How The Gay Community Helped Popularize Workwear

Fashion has always been a signifier. Of musical tastes, of particular style tribes, of social status, even of sexuality. Countless subcultures have actively pursued certain dress codes to align themselves with like-minded individuals. Think rare Air Jordan’s for sneakerheads, oxford cloth button-downs with soft collar rolls for prep enthusiasts, selvedge jeans for denimheads. Whether it’s a certain color, accessory, brand or silhouette, subcultures have taken anything and everything in clever and overt ways. What you might not realize is that much of the fashion that has seeped into popular menswear today has been propagated and popularized by the gay community. For years, because there wasn’t much else available, queer people wore heteronormative garb, passing as straight in an unaccepting society. It’s not a new thing. But as the fight for gay rights progressed, gay people found novel ways of dressing to signal their affiliation to others in-the-know. Read more at Gear Patrol.