In the run-up to the Mumbai Pride March, students of fashion designing from a institute in the city have taken it on themselves to design ‘pride’ outfits for members of the queer community.
The students aim at breaking gender norms on clothing and bring about conversation on the stereotypes surrounding the fashion and queer community. This is part of the My Pride Outfit initiative launched by QKnit, an LGBTQ forum, to encourage students of fashion institutes to participate in community activities. While the deadline for designing the outfit is Saturday, members of the community will wear them on February 2, for the pride march. Ten students from Mod’Art have come ahead to design an outfit each per individual.
With shirt-skirt dresses, broad-sleeved jackets, and dungarees, the students said that their focus was on ensuring the clothes were gender neutral. They also wish to highlight the recent victory of the community through clothing.
“We are merging clothing elements typically considered masculine and feminine. Clothes are something that should make people happy and not be driven by gender,” Sayali Bhat (21), a first-year student of the institute said. “By using proper colour combinations, we also wish to celebrate the recent victory of scrapping Section 377, through these outfits. We are independently experimenting with designs to include flows and silhouettes,” she said.
A second-year student, Juderic Braganza, said, “The fashion industry is often considered a safe space for queer individuals. However, there have been instances of them being bullied in colleges, even in fashion courses. Also, people often think that only queers are a part of the fashion community and ignore certain brilliant allies. We want to break these barriers.”
Sumit Pawar, founder of QKnit said, “The idea behind involving students is to create awareness about the LGBT community in institutes and provide a platform for the development of gender-neutral fashion. Students can be an excellent medium of introducing change.”
Mr. Pawar said that the clothes designed by the students will be unveiled on Saturday and can be purchased by anybody from the community.
