Queer Looks is a new, co-curated display in Brighton Museum & Art Gallery‘s 
Fashion & Style Gallery showcasing outfits that represent LGBTQ fashion and style in Brighton & Hove over the last 50 years. The outfits, which have all belonged to LGBTQ residents of the area, have been donated via outreach activities and public events and will be added to the museum’s Fashion Collection.
A Young Project Team of 18-25 year-olds from Brighton, Hove and Sussex have been working hard on an oral history project, interviewing LGBTQ adults from the area and enabling them to exchange experiences of growing up LGBTQ. This website is centred on these oral history interviews, sharing the stories of the participants and their garments and acting as an extension of the fashion display. Like the exhibition, this website is co-curated and will feature contributions from various members of the Queer Looks Young Project Team. The website organises the stories into categories based around key themes.
Queer Looks is part of the Wear it Out project, a partnership with The Centre for Fashion Curation at London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project explores the cultural heritage of dress of LGBTQ communities in Sussex 1917 – 2017, looking at how dress is used to express identities and sexualities of individuals who identify as LGBTQ.
Are you interested in telling your story? Get in touch by emailing us on ruby.mcgonigle@brighton-hove.gov.uk.