Très Click: Karl “Leather Daddy” Lagerfeld and Pussies Protesting Putin

By: Jenna Danchuk

Free Pussy Riot: The Only Band That Matters in 2012
If you haven’t heard of Pussy Riot yet, you need to take action now! Tobi Vail (yes, of Bikini Kill) had much to say about members of the anonymous collective (who were jailed for protesting the conservative Russian government) as well as their outfits: “Their uniform not only disguises their identities, it congeals their individuality into a unified set of symbols. Their neon balaclavas clash with the individual pieces of clothing worn by each girl, but also express a visual unity. Bright purple, pink, green, red, yellow and blue; one girl’s tights clash with her dress, but match another girl’s balaclava, which match a third girl’s tights, whose balaclava matches the first girl’s dress, and so on. The result is an image that is striking and memorable.”

Thinking Kink: The Politics of BDSM Fashion
Catherine Scott at Bitch Magazine recently wrote this short piece about the place of clothing in BDSM culture. These kinds of interesting discussions happen on fetish community discussion boards all the time, so seeing it moved into a venue like Bitch is exciting.

Tom of Sinland (NSFW)
While we’re on the topic of S&M, we must bring your attention to these totally ridiculous (and awesome) drawings by Bendix Bauer for Horst Magazine. Playing off the works of legendary gay illustrator Tom of Finland, Bauer replaces the beefcake hunks of yesterday, with the gay fashion icons of today.

SSION’s “Earthquake” Video
SSION is so FSHION. One can spend hours going through their video stream (I have). The best band, and the best dressed. Maybe I should be in the next SSION music video?

text by Jenna Danchuk
image by Denis Sinyakov/Reuters

Three Short (and One Longer) Reviews About Documentaries

By: Jenna Danchuk, Jill Heintzman, Mai Nguyen, Sofie Mikhaylova, and Alyssa Garrison

We loved Bill Cunningham: New York. We are ridiculously excited for the Advanced Style film. However, we don’t limit ourselves to only critically watching documentaries explicitly about fashion. When Toronto’s Hot Docs fest rolled around a few months ago, the Wornettes took to the theatres. We noticed that there were documentaries on a variety of subjects in which either clothing played an integral role to the subject being explored, or the underbellies of parts of the fashion industry were exposed. Here are a few short reviews—and one longer one—about docs that got us thinking.

She Said Boom: The Story of Fifth Column
Dir. Kevin Hegge (2012)
Hegge combines present day interviews and archival footage to tell the story of the most badass lady fronted art-punk band Toronto has ever seen: Fifth Column. For those not familiar with the post-punk, pseudo psych group that featured a cast of rotating musicians, as well as three solid members (GB Jones, Caroline Azar, and Beverly Breckenridge), they fused art, music, and zines to create a style that was truly their own. Fifth Column came before riot grrrl, and Kathleen Hanna speaks in the film about what an inspiration the band was to her. Kathleen may have written “slut” on herself, but Fifth Column first insisted that “All Women Are Bitches.” Band members GB and Caroline explain in the film their philosophies on fashion: the faker, the better. The bigger the hair, the heavier the make-up, the more “ladylike” you were. As Judith Butler says, all gender is drag, and the girls in Fifth Column seem to really understand this. // Jenna Danchuk

GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling
Dir. Brett Whitcomb (2012)
Flower-adorned, dressed in a sequin bikini, and riding in on a horse. No, this woman is not on the beach—she is entering the wrestling ring. GLOW: The Story of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling tells the story of the first all-female wrestling program that aired from 1986 to 1990. Each actress turned wrestler had a persona assigned to her and a dazzling ensemble to match: Americana was decked in stars and stripes and Amy the Father’s Daughter in a crop gingham top, Daisy Duke shorts, and pigtails. They were expected to stay in role 24/7 and developed their character by adding to their original costumes with corsets, accessories, fake accents, and even live animals to reflect their own personal style. When a wrestler of GLOW slipped on her leopard gloves or crimson cape, she took on a persona that gave her presence, confidence, and the strength to dropkick and put her opponent in a nelson hold, and look glamorous while doing it. // Jill Heintzman

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Steers and Queers: The Night of 1000 Dollies

By: Jenna Danchuk

Steers & Queers is a long running, queer country-western party in Toronto with a cult following, and the Night of 1000 Dollies is their ode to the greatest drag queen of all, Miss Dolly Parton. I knew cow-folk culture was totally gay, but I didn’t know that Dolly Parton had such a huge following of wig-wearing fans who lived to party in her name. I convinced Britt Wornette to be my side-kick for the evening, donned my hanky top, and went on down to the Gladstone Hotel to dance the night away alongside glittering queens, Dolly-eqsue dames, and babely Burt Reynolds look-alikes. I’m still convinced I died and went to Dolly Heaven—I saw a drag queen pole dance in a giant Dolly wig, Keith Cole, and a chorus tap dance to 9 to 5. Reverend Lex Vaughn baptized Dolly, making her an honorary queer as the crowd praised the Lord with shouts of Gay-Men! And Dolly-lujah! By the end of the night, I had finally broken in my new leather shoes from dancing so hard (they were covered in huge chunks of glitter confetti) and made a few new stylish friends.

Toronto’s favourite queen and former mayoral candidate, Keith Cole with our holy master of ceremonies, Reverend Lex Vaughn.

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Jenna Wornette

By: Jenna Danchuk

I’m in my last semester of my degree at Ryerson University in Toronto, majoring in Culture Studies and minoring in English. It took me a brief interlude as a sorter in a thrift store and having an existential crisis to get here, but I somehow made it through. This fall, I’ll be attending York University to complete my Master’s Degree in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies. Not only will I be a Master in all things feminist-y, but also the world’s leading expert in GB Jonesian aesthetics. Aside from being a critical thinking, jargon slinging academic in training, I make a nice espresso and buy too many tschockhes, which makes for a deadly combination.

My best pieces of clothing were thrown out by my mother. This list includes my ratty Sailor Moon night gown that I cut into a muscle tee and a pair of boy short underwear with an anatomical drawing of the female sexual organs on the back. Now that I’m an adult, I can pick things out of the garbage for my wardrobe and get away with it. My life long goal is to recover that muscle tee from the Windsor, Ontario dump, but I think I’m dreaming. I’m really excited to be working with WORN. Fashionable friends and a magazine with a high word count? What more could a gal ask for? Also, working on my writing and researching skills and considering the political implications of my wardrobe sounds pretty fun, too.

Current Inspirations:

Second Hand Smut
My Retro Porno Tumblr. I “curate” (does that make it sound more professional?) a tumblr page full of retro pornography images. Yes, I said porn three ways. You have been warned.

Ken Russell’s “The Last of the Teddy Girls” photos
These photos by the late and great director Ken Russell document working class girls in neo-Edwardian dress, and an important and early part of British youth culture. The teddy girls were rebellious before there were rebel grrrls.

The Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives
I started volunteering at the “CLGA” almost two years ago, and it was love from the start. The CLGA collects and preserves LGBTQ historical materials from Canada and around the world, and their treasure chest is always growing. My favourites? Queer zines, the amazing vinyl collection, and matchbooks from gay bars and elsewhere. They inspire my perspective on style and design, as well as my personal politics.

Cathy of California
Cathy of California is who I want to be when I grow up. She draws inspiration for her craft projects directly from vintage craft documents, and has even written a fantastic book on the topic, Vintage Craft Workshop. She’s a feminist historian in my eyes.

John Waters (on fashion and in general)
I am a loyal snub-ject of the king of trash. Words to live by.

photography by Brittany Lucas