The New Gay Uniform

The cute young man at right is wearing an "American Apparel Baby Thermal Long Sleeve Henley." I think this is a really nice shirt. In fact, I bought one. So did TNG Ben. I've spotted sometime contributor Luke Hall wearing one these three-button babies. Frequent TNG commenter Torrey's been known to partake. Last time I went to Taint, I couldn't so much as scoff at the bad electronic music without running into three indie-queers wearing one of the little numbers. So with all this independent conformity, is it time for me to stop talking shit on Universal Gear?

As a card carrying New Gay (yes, we made business cards,) I take pride in avoiding the pitfalls of stereotypical gay dressing. I don't wear Hollister, I don't shop at Universal Gear and you will sure as fuck NEVER catch me wearing one of those those fake-sports-team Abercrombie T-shirts. Its not that I find these styles to be "too gay," but that I think people just wear them because they think they're supposed to.

On the other side of of that, though, my shopping habits push me squarely into another set of stereotypes. You'll usually catch me out in Rod Lavers, tight-ish jeans and some or another thrift store shirt or hoodie. I could spend an hour telling you about tight jeans being more comfortable for me or the joys of finding a cool old one-off t-shirt, but you probably already pegged me as a gipster (gay hipster) at the start of this paragraph. No one seems to know what hipster style actually means (I've had one straight girl tell me it had something to do with my body type) but they're quick to tell me I embody it.

So it does little to dispute these charges that every decently dressed homo and their gay brother owns a couple American Apparel items. Its kind of hard for me to sit here and argue our individuality when we're all on the road to looking alike, again. On the other hand, its just our clothes, right?

The concept of official gay garb rankles me so much in the first place because I've seen scores of guys change their appearance to fit some idea of what a gay man is supposed to dress like. Legions of men don't move to a city and discover that Universal Gear has really cool clothes for reasonable prices. Instead, they find themselves in a gay ghetto, notice that everyone else is decked out in UG and figure that they should do it too. So is that what happening with American Apparel? I just happen to think it flatters the skinny and the in-shape, which many gay men try to be, so the sudden allegiance has more to do with fit than with culture...at least I hope it does.

But that doesn't change the fact that a whole new scene of homos is poised to start dressing alike. If diesel jeans and a printed V-neck t-shirt act as a shorthand for one kind of gay, what does this suddenly ubiquitous henley signal for the other?

And, while we're at it, what other gay uniforms have you seen out there? I've been told that jeans, tank top and thick belt is a notable lesbian outfit, but I'd need one of you girls in TNG-ville confirm this.