W
alk into your favourite clothing store, and you’re immediately faced with a choice. Turn left or turn right. Womenswear or menswear. It’s a choose your own adventure of expression, but one shrouded in ideas of binary and the expectations of gender. But is that a choice that we’ll be faced with in the future? The fashion industry seems to be more than just dabbling with gender neutrality, with coveted brands like Gucci, Burberry and Ekhause Latta forgoing gender restrictions on their runways. Even the brands that peasants like you or I can afford such as ASOS, H&M and Zara are presenting ungendered collections. Established brands may have all the clout and Instagram followers
thebrag.com
to make it appear that they are breaking down barriers, but if you look into up-and-coming designers, you start to see some real queer magic. ramptramptrampstamp is the eclectic, indiscriminate clothing line created by Niamh Galea. ramptramp dives straight into our ideas about gendered clothing, and turns them on their head. As you flick through each look, you jump from grunge to gypsy and back again. Billowy silhouettes flow into boxy shoulders which run into a tight corset. Models of all shapes, sizes and orientations thrive in clothing that would give your grandma a heart attack. The bodies underneath don’t drown in fabric, they float, suspended by Galea’s
Beauty Beyond the Binary
ELIZABETH GREEN TALKS TO NIAMH GALEA, CREATOR OF RAMPTRAMPTRAMPSTAMP, AN ALL-INCLUSIVE, BINARYBREAKING AND BEAUTIFUL CLOTHING LINE THAT BRINGS QUEER MAGIC TO THE FOREFRONT.
artistry. You think you understand her style, but then she throws a different fit at you. She doesn’t for a second deny the queer influence in her work, propelling it to the forefront of discussion. When you ask Galea to describe the current gender fluid movement in fashion, she says her favourite way to describe it is with a meme.
“There’s this really great meme from Ru Paul’s drag race, which asks, “Is it a boy or a girl?” And the answer is, “It’s a piece of fabric.” And I really relate to that ’cause from my perspective, clothing doesn’t really have a gender. You know, it’s clothing. It literally can’t have a gender. It doesn’t have sexist thoughts or feelings or anything.” BRAG :: 747 :: 04:09:19 :: 51
