Well suited
ELEANOR
MARGOLIS
REFLECTS ON
WHY QUEER
WOMEN AND
TAILORING
ARE THE
PERFECT FITGillian Anderson in a suit. Cate
Blanchett in a suit. Game of Thrones’
Sophie Turner... in a suit. All of these
have – at various times – sent lesbian
Twitter into a frenzy. A by-product
of the fashion industry’s continuing
appropriation of our style is just how
regularly we now get to see incred-
ible women, besuited and looking like
they’re about to take over the world.
There’s something about women
in suits that gets to us; something so
deeply rooted that it’s hard to know
what, exactly. Like most things that
provoke this sort of response in queer
women, it can probably be traced back
to Shane from The L Word.
But women in suits are an abso-
lute stalwart of lesbian culture. From
1920s gender benders to k.d. lang;
where there are queer women, there
are suits. And, while men in suits
look like either sociopathic city boys
or courtroom defendants, women –
regardless of body type – look more
like Marlene Dietrich in Josef von
Sternberg’s Morocco. That is to say –
when women wear suits they don’t so
much imitate men as outdo them. It’s
hard to believe that – say – Tilda Swin-
ton couldn’t put on Donald Trump’s
suit and turn it from an oversized
sleazebag costume into something
mind-blowingly chic. While the suit
may make a man, it’s the woman that
makes a suit; makes it into something
extraordinary, that is.
And the suit has become evenmore of a symbol of dyke power since
the legalisation of same-sex mar-
riage in the UK, in 2013. Nowadays, I
can rarely scroll through Instagram
without seeing at least one woman
in a tux getting married. So now,
even more than a piece of gender
nonconformity, the suit has come to
represent our victory in that particu-
lar fight for equality.
Yes, the suit’s clout took a hit
during Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016
presidential campaign. A campaign
that was, of course, punctuated by
Hillary’s changing pantsuit. But it’s
made an almost seamless comeback,
with – for example – the aforemen-
tioned Sophie Turner in a cream-
coloured number causing a sizeable
chunk of Twitter’s lesbian population
to declare themselves “deceased”.
While a lot of the suit’s prowess
can be traced back to the 80s, and the
beginning of women in shoulder pads
starting to break into male-dominated
industries, there – to this day – is
nothing stale about women adopting
the formal costume originally con-
ceived for men. Basically: it’s still hot.
And a sure-fire way of pretty much
any female celebrity registering on
queer women’s radars is to do a photo
shoot, looking slightly pissed off in a
tux. Anyone from Gemma Collins to
the Queen could do this, and have The
Lesbians tapping the fire emoji on
their phones with a sense of genuine
urgency. (I advise both women tomake this happen.)
Meanwhile, we mustn’t forget
that suits are our thing. We – queer
women – deserve all the credit for
transforming them from something
fusty and mothball-y into something
cool and even slightly subversive. And
maybe we should start thinking about
the next piece of traditionally male
clothing to get this treatment. Cargo
shorts? (If anyone can make them ac-
ceptable, it’s lesbians.) Football shirts?
(Definitely becoming more of a thing
with queer women, especially after
the Women’s World Cup.) How about
y-fronts? Any takers?Whatever we choose, it’s always
good to know there’s so much more to
lesbian fashion than plaid shirts and
dungarees (no disrespect to either of
those iconic things). Remember, we
have the Midas touch when it comes
to taking comfortable things and
making them fashion. Just look at
what we did for The North Face (a
brand that, in my opinion, owes us
absolutely everything). The same goes
for the current popularity for sensible
shoes. We will have Kim Kardashian in
a fleece by 2020. Mark my words.Women in suits
are an absolute stalwart
of lesbian culture”
ELEANOR
MARGOLIS
is a freelance
journalist who
also writes a
column for
New Statesman.
@EleanorMargolis26 SEPTEMBER 2019
PHOTO^ WIKIMEDIACOMMONSVIEWS | ELEANOR MARGOLIS