When Marloes Leeuw was growing up in a tiny village in The Netherlands, she harbored an interest in fashion—particularly men s fashion. “Growing up in the ’90s, I was really into skate tees, flannel shirts, dungarees, Dr. Martens combat boots, bleached and blue hair, oversized sweaters, Nike Cortez sneakers, turtlenecks, and my favorite Chicago Bulls cap,” she says. Leeuw, now 36 and living in Amsterdam, obsessed over fashion magazines, and, later, blogs on Tumblr and the Internet beyond. “I could spend hours browsing them, taking screenshots of celebrities cool outfits,” she says. “Eventually, my iPhone was filled with screenshots, and most of them had one thing in common: they were lesbian and queer women.”
Six years ago, Leeuw put all those screenshots to use, launching the queer fashion Instagram @everylesbianandtheirfashion, carving out a space on the internet that she longed for as a teenager. “Every Lesbian And Their Fashion is a community that I wish had existed when I was much younger," she says. "Growing up, I felt like I missed having a queer community where I could communicate with other queer individuals and feel confident about the fashion I adored.” The account, which now boasts over 187,000 followers, chronicles the looks of famous celesbians, real and imagined, fawning over Kristen Stewart s butch Met Gala look, Marlene Dietrich s expert suiting, and Emma Corrin s Wimbledon outfit.
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Like the name states, Every Lesbian and Their Fashion does highlight lesbian fashion, though Leeuw also posts queer (and queer-coded) pop-culture moments, including Jodie Comer as Villanelle in Killing Eve, Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham, and lots and lots of Cate Blanchett. While queerbaiting remains a valid, albeit complicated concern within the LGBTQ+ community, Leeuw doesn t have a problem with posting celebrities who are largely considered “gay icons,” even if they aren t queer or publicly out. She cites Blanchett, who has taken on lesbian roles in Carol and Tár. “She has done an excellent job portraying these powerful queer women,” Leeuw says. Her acting, plus her impeccable queer-friendly fashion (see: the green velvet suit in Ocean s 8), are what Leeuw believes has earned Blanchett a spot on her page. “While someone like Cate Blanchett may not identify as queer, she enjoys engaging with the lesbian community, and the community enjoys engaging with her and her phenomenal outfits,” she says.
Leeuw also enjoys using her platform as a space to explore the vast array of lesbian fashion. “When you search online for ‘lesbian fashion stereotypes,’ you ll often see pictures of plaid shirts, beanies, thumb rings, blazers, and tank tops,” she says. But the beauty of queerness is the ability to reject social norms and play in the liminality. “I believe lesbian style is a spectrum. Some love to wear dresses and heels, while others prefer suits and ties. There s a significant group of lesbians who enjoy playing with both masculine and feminine clothing and mixing them up,” she adds.
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What Leeuw especially loves about lesbian fashion is the ability to remove men s sexual desires and interests from the equation, making dressing a total free-for-all. “Another common misconception is that lesbian fashion is not sexy,” she says. “However, by not dressing to the male gaze, there is so much room for creative freedom and empowerment, which is precisely what makes lesbian fashion so incredibly attractive and sexy.”
Leeuw is particularly interested in the Golden Age of Hollywood, and how stars including Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Katharine Hepburn, and Joan Crawford (among others) expressed their queerness at the time. In contemporary fashion, she looks to Martine Rose, The Frankie Shop, Acne Studios, Dries Van Noten, and Daily Paper for her own personal inspiration. Right now, she s enjoying playing with masculine styles, wearing jerseys, men s blazers, and oversized jeans, which she accessorizes with lots of jewelry, and counts Dietrich, Arlo Parks, and George Michael as her queer style icons.
“For me, queer joy in fashion means celebrating your identity through fashion as an act of self-empowerment. That s what makes fashion and self-expression so enjoyable and empowering and something to celebrate," Leeuw says. “The older I get, the more confident I become in embracing my true self, and clothing and fashion are part of that journey.”
