FASHION’S MOST WANTED? YOU
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2012
Ever since I can remember, I have been very conscious of my own personal style. As a self-proclaimed clothing connoisseur, I have always considered myself to be a fairly fashionable man. Many of my childhood memories include my mother and me shopping together, and I especially remember the feeling of gratification we both received from our newly purchased treasures. Like most shop-a-holics, I enjoy flipping through magazines, sifting through racks of clothes or spending hours shopping online, and later I discovered that’s a trait a lot of other gay men share. But what is this common obsession of fashion and shopping? Are we just conditioned to constantly consume material goods, or have most of us have just given in to the stereotypical, fashion-conscious and overtly trendy, extremely gaudy homosexual character the world has come to associate with being a gay man?
It seems like 75 percent of gay men I come across are – or have been – aspiring fashion stylists, clothing designers, makeup artists, hairstylists, models or fashion students. Gay men have always had a place in the fashion world. Without us, some attest there wouldn’t be a “fashion world” at all. Since the early emergence of fashion houses, gay men have always had a hand in the forming of this unique industry. Many of these houses became the definition of high fashion and housed some of the world’s greatest designers who men and women turn to when adorning their bodies. In fact, most of the houses were formed and run by homosexual men – and many still are today. Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen and Marc Jacobs, to name a few, have helped shape the world with their respective fashion empires.
In recent years, a mix of heterosexual and homosexual African American men have emerged as major players in the fashion industry. The likes of Steven Burrows, Russell Simmons, Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jay-Z have all influenced legions of consumers to spend their hard-earned incomes on expanding their personal style. According to a 2012 survey by Community Marketing, Inc., 29 percent of the LGBT community spent over $1,000 on apparel per year. African Americans spend $26.9 billion annually on apparel, products and services, according to the 15th Annual Report of The Buying Power of Black America.
Please don’t get me wrong, I am well aware that there are hundreds of gay men who spend little to no additional time or attention to shopping or their personal appearance outside the occasional special event, work or date; however, there is an equal if not larger amount of gay men who do care.
I personally don’t care if I date a man who pays as much attention or more to fashion and their personal appearance than I do; however, one has to wonder why so many gays feel the need to spend more than they can afford on shoes, shirts, bags and other luxury goods they could probably live without. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard gay men bragging about their labels at every chance they get (yes, I have been a guilty of that at some point in my life). The reason most people, whether gay or straight, feel the need to mask whatever insecurities they have with material goods would take hours of therapy to uncover.
People often forget fashion is a business, and there are hundreds of types of consumers: those hiding their insecurities or childhood traumas of not fitting in, those who have immersed themselves in the artistry and beauty of fashion, those who love to escape or reinvent themselves in their personal style or those who just need something to wear as they go about their day. No matter if you shop to impress or just to remain decently covered, we all have to be clothed by law, so you might as well do it beautifully.
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