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Introducing Boylesque
£6.99 $9.89
F L A U N
December Issue 2016
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Flaunt / Contents
FLAUNT
CONTENTS PAGE
In every Issue 3 EDITOR’S LETTER 6 FEATURE Boylesque Enter the uderground world of this male performance art
Fashion 4 SPOTLIGHT Gender Neutral Fashion
Beauty 11 ON TREND Experiment with these catwalk inspired makeup trends
12 THINK PIECE The Politics of Representation in Transgender Cinema
On The Cover Kyle Flynn-Davies photographed by Phoebe Lula Styling by Dilyana Atanasova, Naomi Hibbert and Mollie Saunders Get the look: Hair Bumble and Bumble Sea Salt Spray Make-up Revlon Wake Me Up foundation; Clarine’s Face Primer Eyes: Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette; Bobbi Brown Gel Eyeliner Lips: Revlon Kate Moss Lipstick in 107 Brows: Benefit Ready Set Brow 2
Flaunt / Editors
FLAUNT
EDITOR’S LETTER Dilyana Naomi
Mollie
For this month’s Issue Dilyana went to a Burlesque show which got us to thinking about the place of men in burlesque: Introducing Boylesque. We met up with an interesting performer who has a personal experience of the art form. Have a read of our feature to find out about his work. We have also put together an overview of different designers who are breaking down the concstruct of gender as binary with their fluid fashion pieces.
SOCIAL MEDIA #flauntmagazine If you wish to keep up to date with every issue and get exclusive photos from our upcoming stories you can follow us on Instagram @flaunt_magazine. To be featured on our official Instagram tag your phots with #flauntmagazine.
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Flaunt / Fashion
Fluid Fashion
This months designer spotlight is on gender neutral fashion designer Rad Hourani.
Canadian born designer Rad Hourani describes himself not as a designer, but as a showcaser for the ‘attentive observation of humanity that celebrates neutrality as a definining human trait’. His Rad Hourani Unisex collection that launched in 2007 took the fashion world by storm and introduced the brands goals of non-conformity and clothing with no gender boundaries to high fashion on a world stage. With thirteen collections under his unisex belt and the achievement of becoming the first designer to present a couture unisex collection in 2014, the Rad Hourani brand keeps growing and dismantling the concept of the gender boundary. With the recent releases of his Red Collection creating more buzz we decided to pick our favourite tramnsformative pieces from his current ready to wear/multi style collection, avliable now online. radhourani.com 4
WORDS : MOLLIE SAUNDERS / RAD HOURANI QUOTE TAKEN FROM ‘ABOUT’ PAGE ON RADHOURANI.COM / PHOTOGRAPHS : ANGELIA WEISS GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / MORGAN O’DONOVON / ASTRID STAWIARZ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / CLOTHING PRODUCT SHOTS : RADHOURNAI.COM / SIDE BAR BRAND IMAGES: SIXTY-NINE.US , T-O-O-G-O-O-D.COM , NOTEQUAL. COM , TILLYANDWILLIAM.COM
flaunt loves...
Flaunt / Fashion
BREAKING THE BINARY
Rad Hournai is not the only fashion visonary making gender neutral clothing the new norm.
69 A non-gender, non-demographic clothing range. All the pieces are made in LA, California. The brand offers a quirky vintage style and custom fits.
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sixty-nine.us Too Good
Two English sisters front this British founded gender neutral brand. Each piece and collection takes inspiration from traditional workwear.
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t-o-o-g-o-o-d.com Not Equal
With an ex-Project Runway designer at the helm (Fabio Costa) this quriky brand creates made to order pieces for all genders and sizes.
notequal.com 3.
TILLYandWILLIAM
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1. trench belted vest, black crepe, £1,179. 2. belted jacket, blue sequin, £2,952. 3. double scarf, red jersey, £410. 4. short wrap tuxedo vest, black silk and black crepe, £1,296.
Based in Brooklyn, the in your face clothing company will speak to many. With a goal of all inclusivity and long wearing pieces, many of them have transformative qualities that will express individuality and style. tillyandwilliam.com
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“men are using it as a way to challenge and make a mockery of the gender roles in society�
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Flaunt / Feature
We talked to boylesque artist and aspiring star Kyle Flynn-Davies about his performance art.; meeting up at a cafe in Soho just around the corner from where he’s been rehearsing for his upcoming show. He appears flustered yet upbeat, telling us that he is currently choreagraphing his Boylesque routine and acting in a play for which he is also in charge of the costume design. Once he has put down all his garment covers which he suggests are full of exciting new costumes! we order a couple of hot chocolates and get to talking about his work. He explains the comedic, satrical origins of Burlesque and how women typically played men’s roles to make a mockery of the patriarchy. Stating that today ‘men are using it as a way to challenge and make a mockery of the gender roles in society’, something that he identifies with and that has been an inspiration to him. He is very much an advoate of the new scene of all-male boylesque shows that are cropping up over Europe. Here’s what he had to say.
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What attracted you to burlesque? I think it was the body positivity that was a really big part of it for me. I wasn’t actually the most confident with my body but it was quite nice to sort of be able to do something like that with burlesque. I didn’t think that that was something that would come out of burlesque when I originally heard of it. What is your view of men specifically in burlesque? I think it’s great, I feel like it shouldn’t really matter what gender you are to do anything. So why not have men in burlesque ... have anyone in burlesque? I actually find men generally take the more comedic route with their performance style which is fun.
Flaunt / Feature
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Flaunt / Feature
Do you like the term ‘boylesque’? Yeahh!! I think it’s fun, it makes it sound unique. When most people hear ‘burlesque’ they automatically assume it’s a girl, just because that’s the norm I guess. Boylesque changes audiences expectations. Do you think it plays on the idea of how previously men have been used as accessories in burlesque? I think it moves away from that and makes it its own thing, it gives it its own identity. Do you have a theatrical persona when you perform? I do drag when I do burlesque, so that’s the sort of persona I go for. I find it helps me lose my inhibitions a bit easier, I feel more comfortable. Do you feel like doing drag effects how feminine or masculine you feel? Well, I’m not particularly masculine in everyday life anyway, but it definitely gives me the opportunity to bring out my femininity further. I find that quite freeing. But I know some other men who do boylesque and they enjoy expressing their masculinity through it. In fact, a lot of the guys I have worked with are hyper-masculine in their performance style. Do you feel that you get to express a deeper part of yourself that you don’t act out in the everyday? Definitely. I can take myself and exaggerate it further which is always fun to do. I come from a theater background so that was always an attractive aspect of burlesque for me. How has it effected your body image? 10
Yeah, its wierd but I specifically didn’t like my chest, I don’t like my torso. So that was a nice thing to do with burlesque because if you are taking of your clothes you may as well take of your chest. Wait ... ‘Take of your chest?!’. I mean expose your torso. So it allowed me to free up and be more open, to like my body more. To discover more about Kyle follow him on Instagram: @kylechrisflynn.
Flaunt / Beauty
The Glitter Eye Acheive this look by covering the brow bone with glitter glue, then simply apply your glitter with a soft precision brush. To avoid messy fallout place vaseline on the surrounding area to wipe away after. Flaunt used the BarryM Glitter Dust in Silver.
BarryM Glitter Dust Silver £4.69
MAKE-UP PRODUCT SHOTS : GETTY IMAGES ; MAC.COM; NYXCOSMETICS.COM; ESTEELAUDER.COM
Gothic Lip + Blue Eyes Nyx Simply Vamp Lip Cream in Bewitching
£6.99
ON TREND
This season wear your gothic lip shade with minimal eye make-up to be on trend. Flaunt used the Nyx Simply Vamp Lip Cream in Bewitching. Blue Eyes were all over the catwalk this season - play around to find a shade that matches your skin tone. Flaunt loves the MAC Eyeshadow Lustre in Aquadisiac.
At Flaunt we believe natural beauty is everything but during the Winter months we all need some sparkle. We’ve selected the most eye catching trends of the season from the Catwalk. GUIDANCE: Wear with confidence
MAC Eyeshadow Lustre in Aquadisiac £11.70
The Twiggy Lash This look draws on the iconic Twiggy lashes of the 60’s. Grab a mascara brush and coat your lashes generously. Then pinch lashes together with tweezers to get the clustered effect. Flaunt loves the Estee Lauder Double Wear Extreme Black Mascara to acheive this look. Estee Lauder Double Wear Extreme Black Mascara £21.99
Photographer Pheobe Lula Make-Up Artist Taylor D’Arcy Models Naomi Hibbert , Taylor D’Arcy Styling Dilyana Atanasova Words Mollie Saunders
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Flaunt / Think Piece
The Politics of Representation in Transgender Cinema Two transgender actresses that are changing the game
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Writing Dilyana Atasanova
s November 20th marked the Transgender Day of Remembrance, GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Defiance Against Defamation) took a closer look at the depths of its transgender-inclusive television episodes over a ten year period and made an interesting discovery. Over the period examined, offensive representations and storylines were found on every major broadcast network and seven different cable networks giving the transgender community a disappointing outlook on their portrayal in the media.
“ Transgender characters were cast in
“victim” roles 40% of the time while anti-transgender slurs were present in 61% of the episodes examined
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Laverne Cox is the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for an Emmy Award for her role as Sophia Burset in Orange Is The New Black and recently portrayed the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” Dr. Frank-N-Further in the television production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Appearing on the June 2014 cover of Time magazine, Burset is also very involved in transgender issues becoming a face for change and progress in the industry. Even though the transgender community is still fighting for their voices and stories to be acknowledged on the silver screen, there appear to be changes happening elsewhere: at home on the little screen. This suggests that some progress is being made and that determined trans individuals, like Clayton and Cox, are taking charge of their agency to change and improve representations of trans characters on screen.
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STILLS OF JAMIE C;AYTON FROM GLAAD.ORG; STILLS OF LAVERNE COX FROM TVGUIDE.COM
Flaunt / Think Piece
This summer the production of the upcoming film Anything caused a widespread uproar amongst trans and nontrans viewers. In the film Matt Bomer, a cis man, is set to portray a transgender sex-worker, which has infuriated people all over the world. It comes as a last nail in the coffin for the community, after Jared Leto’s Oscar win for playing a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club and Eddie Redmayne’s success in The Danish Girl where audiences once again saw a straight man portraying a transgender character. The trans community has had a long battle against Hollywood’s portrayal of them and that battle is definitely not over. Still, what I want to address in this article is how television seems to be on the right track when it comes to trans representation and could be a beacon of hope for the representation of member of the trans community in the industry.
One successful portrayal can be seen with transgender actress Jamie Clayton. In the Netflix show Sense8, Clayton plays transgender character Naomi Marks - A polticial blogger and Hacktivist living in San Francisco. What is so positive about Sense8 is not only its use of an actual transgender actress to portray the role, but also that it’s not about her “transgenderedness”. It shows the character being strong, courageous and loving. This is a breath of fresh air when it comes to trans storylines that commonly victimise the trans characters making them appear weak. Particularly passionate on this representation issue, Clayton actively pursued Bomer in the hopes of getting a response from him rearding his thoughts on the issue of His casting in Anything. Bomer responded by blocking her on Twitter.
Top photo: Jamie Clayton as Nomi Marks in a still from Sense8; Left photo: Laverne Cox as Sophia Burset in a still from Orange Is The New Black
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