Gay men have long been associated with the arts and creative professions. While some in the GLBT community have criticized the popular television series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy for reinforcing the stereotype that gay men have a superior sense of style, many of the best-known fashion designers of the past century have, in fact, been gay or bisexual.

Until recently, most gay or bisexual fashion designers did not publicly acknowledge their sexuality. Nevertheless, some were assumed to be queer based in part on the company they kept. British designer Sir Norman Hartnell (born 1901), the official dressmaker for the British royal family who created Queen Elizabeth’s wedding and coronation gowns, never married and moved in theatrical circles. Christian Dior (born 1905) lived in Paris during the 1920s, where he became friends with gay playwright Jean Cocteau and his bohemian circle. Although Dior mentioned an intimate friendship in his autobiography, he did not explicitly reveal his sexual orientation.

Rudi Gernreich (born 1922), who in the 1960s became famous for creating the first women’s topless bathing suit, also never publicly came out as gay. After fleeing the Nazis in Austria as a teenager, Gernreich settled in Los Angeles. In 1950, he began a relationship with Harry Hay. A year later, Hay, Gernreich, and several other gay men founded the Mattachine Society, one of the first U.S. homophile organizations. Although Hay later received recognition as a gay rights pioneer, he kept Gernreich’s secret; the latter’s sexual orientation did not come to light until after his death in 1985.

Other designers only revealed they were gay late in life. Sir Hardy Amies (born 1909), who succeeded Hartnell as the queen’s dressmaker, did not publicly acknowledged his homosexuality until his old age. Yves Saint Laurent (born 1936), who as a child was taunted by his peers for being effeminate, did not come out until 1991, in an interview with Le Figaro newspaper. Similarly, 72-year-old Italian designer Valentino Garavani and his former lover and long-time business partner Giancarlo Giammetti finally came out in the August 2004 issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

Some queer fashion designers gained fame through their connections with celebrities. Halston (born Roy Halston Frowick in 1932) and Calvin Klein (born 1942) were among the "Velvet Mafia" connected with New York City’s Studio 54 disco in the late 1970s, inhabiting gossip columns along with the likes of Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli, and Bianca Jagger. Halston’s increasing drug use, frequent encounters with callboys, and destructive relationship with a Venezuelan lover led to his firing by his parent corporation. Klein married young and had a daughter, but divorced in 1974. Although he increasingly engaged in liaisons with men, Klein struggled with his sexuality. Yet as one of the first designers to feature buff young men in his famous underwear ads, Klein "made homoeroticism a staple of consumer culture," asserts fashion writer Shaun Cole.

Gianni Versace, born to a poor family in southern Italy in 1946, also hobnobbed with the rich and famous, including his friends Elton John and Princess Diana. Open about his homosexuality, Versace lived with his lover, former model Antonio D’Amico, for more than 10 years. On July 15, 1997, Versace was shot on the steps of his Miami Beach home by gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan, ending a cross-country murder spree that claimed four other lives.

During the 1980s, AIDS had a devastating effect on the fashion world. In 1985, Italian designer Giorgio Armani lost his lover and business partner, Sergio Galeotti, to the disease. In May 1986, designer Perry Ellis died of AIDS at age 46. The following year, WilliWear founder Willi Smith—one of the best-known African-American designers—died of AIDS-related pneumonia. Halston was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 and died two years later in San Francisco. In 1990, after AIDS claimed his lover and business partner of 15 years, Jean-Paul Gaultier considered giving up design and committing suicide; instead, he devoted himself to his work, and rekindled his career when he created Madonna’s famous bullet-bra corset.

Today, a new generation of designers can live openly—and even flamboyantly—gay lives. Domenico Dolce (born 1958) and Stefano Gabbana (born 1962) became lovers in the early 1980s and business partners soon thereafter. Texas-bred Tom Ford (born 1961), who designs for the houses of Gucci and Saint Laurent, is in a long-term relationship with fashion magazine editor Richard Buckley. In 2002, Alexander McQueen (born 1969) married his lover, filmmaker George Forsyth, on a yacht off the island of Ibiza. And Brooklyn-born Isaac Mizrahi (born 1962) is famous not only for creating lavish gowns for Hollywood stars, but also for his television talk show.

While queer men continue to play a prominent role in the world of fashion design, it has become more acceptable for heterosexual (or "metrosexual") men to take an interest in their appearance. "Men are finally accepting the role of sexual attraction and are more comfortable with it," Dolce said in a 2001 interview. "It isn’t just a gay thing to enjoy fashion any more."

For further reading:

Cole, Shaun. 2002. "Fashion." GLBTQ: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. http://www.glbtq.com/arts/fashion.html.

Gaines, Steven. 1991. Simply Halston (Putnam).

Orth, Maureen. 1999. Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History (Bantam Dell).