Adam
Who/what is your fashion inspiration?
I’m really inspired by Leigh Bowery, a club kid in the seventies and eighties in London. He would create these incredibly intense outfits. There’s this really famous one where he made himself look like one giant rectangle, then he would go dancing in the club with that, but he also did a bunch of quite racist costumes, and did a lot of cultural appropriation, so that is awful. He is my fashion inspiration insomuch that I want to do what he did, but not shittily, without the appropriation part of it, because he didn’t need to do that. He came up with so many cool costumes that didn’t rely on that.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
I‘ve been thinking about that a lot recently, because I feel like I dress in three different ways. One is my everyday school/work outfit, one is what I would wear, what I used to wear when I went out to get laid [and] one is what I actually want to wear out in life. As I get closer to what I want to wear, it gets more and more feminine, but it‘s a scary thought to wear what I actually wear, [at McGill], which is one of the reasons why I feel like taking this picture on campus is so strange, but so cool. This is one of the only places where I really don‘t feel quite like I can dress the way I want to.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Two things: one would be that parts of fashion that I hate so much – the competitiveness, the very capitalist nature of it, that it‘s about selling clothes. The parts that I find exciting, and that‘s what I think is cool about queer fashion too is that fashion [is] about experimenting with how you present [yourself] to the world, how the world perceives you. The other thing: I think queer fashion [is] closer to an art form than a commercial fashion show, which is about showing clothes and people buying them. I like the idea of a fashion show that is about wearing weird things, that are more about an art-piece.
What is your favourite fashion statement?
All black, all velvet, all at once.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
I don‘t want to say the market, because it‘s cheesy, but I like the Jean-Talon market. I like walking around large amounts of people, to get lost in.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
It‘s taken me 21 years of my life to figure out how to do that – last year was the first year I figured it out. It‘s all about the coat. It makes winter fashion really fun. If you have a big, bulky coat, you can wear whatever you want, and just take it off.
Alice
Who is your favourite artist:
I really love Nicki Minaj and Marina and the Diamonds.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
I‘ve gotten really into space-related things; I‘ve been going for a space aesthetic.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
I love mixing colours and mixing prints and kind of tend to go for a “more is more” kind of deal. I guess the only thing is not mixing black and navy, or like red and pink. Those are the only fashion rules for myself.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I guess as a femme queer woman, I‘m always trying to balance showing my femininity and my queerness at once. So, I guess when I think about my queer fashion for myself, it‘s about how to advertise my queerness and still enjoy being femme.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
I am really enjoying bright lipsticks, definitely doing that right now. It‘s really exciting because I like the idea of makeup, but I‘m also terrible at makeup. So it‘s a way that I can enjoy doing makeup without poking myself in the eye.
What is your favourite place in Montreal?
Whenever I have friends visiting the city, what I always do with them is take them to La Banquise and get poutine and get exciting beers from a dep nearby and we‘ll sit at Parc La Fontaine.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I am totally into long underwear. I just put long underwear under everything. As long as I find things tight enough that you can‘t really see them under whatever you‘re wearing – that is definitely my secret, even sometimes under sheer tights. I‘ve got underwear that vaguely matches my skin tone and [I‘ll] just wear tights on top of it and it'll look just as great and I‘ll be warmer.
Anna
Who is your favourite artist?
I would like to name Taylor Swift.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
All comic book characters who wear the same thing in every episode.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I think anyone can be fashionable, but sometimes queer people being ‘fashionable‘ is more revolutionary than straight people being fashionable, because they‘re getting themselves visibility that way, drawing more attention to themselves, and that‘s kind of cool.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
My favourite articles of clothing are the ones that I wear everyday. The jeans that I‘m wearing right now. The jeans that I had before these were better, but then they got too many holes in them, so I had to throw them out. The shirt that I normally wear, which is black, the shoes that I normally wear, and this sweatshirt, any black sweatshirt.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
I really like the Botanical Gardens. There were a lot of plants everywhere. I really like plants.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
I like to not have to think about what I‘m wearing, and that‘s why I wear the same thing every day. Actually, today I‘m wearing a new shirt; I wore it yesterday. My mom bought it for me at the airport, but before that I was wearing the same shirt for three or four weeks. I washed it a couple of times. I haven‘t washed these jeans since I bought them about two months ago. I like things to be simple and easy. I also like to wear all black. It sends the message that I don‘t want to talk to anyone, but I also want to look good doing it.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I usually don‘t do that. Sometimes I wear lipstick, but otherwise I look pretty unfashionable. I don‘t really know why I‘m here, I‘m pretty unfashionable. In order to prepare for the winter, I like to wear things that will keep me warm.
Arno
Who‘s your favourite artist?
Vivien Leigh, she plays in A Streetcar Named Desire with Marlon Brando. She‘s an amazing actress.
Who or what is your inspiration?
My two lesbian aunts are a great inspiration to me. And when it comes to thinkers or writers, Judith Butler. I really liked one of her books, I need to read more about her. I really was inspired by her writing. I‘m also inspired by writers who depict very strong women and very tormented women. For example, A Streetcar Named Desire or The Scarlet Letter. Tennessee Williams is very inspiring to me.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
Well, I‘m trying to make colours fit together. I like to have external checks, asking people if the colours fit or if the stuff goes together. Otherwise, I like to dress well, and people would say because I‘m French. Maybe this is how we do it in France.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I think recently, for the past ten years, there has been an increasing queerness inside fashion. I don‘t know if it‘s queer fashion, but I think fashion is getting queerer and queerer. There was the metrosexual, which was very homoerotic fashion, now they are trying to get back to the lumbersexual, but you still have another undercurrent which is very androgynous models. Maybe it‘s because queer artists are leading fashion, but I feel that fashion is taking a lot of cues from queer experiences and appearances. Is there a queer fashion? I guess there is. Do we influence mainstream fashion? It‘s cool how women have this ability to be the first to break the norms, but men are still very scared. Will Smith‘s son wore a dress; that‘s something you don‘t see. You see women wearing jeans, but you don‘t see men wearing dresses.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
A blazer, or hats, even though I don‘t wear them. And I‘d be conceptually into big dresses too, but I still haven‘t tried. It‘s difficult to bridge; it‘s a difficult stereotype to break.
What is your favourite place in Montreal?
I just arrived. I like green spaces, so I guess Mont Royal, but I need to know it better.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter? I‘m enjoying this time of the year, because I can get off all my gear, hide it under my coat, and just take [the coat] off. The thing is, I like the cold for all the different stuff you can put on, how you can dress.
Delaney
Who‘s your favourite artist?:
Beyonce, Rihanna, Solange, Erykah Badu
Who/ what is your fashion inspiration?
I think it‘s drawn from multiple sources. I would say my friends, and a lot of instagram fashion bloggers, especially plus-sized women and some non-binary folk. I really love Gabifresh and Nadia Aboulhosn. What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis? “What do I feel comfortable in?” and “How can I express myself the best way possible?” And also, it feels like putting on a pseudo-armor a lot of the time. When you have a body that‘s usually really commented on by people, or society, or is very marginalized, a lot of the time, you do things to make yourself better or make yourself hide. So, for a long time i tried to blend in and make myself be hidden, but now I‘m working on being more comfortable with myself, so it‘s more about what makes me feel good, regardless of how I think other people will feel and what their comfort is with my presence or my body.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
It means fashion, because you could even say that “straight” fashion is run by queer individuals. Queer fashion is just fashion. Or it‘s not fashion. It can be anything. What is your favourite article of clothing/fashion statement? Right now I‘m into lipstick.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
Anywhere where I‘m with my friends.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I don‘t. I get a staple piece and that‘s just worn all the time. And layering. It got to the point where I wanted to be wearing fashionable and nice things, but, man, wanting to be warm just really overtakes any fashion sensibility.
Grace
Who is your favourite artist?
The Sisters of Invention. They‘re a bunch of multiply disabled women who work for this company that helps mentally disabled people produce their own art. They have an album on Soundcloud, and the stuff that their music is about, the lyrics, are really amazing, and they have a lot of musical talent. It‘s rare that you find disabled people who are able to work together and get the resources to publish [their art]. Who or what is your fashion inspiration? It‘s so obvious and typical and trashy, but I love Cher from Clueless. I try to be a really disabled and husky Alicia Silverstone, but I don‘t think that plays out very well because I‘m not even blonde.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
For me it‘s kind of heavy, because I have to consider where I‘m going and who I‘m going to be around. Fashion for me is about attempting to manipulate how other people view my gender, but in this really specific way because I‘m not trying to pass as a cis woman, but I am trying to look like a dyke. So it‘s a lot about safety, but I‘m not going to pretend like I‘m in huge amounts of danger. But I do feel like I can‘t wear what I want to a lot of the time, because of where I‘m going or who I‘m interacting with.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
The Taco Bell beside metro Côte-Vertu.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
It‘s a necklace that has two interlocking Venus symbols on it. I try to, whenever I wear something that is typically masculine or butch, put this on top of [the outfit], and I‘m obviously not a man.
What gets me out of the house is dressing like I‘m attending my own funeral.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Queer people have always been the trendsetters. I don‘t really think of it as one thing, because fashion choices are inspired by the culture you grew up in or values that are important to you, and that means a lot of different things.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
Fashionable? I‘m worried about being able to leave my house. How do I prepare for the winter? I got it for like $6 at the Salvation Army – it‘s a hot pink snow jumpsuit, like the kind that babies wear, but adult-sized. I‘m probably not gonna change out of it for the whole winter. It has these two giant purple pockets on the front and then this pink shell and it goes all the way down your legs.
Kristen
Who is your favourite artist?
Right now it would be The Weeknd. I really like his hairstyle and he‘s from Toronto, “the Six.” He‘s way more mainstream than he used to be, but overall, I just like his music, it‘s very chill. You can relax, but you can also turn up.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
Sometimes I like to dress really preppy, but sometimes I like to dress androgynous. People on Instagram who dress really preppy, they‘re my icons, I guess. And there‘s a group of women who dress really androgynously on Instagram as well, so I take them as inspirations.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
First of all, it‘s the weather. If it‘s really cold, you have to bundle up. And it depends on the occasion. If it‘s formal, I would dress in suits, but if it‘s just a normal day, I would just wear normal clothes, kind of preppy, kind of hipster-ish. If I‘m going to a club, I would wear all black and club clothes.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I think queer fashion is breaking the stereotype and just being rebellious. I prefer to wear androgynous clothes, or men‘s fashion. Androgynous fashion is supposed to be gender neutral. For women, it‘s easier to dress androgynous. People think it‘s to dress more manly. And that‘s how it looks like, people dress more manly. For guys, they can put on something that‘s more feminine, like dresses. There‘s this trend where men are dressing more feminine and I really appreciate that. I would like to see men wearing dresses. That‘s the thing that I really want to see.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
For summer, the [fashion statement] I really like is colourful clothes, like pastel colours, salmon shorts, those are my faves; it looks kind of douchey, the bro look. And then I like to wear suits.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
I like some of the bars and clubs. There‘s this really cute bar, NDQ, they put on Glitter Bomb. Also, Sky and Unity.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
Layers. Always layers. Scarves, Canada Goose [jackets].
Leela
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
Practical stuff. Very simply, what is the weather like today?‘ I feel like I don‘t have a winter look. I‘m kind of working on it because I feel like my look right now is just like three different black t-shirt dresses that have very different small details about them that I feel change the look, but most people I talk to are just like, “Oh, you wear the same outfit every day.” Which is pretty much true, but I guess it matters to me because I‘m very picky. I guess I think about how I‘ll be perceived by men because I get harassed on the street a lot, but I feel like I‘m pretty privileged to have never had to deal with anything violent in that regard, so it‘s not something that stops me from dressing the way I want to.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I feel like a bad queer person because I don’t really think my fashion is queer, but I also don’t think queer people should be expected to “look queer” or “be fighting the norm” at all times because that’s asking altogether too much. And I also think that I’m skeptical of fashion’s potential to “be queer” in the theoretical sense of being “non-normative” because of how steeped it is in capitalism and white supremacy, but I haven’t read too much on it so I’m open to being convinced otherwise. That being said, I definitely do admire people who have a fashion sense that subverts norms and think that it’s important to make people question their assumptions about which bodies are “supposed to” wear which clothes.
What is your favourite article of clothing?
My choker, or thigh-highs.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
Parc La Fontaine. It‘s a nice place to chill. In the winter, it‘s a nice place to go ice skating, but it‘s embarrassing for me because I can‘t ice skate very well. You can go and see and be seen.
How do you deal with the Montreal winter?
I feel like I just don‘t. I haven‘t found a good sweater look that works for me, so I often just wear t-shirts in the winter and sometimes I‘ll wear an overshirt, but I‘m just cold a lot. I have a good jacket that‘s like a furry kind of thing, and I just pull up my thigh highs and then push them back down when I get inside.
Mads
Who is your favourite artist?
Hayao Miyazaki and Andy Warhol.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
Myself. I feel like it‘s not really a person, it‘s more like an era. I‘m really into retro cartoons; that‘s probably where I get most of my inspiration.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
It‘s definitely based on how I‘m feeling. Sometimes I‘ll go up to my friends the night before, and I‘ll tell them, “All right, just throw an aesthetic at me and I‘m gonna match it.”
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Queer fashion to me is all about subverting the norms society applies to gender, beauty, and trends. It‘s always funny to me to see things I consider to be queer fashion slowly rise to mainstream popularity; it gives me a bit of smug satisfaction to know that the queer community was on top of that before anyone else was. I also think that because of the nature of queerness as a marginalized group, it allows for people to try out new things without the fear of judgement that you might have in more mainstream communities. Overall, I'm really proud to call myself a queer fashion designer (see more here: facebook.com/radmotush), and proud to be a part of the space, and super grateful to be interviewed also.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
I‘m definitely fond of these shoes that I‘m wearing; they‘re KangaROOS. I bought them because they reminded me of Marty McFly. Also, I guess I have a lot of short sleeve, collared, fun print shirts. That is my staple, that is my thing.
What is your favourite place in Montreal?
Probably just strolling up and down St. Laurent.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I feel like I‘ve made my coat into a fashion statement, because I have the most obnoxious coat. I got it at a thrift store for like $40, and it‘s still got the fur and it‘s very warm; but it‘s this obnoxious bright orange colour. Everybody knows it‘s me, so I feel like I‘ve taken that as a statement piece and turned it into my own. So, yeah, that‘s how I deal.
Is there anything else you‘d like to share?
I sew my own clothes a lot, and I feel like that‘s also a way for me to articulate my presence. I make things in the hopes that people can recognize that I‘m queer, like certainly that‘s always on my mind. Like, “Oh my god, I hope these people know I‘m queer...” There‘s definitely a lot of pressure as a queer person to conform to queer ideals, that‘s a very real thing, which is really funny because queer fashion is supposed to be like, “This is an expression of ourselves that goes against ‘normal‘ fashion,” but then you have a whole bunch of people that are just like “Oh, we‘re queer and different.” But they all end up wearing the same thing, which kind of defeats the purpose. It‘s also unfortunate because I feel like a lot of autonomy is taken out by a pressure to be this certain stereotype of queer. I feel like I try to do that too, in my own fashion, to double rebel, which is ridiculous, but you know.
Marie-Liesse
Who is your favourite artist?
Rothko, because colours.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
Right now I'm trying to ‘impersonate‘ Devon from the band Majical Cloudz. He always wears a red silk blouse on stage – sober, but dramatic.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
Comfort. Trying to feel good in what I wear, which is why I only wear shirts and skirts. I privilege comfort and practicality overall. Shirts and skirts are my uniform. (Well, I did have one for years, a reason why I wear so much blue.)
What is your favourite fashion statement?
Wearing ethical clothing. Being a broke student, it mostly means secondhand clothes.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
Lachine Canal.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I have coats and sweaters of all the colours of the rainbow, that help bring some joy into (sometimes) dark days. And a whole set of very warm/fleece/technical tights and leggings, to wear under my skirts.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I think queers are very fashionable, more fashionable than straight people.
Meg
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
All people who are doing queer and trans fashion right now. Or the people [...] who make a very conscious effort to hire gender nonconforming models or trans models. Chromat. I feel like right now there is more visibility, more people doing stuff within queer and trans fashion.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
I guess when I‘m getting dressed, I think often about how people interpret me as a femme, when I think I dress pretty androgynously, so, I like, make an effort, or like not really an effort. It‘s kind of conscious, kind of unconscious, to dress very ambiguously. It doesn‘t really come across though, because everyone still thinks I‘m a femme.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Queers have always been in fashion. Fashion is queer. Queer fashion to me means challenging people‘s expectations, having fun, and saying “fuck everything,” and just dressing how you want to. It means being weird.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
A Hood by Air (HBA) sweater; it makes me feel good about myself.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
There‘s a little park/pond location outside the science centre in Old Port. It‘s right by the harbour, and there‘s a big walkway. It‘s so beautiful.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I wear the same thing every single day. The exact same thing.
Michael Morgan
Who is your favourite artist?
There are a lot of really cool people in music right now who are doing musical art, especially from a queer trans perspective, which I find really interesting. There are a bunch of bands that are creating music that comes out more artistically, it‘s definitely got a whole aesthetic to it. Like, Forest is one that‘s really, really cool to me. In terms of fine art, JJ Levine is doing some really cool stuff. They‘re a local photographer who does trans photography.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
Me, but like five-year-old me. I really love what I was wearing back then. I think a lot of what I wear is like if I had been able to wear fun dresses and like cooler colours, but still wanting to wear overalls and turtleneck, because that‘s all I wore back then.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
A lot of it has to do with where I‘m going and especially what parts of town I‘m going to be in, or what I‘m doing. If I‘m going to campus, I have to dress pretty plainly, because I find that it‘s not the safest space to be dressed in a skirt or something, but if I‘m going somewhere nicer, or if I‘m riding my bike. How I‘m getting somewhere, where I‘m going to have to be, for how long, and who‘s going to be there, and who‘s going to see me – all play into that.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I think queer fashion is something that is really broad because of how broad the term “queer” is. I think it‘s very much people finding something that is for themselves and not following what people think they should be wearing. I think it‘s something that can be super revolutionary and I think queers are also on the frontline of a lot of fashion right now, especially with the movement back towards dressing almost like kids, the pastel, overalls, and things like that. I know there‘s a huge thing for trans people, the idea of a lost childhood, for trans women who didn‘t get to be present as women until later in life, the idea of lost girlhood, and maybe that‘s [them] going back for it.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
I really like anything mesh and see-through. I find that those can be really, really fun to wear.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
I really love the train tracks over by Rosemont that sort of divide Little Italy and Parc-Ex from the Mile End.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
Before I moved here, the first femme clothing I ever got to buy were these winter leggings. I told my mom, “It‘s going to be cold, I need leggings to wear under my pants. Here are some.” She was like, “Those are for women,” and I said, “Mmhm, don‘t worry, they‘ll go under my pants,” and she was like, “Okay.” So definitely lots of layers, and really, really big coats from Value Village.
Nolwenn
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
I always try to look queer, basically; it‘s my goal when I dress up. Not necessarily through stereotype. In the present, I try to dress in a way that will encourage other people to remember that I‘m non-binary, or to foster [behaviour that would respect my gender]. But even before that, I did try to broadcast my gayness, not through stereotype, but by projecting an image that‘s a little bit off, or by showing something that‘s a little bit different, like something very accessorized, or something that seems stylized enough that it reminds people of unnaturalness.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I know that to a lot of people it just means a general androgynous fashion. That‘s not really what it means to me, although I can‘t help but have that influence. Queer fashion is always trying to be a little odd. For example, although I never adopted this style for myself, I was always a big admirer of Lolita fashion because it‘s a kind of femininity that‘s so extreme that it reminds you of something odd, so, literally something queer. And I think we have that too in hyper-masculine fashions in gay men. It‘s something a bit too much.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
My makeup.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
Parc La Fontaine.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I get to a point where I really do not care, and I envelop myself in a thick layer. I just try to look good underneath, so that when I peel it off inside, I look nice.
Is there anything else you‘d like to share?
I feel like we really underestimate the potential of makeup in queer fashion. Also, I am sure that at the point where I am now, I have granted the wishes of baby queer me in terms of my future style. I think I‘ve accomplished my own future projected goal.
Sasha
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
At the moment, I‘m very inspired by FKA Twigs and Erykah Badu, both as fashion, music, and artistic inspiration.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
For me loving fashion started with shopping at thrift stores in high school and then altering things to fit me, so I‘m really inspired by the aspect of creation, creating how you want people to see you, and being able to alter or display different things about yourself that you like, or minimize things that you don‘t like.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
It starts with colour for me – usually, I feel for a certain colour or a certain level of boldness. I‘ll choose one piece that I feel is speaking to that and then build the rest of the outfit around it.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Queer fashion can come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. I think for me the essential part is just being deliberative about gender. So, there are many different pathways that one can take, but me as a person who‘s a cis woman and who identifies as femme, I think that what makes my fashion queer is my intentional play with different aspects of femininity, some of them that I accept and some that I reject.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
I really like super bold prints, really interesting shapes of prints.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
My favourite place is my house, actually. I live close to the Jean-Talon metro station. I‘ve been there for five years, and I have five roommates, and I have a lot of cats. There‘s just a lot of warmth and fun things, [like] board games.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
That‘s a struggle sometimes. I was recently looking for a new winter jacket this year, and it was impossible to find one that didn‘t look exactly like the one everybody has, it was so frustrating. So I guess layering things – I hate wearing pants, so keeping your legs warm is wearing really tall wool socks, or layers of tights, different things like that. For the outside, if you can only find that ugly warm winter jacket, then you have to find good accessories, like cute mittens and fluffy earmuffs.
Stuart
Who‘s your favourite artist?:
Rihanna.
Favourite fashion inspiration?:
Rihanna and the Olsen twins.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
I see a lot of things online, and that‘s where I get my basis for everything. I think for the most part, I just have blogs that I follow and things that I see, and I think, “I could do that,” or I just walk by a lot of secondhand stores and I just buy anything that I think no one else will own; even if it‘s hideous, I‘m like, “that‘ll work.” You make it work.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
I think that [queer fashion] has the potential to just be fashion that queer people wear. I don‘t know if I believe in queerness as a commodity that can then be worn by folks who don‘t identify as queer; I don‘t like that. Queer fashion ought to be defined by the folks in the community who use it and do it.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
I have a bunch of big, heavy sweaters. One of my favourites is this giant FDR sweater from East Germany, and it‘s so gaudy and giant, and I just love it. I love big sweaters that I can hide under.
What is your favourite place in Montreal?
Parc La Fontaine is my favourite.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
Layer. You layer and layer. And you start early, you wear less clothing out when it‘s colder so your body can get used to how bad it‘s gonna be. And then you layer up. I invested in long underwear in first year, and that‘s really helped a lot. It‘s kind of fun, because when you take off your jacket, you unveil your outfit and you‘re like, “Here it is!” It‘s like a drag moment.
Is there anything else you‘d like to share?
I like the idea of queer fashion because fashion perpetuates so many images of what beauty is, and queering that is a form of resistance and self-acceptance in a cool way.
Vita
Who‘s your favourite artist?
A band I really like is Gotan Project, they‘re an electronic tango band. I really love tango because my father is Argentine, and it‘s one of the few things I have that attaches me to that heritage. They‘re a group that does a contemporary take on tango.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
It‘s hard, because it depends; sometimes dressing actually gives me a lot of anxiety, and everytime I put something on, I‘m scared that when I go out, people are going to see that and think that that‘s me and know who I am because that‘s the way I‘m dressed. If I‘m ever feeling anxious about my gender, it‘s very nerve-wracking because I don‘t want the way I‘m dressed that day to define my gender to people for the rest of my life.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Obviously queer fashion is an important way of people representing themselves. I think it‘s really interesting because within queer spaces and anti-oppression spaces, we focus a lot on not being able to make assumptions based on someone‘s appearance. But at the same time, it‘s particularly important for people within queer subculture to represent themselves in some way, and also, almost to identify themselves as queer, which is also a very confused notion, because what does it mean to look queer? What does it mean to look straight? I find all of that super interesting and it definitely all conflates and interacts under the label of queer fashion.
What is your favourite article of clothing?
I realized lately that I‘m a shoe person. I love shoes.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I generally sacrifice fashion a bit during the winter and go for comfort and warmth.
Zizou
Who is your favourite artist?
Right now, my favourite musical artists are Shamir Bailey, who makes what you could call nu-disco and has a beautiful countertenor voice that sits very nicely in the middle of what you could call a typically masculine and a typically feminine voice – reminds me a lot of Prince – and Das Racist, both as a group and the members' solo projects. Heems is an inspiration aesthetically and stylistically, and also Victor Vazquez, known as Kool A.D., has this really great Instagram where he just posts his own art, which is very maximalist in terms of his use of space and also radically anti-white supremacy and anarchist. It's cool, look him up.
Who or what is your fashion inspiration?
My fashion inspos right now are probably Kanye West, but mostly in that he has this very punk but simultaneously bourgeois aesthetic – all of his clothes are designer, but when's the last time you saw him wear a tux at a red carpet event? It seems to me that he is making a sign of disrespect toward music industry hegemony. This is important because of the anti-racism that runs through all of his albums and his countless subversions of the intersections at which class and race lie. I could never be that, but it is inspiring.
Again, Heems is huge inspiration stylistically. I mean, first, he's freaking hot, have you seen him? But also he does this thing that I really like where he wears items that come from his ethnic background, which is Punjabi and Hindu. He'll wear a turban atop his designer Hermes jacket, or turn the scarf into a turban. He's flamboyant, wearing skin-tight Union Jack print jeans, which is subversive in its own way considering the history of his own family. There's a song about it on his most recent album that references the Partition and how his family fled India/Pakistan in the eighties and moved to Queens, New York, where he grew up.
I also really love Kat Blaque and aspire to make my own femme clothes that fit my body just like she does! My makeup inspirations are various, it's hard to find people with my same skin colour, but I really like Jeffree Star, Stef Sanjati, and ItsMyRayeRaye on YouTube.
What thought process informs the way you dress on a day-to-day basis?
Whatever looks good and how do I code to be, to represent my identity, so I basically dress masc out of sort of path of least resistance. I don‘t really have any femme clothes and so I try to code just with makeup and wearing a shoulder bag.
What does queer fashion mean to you?
Being able to exist and express outwardly the mixed identity of oneself.
What is your favourite article of clothing or fashion statement?
Lipstick and black eyeliner.
What‘s your favourite place in Montreal?
My apartment. A private space to not have to battle with selfhood, especially because I live alone.
How do you deal with staying fashionable in the Montreal winter?
I just bought a very femme coat, it‘s new. Just coats, I guess.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
My identity, well, it‘s constantly changing, but agender and also trans femme, so like it signifies that I was a DMAB [designated male at birth]; I don‘t identity as a woman, which is why I would pick trans femme over trans woman. So agender trans femme, where I reject most masculinity.