Image courtesy of instyle.com
Fashion has long been a powerful platform for self-expression, identity, and social change. Over the past decade, LGBTQIA+ visibility has become increasingly influential within the fashion industry, and is expressed in design aesthetics, casting choices, and brand narratives. Some designers embrace queer culture, some champion inclusivity, and others reference different aspects of LGBTQIA+ issues.
Below, Fashion Reverie surveys the work of Walter Van Beirendonck, Christian Siriano, LaQuan Smith, Joseph McRae, and Christopher John Rogers to examine how they challenge gender binaries and include LGBTQIA+ themes in their fashion collections.
Image courtesy of the respective brand
Walter Van Beirendonck began his fashion career in 1986 part of “The Antwerp Six” group of avant-garde fashion designers and graduates of Antwerp’s Academy of Fine Arts. Van Beirendonck was chosen to participate in curator Andrew Bolton’s iconic MET Costume Institute “Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy” exhibit in 2008.
Key looks at the exhibit included an inflatable pink jacket and a suit showing extreme musculature, a nod to muscle top jocks. Throughout his career, he has paid homage to the victims of the AIDS epidemic and LGBTQ+ nightlife using provocative slogans and leather and latex for his bondage-themed clothing, his use of latex, a nod to safe sex practices. He told Curator Guide that his designs “have been gender fluid from day one!”
Images courtesy of vogue.com
Christian Siriano is a designer who has embraced inclusivity from his first collection at New York Fashion Week (NYFW) in 2008, only months after being crowned the Season 4 winner of “Project Runway.” His fall 2026 collection referenced Yves Saint Laurent’s iconic “Le Smoking” tuxedo from his fall 1966 Haute Couture collection, that caused shockwaves with the fashion establishment.
The tuxedo gained even more notoriety when photographer, Helmut Newton, immortalized it in his provocative photograph of model Vibeke Knudson for French Vogue in 1975. Controversy swirled around speculation if the model was meant to present as male or female. Siriano’s white suit was equally gender questioning, lesbian or asexual and just as open to interpretation. He touches on yet another facet of sexuality with his black barely-there vest and trousers, reminiscent of the oiled-up gay male dancers who perform at both gay and straight Chippendales strip clubs.
Images courtesy of vogue.com
LaQuan Smith has made a reputation for himself since his first collection in 2010, as a go-to designer for high-end sexy club clothes and is a celebrity favorite for party dressing. Clients include Kim Kardashian, La La Anthony, and Dua Lipa, to name only a few. Smith picked up where 90s Club Kid, Ritchie Rich, and Traver Rains left off with Heatherette–the glittery brand that defined clubbing a la Paris Hilton in the early 2000s.
While LaQuan’s clothes present a more refined take on what Heatherette began, he too, consistently shows hyper-sexualized versions of the female form, perhaps a nod to the glamorous femme/lipstick lesbian and drag sub-cultures. In his spring 2026 show, he repeatedly showed semi-opaque hoods on his models that evoked shades of BDSM, which Helmut Lang referenced in his iconic nineties collection shows.
Images courtesy of Joseph McCrae
Joseph McCrae, like Christian Siriano, gained fame on “Project Runway,” years later as a popular contestant on Season 21. McCrae made an impression with his gender-fluid silhouettes and stacked hats, which have become one of his signatures.
His mission, McCrae says, “is to blur the line between masculinity and femininity to create a safe space for daunting creativity and expression … a call to dismantle the boxes and binaries that try to contain us.” Fans include model/actress Liris Crosse, and outspokenly queer actor/writer/producer, Andrew Otchere who wore a custom McCrae jumpsuit to the 2026 Tony Awards that would look right at home as a look at a women’s runway show.
Images courtesy of vogue.com, oldnavygap.com, and hollywoodreporter.com, respectively
Christopher John Rogers (CJR)is known for his use of exuberant bright colors and exaggerated shapes. His unique brand of glam crosses over with both women and the queer culture as Nolan Miller’s over the top gowns for “Alexis Carrington” did in ‘Dynasty,” the eighties hit prime time soap opera.
The rainbow, the universal symbol of LGBTQ+ pride, pops up frequently in CJR’s spring 2026 collection and in his collaboration with Old Navy (Christopher John Rogers x Old Navy). The ruffle collared Pierrot sad clown, a celebrated queer art icon, is also frequently referenced at CJR. Costumes from the hit 2018 FX drama series, “Pose,” that highlighted the Black and Latino underground 80s underground transgender culture, also bear striking resemblance to this designer’s creations. In fact, “Pose’s” lead, Pray Tell, played by Billy Porter, would have approved of the CJR acid yellow gown ensemble Michaela Cole wore to the 73rd Emmy Awards.
Vivian Kelly
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