The trouble with queer fashion: Ambivalence, visibility, and the meanings of ‘queer’ among London-based LGBTIQ creatives

This article examines the ambivalent and varied lived meanings of the term ‘queer’ by LGBTIQ fashion creatives, and how those in turn shape their attitudes towards the label of ‘queer fashion’. Drawing on forty-seven in-depth interviews with London-based queer fashion practitioners, it explores how participants negotiate identity, visibility, and belonging within an industry that has long relied on queer labour while rarely redistributing its material or symbolic benefits. The creatives articulate both the importance of visibility and the risks of externally imposed labelling that can segregate their work or depoliticise queerness through aestheticisation. Their reflections reveal how personal definitions of ‘queer’ inform broader understandings of what constitutes queer fashion practice, exposing tensions between inclusion and commodification, identity and aesthetics. The study contributes to ongoing debates in queer and fashion studies by situating queer fashion as a contested site of ambivalence, visibility politics, and boundary work.