Are Gay Designers Responsible For All Of Fashion’s Problems?

It’s hard not to hate Perez Hilton. Dude can be a real d-bag. So, when Jezebel blogger Tracie Egan wrote on her own blog that she’s not nervous about Hilton’s new CocoPerez “lady blog,” we were pretty much in agreement. After all, Jezebel is pretty awesome as far as the feminist blog set goes, and Perez Hilton draws penises on women’s faces. But Egan moved quickly from criticizing Perez for thinking he “gets” women to bitching about gay men in general. According to Egan, gay men are to blame for most of the problems in the fashion industry.

She writes: “I think that gay men are actually the most to blame for many of the problems in the fashion industry, like the absence of womanly curves on the runway, and the hideous, figure-assaulting trend that is the tent dress, which no women who have tits, and no straight men who have an appreciation for tits, have any use for.”

Tent dresses generally aren’t terribly sexy, and sometimes runway shows do some serious figure-assaulting, but blaming gay male designers is a bit of a stretch, no? Yes, they contribute, but some of the most self-described “flaming” designers out there also design some of the most feminine collections of Fashion Week year after year.

The big boys that come to mind are Dior designer John Galliano (he of the painted-on eyebrows and ruffled tops) and Alexander McQueen. Galliano’s shows are consistently rife with nip-waisted skirts that flow into rather feminine fuller bottoms, sheath dresses that are all about the lady body bits and other such girl-y items. McQueen, too, is way into women looking like women in his clothes.

Admittedly, both put out a fair number of body-disguising pieces, but those are generally the more conceptual, couture pieces. They’re not actually intended to be mainstays of the collection.

So, Tracie, go ahead and rip on Perez. We’re with you sis. But please, leave the fashion gay boys alone!