Kolkata: “Beauty gives me hope,” said Luna, a non-binary, gay model, drag queen, and make-up artist with a portfolio that boasts of the Vogue India and Femina covers apart from working with renowned designers and international labels.
When Suruj Pankaj Rajkhowa, popularly known as Glorious Luna (They/He/She), presented as a boy with visible effeminate tendencies, they were picked on by their peers and relatives for their mannerisms and also for the single blue shirt they used to wear on most occasions. Not having too many options, Luna would loan a chunni or scarf from one of their cousins and pair it with the overworn shirt. When the tongues still wagged, they would have a cheeky reply “There’s no satisfying you lot!”
Mx Siaan in drag. Photo: Special arrangement
For Luna, and others like them, fashion is much more than an assemblage of clothes and accessories. “As a queer person, fashion is more than a profession – it is a survival skill. My language of rebellion is not asking people for acceptance, but about showing them that I am queer and so is my fashion.”
The world of fashion seems to be one of the most welcoming professional options for the LGBTQ+ community. Though bias and prejudice often make trans and non-binary models merely token characters in an entourage, it also affords them the freedom of expression that is stigmatised in day-to-day life apart from a viable employment option.
Many in the community express gratitude for flourishing social media and support the rise of fashion influencers like Uorfi Javed, who continues making headlines for her unconventional clothing fashioned out of garbage bags, cycle tires, and bamboo baskets among others. This support stems from the queer person’s solidarity with the disruption Uorfi is causing to the status quo. As Luna said, just like them, she too is not treating fashion in the same way as “a middle-aged lady living in a 3BHK apartment in South Bombay who has a lot of Gucci bags.”
For them, Uorfi represents the perils of the patriarchal, capitalist over-sexualization of women in India by creating art out of the absurd and giving men a taste of their obsession with controlling women’s bodies and choices.
Speaking of disruption, the five-decades-old Pride movement has taken the demonstrative route to inclusion. At different points in queer history, the rainbow flag has influenced the use of loud colours, garish make-up, and kinky leather attire that have been used as means to stand out, challenge, and resist the blanket enforcement of sexuality and gendered codes of colour and fashion.
On the subject of queer aesthetic, Rayyan, a Muslim transfemme pansexual content creator and model from Mumbai who goes by she/her and they pronouns, said that a only a tiny portion of the queer population is flamboyant, while the majority try their best to be invisible, belong and blend in, often going to the extreme of entering heterosexual marriages and having children. “The portion that is loud in their fashion choices is the section of the population who have taken control of their bodies and want to stand out,” they said.
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If you are one of those people who think queer fashion is a little “extra”, Rayyan said it’s only natural to be so. “Any minority community that is rebelling tends to go to the extreme. The Dalit movement has young people leaving their families, living by themselves, and making new social structures. Even the Dalit drag movement or Dalit comedians and rappers use words that you will be scandalised by,” they said.
Queer subcultures
Fashion becoming almost a life skill for the queer community also means that subcultures like drag and kink–that allow complete indulgences of their fantasies–are thriving. Drag espouses the creation of fantastic theatrical figures using bold make-up, extravagant wigs, gowns, fishnets, and feathers. Kink gives way to a leather-laden look of androgynous style that hinges on a ‘no-bounds’ sexually indulgent world that has led to alternative sexual practices such as sadomasochism, domination and submission, erotic roleplaying, fetishism, and other erotic forms of discipline.
“Drag is a beautiful world – where you can create your own reality. Even straight people can do drag. It is a genderless world of fantasies,” said Luna, who enjoys drag as an extension of their self-expression.
Photo from a Pink Party organised by brand Dev R Nil. Photo: Special arrangement
“While these worlds may seem transgressive and alienating to the cis-het society, the fact is, both erotic practices and loud fashion have seeped into the mainstream sexual and fashion repertoire,” said gay designer Navonil Das (He/Him/His) of brand Dev R Nil.
Das celebrates the country’s drag scene and has been organising ‘Pink Parties’ across the country for over twelve years. Pink Parties that are aws safe space for queer persons to meet or hang out, originally began as a protest against a university in Delhi that did not allow a trans person to enter due to their sexuality and choice of clothing.
“Fashion for the queer society means wearing their identity, literally,” said Das, who has organised over 120 pink parties till now with activities such as drag races, kink explorations, Gogo boys, and performances by trans people.
“The queer look is all about being visible. It is about rebellion, a form of shock therapy for the society that has ignored and invisibilised us,” he adds.
Not only clothes, but behavioural elements of the Hijra’s thikris (loud high pitched clap) also attempt to stun or intimidate the onlooker. Used both as an exaggerated sign of assent and protest, Hijras also resort to threats to expose their private parts when met with mainstream resistance and disapproval about their identities.
The hyper-inclusive queer world of fashion challenges the view that gayness is a curable tendency in an abnormal society.
“There is no particular definition for drag. I have known a very timid woman who suddenly turned into a bold abuse-slinging personality when in drag, said Rayyan while adding that they also know of a person who identified as a cis-gendered man and how they realised they were trans while exploring and falling in love with their feminine side in drag.
“It is common for people to be straight in real life and queer in drag,” said Rayyan who won a prize at a queer party in the ‘realness’ category, which demanded trans persons to behave and dress the closest they can to their preferred gender.
Despite the limitations and biases inherent in the fashion industry, the queer community celebrates every opportunity to gain visibility in this highly competitive world. Roshini Kumar (she/her, they/them) a non-binary fashion model from Mumbai tries their best to preserve their individuality. “I’ve always been unapologetic and fearless with my fashion and don’t follow trends or beauty standards. I’ve worked with many people from the fashion industry, including the iconic Abu Jani, Sandeep Khosla, Mohit Rai, and Shubhika. They are challenging fashion norms and encouraging actual representation and inclusion,” Kumar said.
Roshini Kumar. Photo: Special arrangement
As we navigate through the 53rd International Pride month, we can definitely boast of coming a long way on the road to inclusion and acceptance of the queer aesthetic. Regarding whether fashion can bring any lasting social change, Mx Siaan (They/He), a non-binary drag king says, “As a powerful form of self-expression, fashion has the potential to bring up deep-seated questions about patriarchy and prejudices. I hope fashion continues to encourage people to evolve, do more, and be more.”
Sreemanti Sengupta is a Kolkata-based freelance writer, poet, and media studies lecturer.