympathetic audience and helping draw attention to injustice. A time when the way people dressed mattered and translated into real political change. (Image: Flyer for first Drag March, 1994)
…and Club Kid Fashion Crimes
Then there was the parallel, often overlapping style movement inspired by Leigh Bowery and the ‘80s London club scene. In NYC, it coalesced in the very early ‘90s around figures like celebutante James St. James and club promoter (and later murderer) Michael Alig. Young gay men and their allies camped out in the clubs sporting assless rompers, clown makeup, platform shoes and lunchboxes-as-evening bags. Later veering into dark, druggy fame-obsession, the pre-internet movement, if you could call it that, foreshadowed some of the toxic narcissism that drowned the larger society in the social media age. But in its genderfuckery, stylized desexualization as a response to AIDS and avant-grade fashion fixation, club kid culture proved an important outlet of expression for young gay men of a certain stripe. And the regular appearances of club kids on talk shows gave visibility to another strain of gay culture, and as such, constituted a political act—though it’s one that arguably hasn’t aged well.
Below is a piece-by-piece dissection of a typical 1990s outfit from Smashion’s personal wardrobe. Favorite club at the time: Disco 2000.
Body Worship
Body Worship mask, early 1990s
In the ‘90s, few did fetish fashion better than Body Worship. Specializing in well-designed S&M gear for dance floor or dungeon, this East Village shop wasn’t necessarily a hit with the neighbors, but it was a key shopping destination for club kids like Angel Melendez, whose brutal murder marked the end of an era in NYC nightlife.
Jean Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier top, SS1995 with DIY customization
Legendary French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier was the go-to gay designer in the ‘90s. Like no other, he was unapologetic about his sexuality and didn’t hesitate to embrace it on his men’s runway, with shows like Pin-Up Boys (Spring Summer 1996). By parading gay archetypes on the catwalk, with his signature humor and elan, he gave gay visibility a big boost that continues to resonate with younger designers thirty years later. His costume work for Madonna didn’t hurt in cementing his reputation with the gays, either.
The shirt above, a Spring Summer 1995 mesh top, was customized. in accordance with the DIY fad of the time. Not wanting the Jean Paul Gaultier logos to be visible (they were part of the print front and back), I burned them off with a lighter. Then I sutured the hole in front with the shoelace from my platform shoe (see below), and added a homemade T-shirt with an Aubrey Beardsley Lysistrata illustration as an underlayer visible in back (scroll up for photo). Voila! I was ready for a night out at Squeezebox, the queer rock club that provided a nice and hedonistic alternative to the narcissistic K-hole that Michael Alig-led club kid culture had become by the mid-1990s.
Junior Gaultier underwear, 1992
These witty, sexy undies are from the designer’s Junior Gaultier diffusion line. They’re basically a Converse sneaker you can wear on your crotch, complete with tongue, laces and circular rubber logo. The women’s high-heeled sneakers he put out later in the decade were almost as camp but not quite.
Junior Gaultier underwear, 1992: detail
Stockings and Platforms
Astro Boy tights, 1990
I purchased these from the Alpana Bawa store the week I moved to New York. Pasties and a G-string, stockings and heels tended to be my basic going-out look back then.
John Fluevog platform shoes, early 1990s
Fluevogs were a sensible alternative during the period of customized sky-high sneaker platforms. With their low heels, these babies enabled the wearer to run from would-be fag bashers if the occasion arose. As it tended to.
“Through drag I am a new creature and old things are passed away. I will not fear my tastes.” -Drag March flyer, 1994
Ultimately, looks like these may have been jarring to the untrained (or undrugged) eye, but they represented queer catharsis for the wearer. AIDS, Republican-fomented homophobia and a need to move beyond sterile gender binaries were the driving force behind this freeform self-expression. Dress-up, house music and drugs were the name of the game, and if you didn’t like it, you could go fuck yourself. Despite the self-absorption of the club kid movement, there was a political message in the look, if you knew where to find it, a pre-internet claiming of space for queer futures…perhaps.
Rita Ackermann panties from Liquid Sky Design, early 1990s