70s gay fashion

Have you noticed that some fashion trends are only perceived as “outdated” because it’s proclaimed by someone else?

In the meantime, the pictures had been included in exhibitions at MOCA, Los Angeles, and SFMOMA, San Francisco.

The current show of Fischer’s photography at Project Native Informant, in London, includes different bodies of works from that period and confirms a renewed interest in gay life in the 1970s, the hedonistic pre–AIDS crisis era characterized by sexual freedom.

Suddenly, there was a shift towards inclusivity and authenticity in men’s fashion that’s never been seen before.

Published by: Nelly Chavez

Art

A current show of Hal Fischer’s photography at Project Native Informant confirms a renewed interest in gay life in the 1970s.

LONDON — In a scene of William Friedkin’s movie Cruising (1980) Al Pacino, who plays a straight New York officer who is under cover to investigate a series of murders linked to the gay S&M scene, goes in a sex shop.

There are even gender-fluid stars like Bad Bunny and Harry Styles that are inspiring a new wave of self-expression and male empowerment. Although fashion designers were embracing simple styles like straight-leg jeans and button-down shirts, it was also the time when grunge fashion disrupted the clean-boy look. Taking inspiration from the glamorous costumes and looks in Hollywood at the time, drag queens used fashion not only for beauty but to craft larger-than-life personas that seemed to tell their story.

Combining images with text and captions printed into the photographs, Fisher consciously employed semiotics (the study of signs and symbols) to deconstruct some of the codes used by the San Francisco gay community to find and select sexual partners:

Traditionally western societies have utilized signifiers for non-accessibility.

In February 1977, Fisher started to work on a series of black and white photographs documenting the “signaling devices found in the gay community”, as he later described his research. These radical designs helped make androgynous fashion accessible to a wider audience, laying the groundwork for what would become known as "lesbian chic." Lesbian chic, a style characterized by sleek/tailored suits, cropped hair, and minimalist makeup, emerged in the ‘20s and ‘30s to exude sophistication, rebellion, and sexual independence.

The green one: left side says you’re a hustler; right side you’re a buyer. Gay menswear designers like Gaultier began blurring the lines between masculine and feminine aesthetics. For instance, Fischer links a “natural prototype,” illustrated by an attractive naked man surrounded by conifer, with the American folk tradition. Using these looks as symbols of an anti-establishment resistance, this movement was intended to be unapologetically gritty–rejecting capitalism and its role in the mainstreaming of their culture.

At the same time, the Club Kid movement rose to fame in the nightlife scene in urban areas such as New York City.

Thus began the introduction of "camp," a style characterized by its boldness and over-the-top flair, which came to define queer aesthetics T the time. A further sign of a resurgence of interest in Fischer’s work is the recent music video for the song House of Air by Australian musician Brendan Maclean, which went viral on YouTube before it got removed. (Please note this video is NSFW.) The clip unapologetically borrows Fischer’s aesthetics, adding color — both literally and metaphorically — to it.

A series of portraits of men exemplifying what Fischer calls “archetypal gay images” is also included in the show.

Born out of the punk rock scene, the queercore movement used fashion as a tool for political rebellion. Thanks to such pop culture references, there was a greater acceptance of non-conformity in men’s fashion.