There were hints of who I was to become. Playing with my father’s briefcase as a child. Tying my mother’s silk scarves around my neck as neckties, which she taught me to do, and I would continue for hours. An anecdote my grandmother loves telling about how I entertained myself while she and my twin were asleep while coloring my face in the cosmetics in her purse. But, for most of my young years, I was seen as one thing.

As I began to grow into my own understanding of my body, liminal and fluid, I began to wonder, to hope:

Are there others out there like me?

And slowly, ever so slowly, I found more of us. It became clear to me, perhaps almost two decades ago, that all of us needed a space to call our own.

I was what they called a late-bloomer. How could I be the one to curate such a space? So, I waited. I kept my eyes open, my ears to the ground. I regularly searched for spaces that showcased the writing and art of people from all parts of the LGBTQIA+ community on fashion. I found exciting spaces that addressed one style or presentation, but none that represented all of us.

I cite as the first step forward in doing this thing I didn’t think I was expert enough at as the conversation I had with my dear friend, Filipinx non-binary trans writer and disability activist, Kay Ulanday Barrett, on the second floor patio of a hotel during the AWP Conference in early 2017. It was the beginning of my step forward to start a literary and arts magazine that celebrated and centered queer fashion. We talked through some ideas; I took him out for dim sum. And still, I waited.

Two years later, Sarah Clark, a disabled two-spirit writer and the Editor in Chief at Anomaly, where I serve as Fiction Editor-at-Large, but then was Assistant Fiction Editor, asked if I wanted to curate a folio for Anomaly. I decided this was the most fitting forum to test the waters. I’d like to share some of what I wrote to introduce and frame the marvelous works of Queering in Plain Sight: a folio of queer fashion and that early experiment, which launched December 2019, and which I wrote in the early throes of divorce sitting in a friend’s apartment in Astoria (who I met while dancing tango and who had seen me go through so many evolutions of my own gender expressions), months before COVID would blow through the planet and change how we understood the world and our presence in it. Thinking back on it now, what a perfect moment to write such a piece, as it is in between the joy and the grief that we find—and have always found—ourselves. It is in the dressing we can bring a lightness to our lives, and one another:

For the queer community, we code ourselves with our bodies when it has been dangerous to identify ourselves with words, and we code ourselves with our bodies in order to join a community that may exist as the only family structure that makes us feel safe. Until recently, we could find only a handful of models in popular culture to inform our own aesthetic choices, and so the very styles that we don operate as a patchwork quilt, collaged together with vintage and thrift store finds, sometimes high end pieces (perhaps on discount), our sister or mother’s lipstick, and our father’s neckties. All the mismatched bric-a-brac that makes up a person’s aesthetic where it is not easily found.

Curating and publishing that folio was an incredibly exhilarating and life-affirming moment in this journey towards forming the beginning of just femme & dandy, a literary magazine celebrating LGBTQ+ fashion. But most importantly, it confirmed that there was a need to form community around LGBTQIA+ fashion. And second, that I had the permission and the ability to spearhead such a moment.

The pandemic opened up opportunities to look more deeply at how we engage with others, and ourselves, and perhaps unexpectedly, pushed us to explore the boundaries of what we wear and what we have always longed to wear, but been afraid to embody. I, too, began my own pandemic photographic project in February of 2021—by “remaking” an image of an artist of color every day, and sharing it on Instagram, along with an extended caption of how that artist impacted my own practice of way of living and thinking in the world as a queer, non-binary person of color.

But, what the pandemic offered me, and offered many of us, was a chance to push ourselves in new ways, and to take on projects or initiatives we were too timid to take on before.

I studied fashion magazines and thought deeply about sections for the magazine that would offer aspects of LGBTQIA+ fashion that I saw energy around in the conversations and ensembles I saw in my friends, community, and from passersby on the street. Our first rebirth was edited by an incredible team of editors, some old friends, some new acquaintances, some long admired, from a range of backgrounds and identities: SJ Sindu, Jen St. Jude, Denne Michele Norris, Jo Davis-McElligatt, Octavia Saenz, Kirin Khan, and Sky Cubacub. I want to especially thank Sky Cubacub for their labor with ensuring that the foundation of our magazine is as accessible as possible.

After publishing six issues of the (somewhat) traditional literary and arts magazine, just femme & dandy launched the just femme & dandy mixtape, a curation of separates, such as mini-zines and chapbooks, broadsides, stickers, and more, housed in a vinyl dust jacket. This, too, was born in community, while sitting in the house of Editor-at-Large and contributor of Volume 4, Felix Salmoran. We wanted to offer the literary magazine world a publishing project that was in conversation with LGBTQ+ DIY, punk, and zine histories and communities, as well as offer a sustainable model that we could make and adapt to almost any evolving budgetary constraints. But it was also born out of Felix putting on a record as we discussed the future of just femme & dandy, and the two of us considering the growing trend of curated separates included in indie musical artists’ vinyl packaging, and how we could translate that to a literary model, one we could bring to zine fests and art fairs, independent bookstores who sold zines and chapbooks to support alternative publishing, writing, and artists. Felix was instrumental in coordinating the printing and distribution of our first mixtape, and I’m honored to call him part of our family. We’re currently working on the design and production of our second mixtape now, shepherded by Joey Houska & Emma Gatzulis.

We’ve also added two new literary ventures through our publishing project, primping press, led by poet and movement artist jj rowan: scrap swap and chapbook couture.

scrap swap is a creative info-share zine project, seeking to spread the love and the knowledge through savvy lo-fi design. These single-page publications could be folded zines, tri-fold pamphlets, or even flyer-style, and aim for the perfect pairing of creativity and information.

chapbook couture is a special edition series where chapbook meets art object, a place for projects that don’t fit on the dress form. These handmade editions will be something you want to pick out an outfit to read. We’re seeking proposals for work in any genre on any aspect of queer fashion, especially work that invites innovative design in the chapbook form.

We’re also hoping to print a crowd-sourced wedding album this summer! Submissions are open, and you can find details and guidelines here.

As we continue to grow, we’ve come to the realization that although we love our publishing work, we have an opportunity to expand beyond our literary and publishing aims, to offer resources, community, and more in the hopes of celebrating and supporting LGBTQ+ fashion. We seek to particularly highlight independent designers who are invested in sustainability, inclusion, accessibility, and particularly affordability. So many in our community have had to make do with less, and have had to consider presentation and style as a means for connection and survival with very little means.

We are currently in the process of glowing up, as they say, but in the meantime, we’d like to use this space to reflect all of the above! This will be a collective archival resource to include team and guests posts on LGBTQ+ fashion history, styleshare (skills, tips, and tutorials), trends (which can also include reviews of books on queer fashion and shows, collections, exhibits, films, etc.), and designer spotlights. Please reach out at addie@justfemmeanddandy to pitch or submit! In your submission, include a pitch of your idea (and the earliest you’d be able to send a completed draft), bio and any relatable fashion/writing/publishing history. We’re open to any and all writers/artists, so don’t worry if you have no publishing credits, we’d still love to hear from you. If you have ideas that apply but are out of the box of the above, we welcome them!

Sending love, joy, and abundance to you all! Welcome to the family.

Yours,
Addie Tsai
Founding Director, just femme & dandy

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