Velasquez

Featuring research from communities of sexual experimenters, romantic rebels, outcasts and those who openly fly social convention this collection aims to challenge the leather archetype of hyper-masculine by bringing it back into the spotlight with a contemporary take: one of gender fluidity, seeing that our cultural models have changed and we’re shifting to conversations around gender rather than sex.

Leather has always had this connection to sex and sexuality, however, it means much more than that, an umbrella that stands for family, safety, community and being yourself, a social element that provides you with a sense of belonging.

Part of the queer community became self-empowered through the construction of a socio-sexual identity that incorporated the hegemonic hyper-masculinity outlawry of biker clubs; AW21 takes this as a starting point and gives leather a whole new look, in the literal sense by giving new life to unwanted garments, but also in a social and cultural sense by relaying in its capabilities as an outlet for socialization and to bring communities closer together and bond, hoping for an immediate sense of fraternity in the most common and acceptable form.

Today, with the struggles of the pandemic, and even before that, with more frequent closures of physical safe spaces, the LGBTQI+ scene is suffering a slow descent into homogeneity. Replacing our spaces for gastropubs, luxury apartments and office blocks, resulting on entire communities being eliminated and a feeling that the scene is in decline.

This exploration presents masculinity as a complex, evolving, social construct that remains in continual flux. Velasquez keeps on fighting for ways to allow our bodies to confront and disrupt the landscape to reclaim our visibility and our spaces in order to find respect and acceptance.