Undercuts FTW!
Photo from the Sartorialist.
The queer gamine: an explanation.
A gamine, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is a young girl. The word in French is one of many words ( fifille, jeune fille, petiote, midinette) that all roughly translate to the same thing, but “gamine” in particular has a playful, precocious, and ever-so-slightly sexually charged connotation.
In English, we might call the type of girl who appears in Anthropologie catalogs a gamine. She is girly, naïve, beautiful, and aloof. She is Audrey Hepburn. She is Gigi. She is Lolita.
Queer has two meanings: odd, unusual, singular and of course, gay.
So, what is a queer gamine? For me, it is a reworking of the femme identity and aesthetic. I want to look at how “feminine” looks can be unique, trendy, even subversive. How femmes can show their queer identity and girly girls can still be rad. And for goodness’ sakes, I want to show that queer girls can wear more than jeans and wife beater tanks.
