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Pride collections are hard to get right. Amid critique of virtue signalling and “rainbow capitalism” — when companies commercialise their support for the LGBTQ+ community by selling themed products for profit — brands need to think more deeply about how to engage with Pride Month in a meaningful way for groups that are being targeted by homophobia and transphobia.
This year, some Pride collections have dialled back the rainbow motif in favour of more subdued designs that focus on charity donations and affiliations with LGBTQ+ organisations. Willie Norris’s collaboration with suitcase brand Away features black, white and red bags labelled with sayings like “My Baggage” and “5-7 Looks” — the lack of rainbow colours was intentional, the designer said. Away is also partnering with the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association as part of the collab.
Cos released plain tees paying homage to famous queer club nights, and made a fixed donation (rather than percentage of proceeds) to the Chosen Family Law Centre, to ensure support for the organisation independent of sales, the brand says. Humberto Leon designed a Pride collection (with a touch of rainbow lettering) for the NFL which sits aside its partnerships with LGBTQ+ organisations. And the Versace Fund announced a five-year commitment to support the Elton John Aids Foundation’s (EJAF) Rocket Fund. This is the house’s larger initiative, paired with a donation of proceeds from a handbag throughout Pride Month.
The campaigns and collaborations come as some US companies this year pare back their public Pride support in the face of backlash. On 24 May, Target removed a selection of pieces from its Pride collection from stores after it said workers were facing harassment. This followed conservative calls to boycott Budweiser following adverts featuring trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Neither brand responded to requests for comment.
“Unfortunately, we are seeing fewer companies publicly support LGBTQ+ people during Pride this year because of increased extremist backlash,” says Vivian Topping, director of advocacy and civic engagement at Equality Federation. “But, being an LGBTQ+ ally means not just performing allyship but practising it. We encourage businesses to defend their commitment to equality rather than back down to extremists.”
Those keen to make an impact beyond optics are the labels more likely to double down, says Zaria Pinchbeck, managing partner at Finn Partners (who regularly counsels fashion brands). “Brands that have an authentic investment and impact are not shying away.”
In the face of growing protests against LGBTQ+ support during Pride Month, brands who do show up should think about what they are looking to achieve. “Who are Pride ranges for?” asks Ellen Jones, cultural strategist at consultancy Utopia. If it’s for LGBTQ+ people, this is a group that is statistically more likely to experience poverty, have lower wages and is less likely to be in a position to buy those products, she says. If it’s to raise money for LGBTQ+ causes, brands should be doing so year-round. If it’s to show support, actions speak louder than words.
Others, like Dani St James, founder of charity Not a Phase, which supports trans+ and gender diverse adults, welcome the collections — when well-executed. “I am one of the few that actually loves a Pride Month edition of anything — as long as it s handled and executed well,” she says. “Larger brands should be donating a much higher percentage of profits than is the status quo because Pride products are an additional product for them, so any income for the brand is just a bonus.”
It’s a catch-22, Jones says. Though she’s uncomfortable with the amount of space taken up by corporations at Pride, she also recognises the organisations and LGBTQ+ designers supported as a result of these campaigns. There are monetary and visibility benefits to partnering with brands. “We have managed to achieve everything that we have over the last three and a half years by joining forces with brands in a huge variety of ways,” St James says, recalling Victoria Beckham’s fundraiser for the charity. This year, Not a Phase is partnering with Stella McCartney on its London Pride events and with Jean Paul Gaultier on its new Pride fragrance. “These are two of the many partnerships this year that will ensure that we are able to thrive until next year.”
Be prepared to double-down
As part of Target’s backtrack, London-based trans designer Erik Carnell’s collection, made specifically for the retailer, was pulled from shelves. Carnell, who says he wasn’t notified until after the fact, had been receiving a slew of hate online from conservative commentators, so was relieved at first. “Then I was upset at having been robbed of such a huge opportunity,” he says. “And then I was angry at how easily Target had stepped back from their ‘rainbow capitalism’ venture when it was no longer profitable.” It sets a dangerous precedent, Carnell says.
“Since introducing this year’s [Pride Month] collection, we ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and wellbeing while at work,” said Target in a statement at the time. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the centre of the most significant confrontational behaviour. Our focus now is on moving forward with our continuing commitment to the LGBTQIA+ community and standing with them as we celebrate Pride Month and throughout the year.” Target did not respond to a request from Vogue Business for further comment.
If brands are going to play into Pride, they need to be prepared, Not a Phase’s St James says. “We live in some of the most divisive times to date. Brands need to prepare for a backlash when including any minority groups because regardless of their intent, the anti-warriors will see it as a brand taking a stance.”
Adidas faced backlash for including masculine-presenting models in a women’s swimsuit as part of its ‘Let Love Be Your Legacy’ Pride collection (‘Boycott Adidas’ trended on Twitter). The North Face is also facing boycott calls for its ad featuring drag queen Pattie Gonia for its Summer of Pride campaign.
This is a shift from the party-geared collections they were putting out in recent years. “It feels like brands haven t been able to handle the tonal shift from party to protesting for our human rights,” Utopia’s Jones says.
On Wednesday, the NFL released its first Pride collection designed by Opening Ceremony co-founder Humberto Leon (a longtime football fan and member of the LGBTQ+ community). The jerseys are branded with “Property of Pride Dept”, and the tees have “Football is Love” across the chest in rainbow lettering. It’s a sport not traditionally known for LGBTQ+ support (just two years ago, Carl Nassib became the first openly gay player on an active NFL roster — he’s the 16th in the league’s history). But, it’s made strides in recent years, with ongoing partnerships with organisations including GLAAD, The Trevor Project, Athlete Ally, and the National Gay Flag League.
The NFL says it is proud of its initiatives and Pride collection, and will move forward with them as planned, despite the backlash other companies have experienced. “The NFL has vastly diverse audiences including members of the LGBTQ+ community — we are proud to count LGBTQ+ people among our players, coaches, fans and employees,” says Dan DeVece, NFL senior director of consumer products planning and strategy (and member of employee resource group NFL Pride). “Our inclusivity work continues full speed ahead.”
Partnering with LGBTQ+ individuals (as the NFL, and both Cos and Away, did this year) is to the benefit of both the brand and the cause. Cos, for example, enlisted the teams behind the club nights to create the tees. “It was important to ensure that we were giving our collaborators a chance to represent themselves and tell their stories in their way,” a Cos spokesperson says.
“The brands that get it wrong are the ones that guess their way through, giving a small percentage and then cowering away when they are either called out by the community for capitalising on our identities or get called out by anti-LGBTQ+ ‘activists’,” Not a Phase’s St James says. “By partnering with an org, you can have access to education and information for your internal teams that will help to sustain a long-term goal of working together while also supporting charities at a time when funds are harder to come by than ever.”
Visibility versus intention
This year, brands’ Pride output is more subdued. “Part of me wonders whether brands saw the criticisms of ‘rainbow-washing’ and quite literally thought that it was a criticism of the rainbow itself being used, as opposed to a critique of how brands have appropriated symbols of LGBTQ+ pride irrespective of whether they are actually engaging with the community,” Utopia’s Jones says. “So, instead of being so loud, they’re simply being quieter.”
It could also be a response to consumer feelings, she adds. “As a queer person myself, I don’t necessarily know that I would feel as safe wearing ‘loud’ Pride collections at this moment in time, not because I’m not proud, but because I don’t want to encounter any more hate.”
Willie Norris says she wasn’t about to use the symbolic motif for the sake of optics. “Rainbow colours are simply not a major part of my visual vocabulary and thus it felt disingenuous to include them as part of this collaboration,” she says, adding that she has “nothing but admiration for what the Pride flag stood for then and means now”. Norris’s designs are also not for sale — instead, they’re gifted to members of the community. This lack of commercialisation was key to the project. “I did not want this partnership to feel contrived, which so many Pride partnerships often do.”
For this, there needs to be thought behind the campaigns, Not a Phase’s St James says. “The marketing of the products should reflect the entire span of the community that they are discussing. We are all so bored of the same old rainbow campaigns.”
Cos, for instance, celebrates queer club culture with T-shirts featuring four famous club experiences: House of Yes; Horsemeat Disco; Sink the Pink; and Churros on Chocolate. The shirts were designed in collaboration with representatives from each, and 100 per cent of proceeds (not just a portion) will go to the Chosen Family Law Centre, which supports low-income LGBTQ+ New Yorkers. It’s about longevity and wearability, a spokesperson for the brand tells Vogue Business. “We considered ways to incorporate our support of LGBTQIA+ communities in our Pride collection. A key element of this was creating garments that allow people to express themselves but also last beyond Pride, ensuring the T-shirts can be worn year-round.”
For his collaborative merch collection with the NFL, Leon was intentional about his use of the Pride flag colours. “I wanted to create pieces that symbolically represents being part of an inclusive club,” he says. “A lot of people look at the rainbow as just a simple way to say LGBTQ+, but the rainbow flag has a lot of meaning and history. For the LGBTQ+ community, it’s a symbol of progress, community, inclusion and ownership that we need to double down on.”
Year-round support
Fashion brands have the platform to push for tangible change, says Utopia’s Jones. “If brands want to show real allyship they could start leveraging their influence in the political sphere. They have that power, they have those partnerships.”
Fashion’s public-facing advocacy can make a difference, Not a Phase’s St James says. “Fashion and the media that surrounds it has the ability to impact, educate and change people s understanding of society,” she contends.
To this end, brands should be publicly engaging in advocacy year-round. Brands are moving towards this with ongoing donations and support for organisations (like Away and Calvin Klein’s approaches). “Those that are serious about Pride are moving towards a ‘Pride All Year Round’ strategy,” Finn Partners’s Pinchbeck says.
Versace’s ongoing collaboration with LGBTQ+ initiatives illustrates the ways in which companies can double-up on sustained support with a Pride Month boost. Following past collaborations with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way foundation in 2021, on 6 June, the Versace Foundation announced its five-year commitment to supporting the EJAF’s Rocket Fund (Donatella Versace will also be named co-chair). The brand also launched a Pride Month-focused initiative wherein proceeds from the Greca Goddess mini bag will be donated to the EJAF.
“The responsibility of the industry right now,” Not a Phase’s St James says, “is to hand the mic over during Pride Month and keep the messaging going throughout the year.”
Norris agrees. “Engagement with, and support of, the LGBTQ+ community should be a year-long initiative for members of the industry. Increasing diversity from the point of hire all the way through to consumer products should be the norm.”
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