Welcome to another edition of our VogPride Style Session series featuring some more of our wonderfully stylish LGBTQIA+ Fluevogologists! We had so much fun interviewing these truly unique souls and chatting about Fluevogs, fashion, personal expression, and more. Thank you to Ari, Sooji, Daxon, Kristian, Carrie, and Shannon for sharing all your expert Vog styling tips with us!
As part of our Pride 2024 celebrations, Fluevog will be making a donation to Rainbow Railroad, a global non-profit organization that helps LGBTQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
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A VogPride Series:
Style Session with Ari
Shop the Guardian Angel Nathaniel and the Xay Xay Vog Socks
Hi! I’m Ari. I use they/them pronouns and today I’m wearing the Nathaniel in army green.
[Ari poses and walks toward the camera showing off their green Guardian Angel Nathaniel wingtip derby shoes as well as their outfit.]For this outfit it’s a little bit more casual. I really love earth tones so I’m wearing these Ralph Lauren pants that have kind of a plaid corduroy, my lucky mushroom socks, my favourite little button-up, and a denim jacket because it’s Canada. We love to do denim.
[The camera switches to different views of Ari sitting and talking to the camera, showing details of their terracotta eye shadow, gold metallic reading glasses, and nose piercing.]I really wanted to go for kind of a whimsical, almost woodland fantasy feel with this. I just really wanted to show that you can style Nathaniels with a more femme outfit and shop across the aisle if you want to. I have layers upon layers of textures which I love. I love a good texture so I’ve got this little beret, I’ve got a handmade knit scarf, cute little mushroom earrings, and this like apocalyptic Swiss cheese coat.
[Ari laughs as they gesture to the circular cut-out details on their coat.] [Ari has their hair half down, showing off their long, dark curls as they twirl for the camera.]For this outfit I wanted to style something a little more androgynous. Lots of flowy, earthy tones which I love. I wear almost exclusively earth tones. I love these patchwork pants, they’re high-waisted and really comfy. And then I paired it with this little crop top tee and this gorgeous little scarf. My earrings — I don’t even remember where they’re from — but they were a gift from my mom and my sister and I love them to death. I feel very seen. I love moths and mushrooms and all that kind of stuff. I usually decide what I’m going to wear in a day based on comfort and also I love to use the approach of dopamine dressing so wearing what makes me happy, what sparks joy. If it’s comfy and makes me smile and is weather appropriate I guess, I will wear it!
My favourite pair of Fluevogs is the first pair I ever got which were the Blakes in natural tattoo colour. I wear them to death still. I’ve had them refurbished, they’re my all-time favourite.
Oh, hi! My name is Sooji. I use they/them pronouns and today I’m styling the Originals. I usually wear a lot of black and so I try to play with texture a lot and different materials. Here are the fish nets — one of my favourite tights, it has a snake going around. And here’s the velvet that kind of matches the shoes. [Sooji shows us their skirt.] Here’s some mesh and I usually do a lot of silver jewelry. [Sooji strokes the top of their sleeves and plays with their necklace.]
The way I would describe my style… it’s tricky. It would be a mix of goth, punk, metal, and it actually took me a while to figure out what I wanted to wear. It wasn’t until I came out and I think it took me a while because I was really scared of how people would perceive me and how I would be judged. But I think coming out just broke that barrier.
This time I’m pairing the Originals with these jeans that I have right over here. It’s a classic, early 2000s, low-rise jean. And I have this shirt which is from this brand called Havoc. [Sooji gestures to their black shirt featuring a white print.] This belt right over here is my all time favourite belt. [They draw our attention to a wide, black leather belt by holding on to its big silver buckle.] I don’t even know where it actually is from. It has become a staple in my outfit. There’s this jacket and since the silhouette is pretty feminine I wanted to give it a little bit more structure, so I wore this oversized leather jacket.
I get my fashion inspiration from so many different places, but mainly where it all started I think was Japanese fashion — J fashion, just like street fashion, Fruits magazine, anime characters, but also my two main fashion icons are probably Jennifer Tilly from “Bride of Chucky” and Pamela Anderson from “Barb Wire”. Their outfits in those movies are iconic and I would kill to buy those outfits.
We brought back the corset right over here and we have this skirt. It’s like this mesh material, has a little bit of purple and they have these like sparkles that reflect whenever you move, a different type of lace tights. I’m wearing these bell bottom sleeves that are mesh and I have this top underneath. This is my nameplate necklace right over here. I’ve had this since I was three or four and it’ll be a part of my outfits for the rest of my life.
I grew up in a country where there were not a lot of people who looked like me, queer or alternative, and I wanted to just tell those kids like me out there: “Be gay! Dress whatever the way you want, and happy Pride!”
My style icon is seven time world champion of Formula One, Michael Schumacher. I think it is fantastic how he obviously just dressed however he wanted, really incorporated different kinds of, you know, Americana and early 2000s sort of prep wear and that kind of stuff. I think the fact that he was so shameless about dressing however he wanted is really inspiring, especially when you’re on a world stage like that.
For this outfit I just like to show almost my entire wardrobe is secondhand, vintage, thrift. You can find some really cool old knits, I’m pretty sure this cardigan was homemade by someone and ended up in a bin somewhere as well as these pants, I think they have a really nice interaction with the shoe. Even though they cover most of them, I think when a pant covers most of a shoe, it can almost highlight it more because now you’re curious about what they’re wearing. The hat, I think is an old angora fur hat, again, found secondhand. It’s one of my favourite pieces. I wear it a lot.
A fashion trend I’d like to see come back would be the early 2010s, not one of my favourite eras for fashion, but I think seeing it the second time around would be really cool. You know, skinny jeans, galaxy prints, moustaches everywhere. I want to see it again, reinterpreted.
This time I got an all black outfit, which I think are some of my favourite to experiment with. You can really figure out proportion and texture and everything like that. So, I got pants under this lovely kilt I’ve got here. I’ve got two shirts on, this one’s buttoned up all funky because you can get some really cool shapes. I laced a shoelace through the holes in this one to add even more texture and then a scarf because I decided there wasn’t enough black already. I think adding a pair of shoes that highlights that is a really cool touch as well and it makes them glow even more.
As far as styling tip goes I think everyone knows that quote Coco Chanel said about taking something off before you leave the house. I think that’s only important if you already really have a grasp on what your style is. I think a problem that people have when they’re learning to style themselves is that they’re doing too much, when I think there’s a sort of bell curve where if you start to do too much, eventually you’ll break through and really find yourself an expression.
I love matching colours together. I think the green and the blue really complement each other. But I also love the shape that these pants give me with this serrated edge. I really like messing with shape and silhouette and I find that this kind of gives me an exaggerated hourglass look. So while watching Drag Race season 8, Kim Chi talks about how in the Western standard, we often find a lot of clothing that is body conscious or is very tailored. She talks about creating a dynamic silhouette and I think that’s something that I took to heart in trying to find different shapes that worked for my body instead of trying to fit a specific shape that has been laid out for us by the media, essentially. My tip in styling would be to try different shapes. Don’t try to just, you know, have things always hug your body, it’s fine if it does, but I think that there’s so much more to explore when you’re looking for new shapes, new textures and new silhouettes.
So this outfit is my all black outfit that I love to wear, that’s a little witchy looking. I love how big this skirt is, it feels very utility kilt, but then I want to also soften it with like a light fluffy sweater as well. I like mixing two things that seem to be, you know, opposed with each other a lot of the time.
I actually grew up wearing a uniform going to school, so I did not get to explore my style when I was younger and as soon as I became an adult, I started buying all the things that were so trendy. And I think that’s what really started my journey is that I was so hungry to, to see what was out there. With Fluevog, I’ve had the opportunity to work in Toronto and in Amsterdam and I’ve been able to absorb so much influence from everywhere and it’s really an amalgamation of all the things in my life that I’ve learned to love and learned to appreciate.
So this outfit, these pants are from a Vancouver designer called Old Fashioned Standards. [Close-up of black, pink, and yellow striped pants.] And I just love the colour and I love the style and I really try not to shy away from different colours. I wanted to add some of the Asian element in it. [Close-up of a vintage illustration of an Asian woman on his white shirt, with 3D details.] She’s got a little chain around her eyeglasses. These earrings that I’ve put for this outfit are little keys, little hollow keys. I love accessories. I love hats. I have really long hair and sometimes it just needs to be put away. I just, I love, I love little accessories.
I think expression of style is very important to me because no matter if you want to say something with it, you’re saying something with it when you go out into the world. And I think that even if your message is, I don’t care that can look many, many different ways. Sometimes I don’t think it can be something that’s even put into words, but it’s something that you put together and then that’s how you feel. And that’s the statement that you’re making for the day.
I do have it in both colors but I chose to go with the silver. You might not think sneaker-ish spike shoe with slinky dress, but you can! There’s no rules, it’s just like: “What do you want to wear?” “I want to wear that” [puts out one hand] “and that” [puts out the other hand, then claps them together] “put them together.”
[Carrie wears a black dress with white polka dots and a red rose print, the wine colored Rohesia belt, the pink Callie Vog Socks, and the silver Soul Speed Sparky sneakers.] I don’t pick my shoes and my clothes based on how I feel, I pick my outfits based on what I want to feel like that day. Some people joke around, if you’re feminine, sometimes putting on a dress makes everybody feel like “oh well, they look great, they put in effort”. It’s one of the simplest things to do, is to just put on a dress and then you feel together. And actually an outfit like this I might wear on a hard day because dressing up and putting on something like this made me feel powerful and in control. If you see me in sweatpants you know you’re part of my inner circle because I didn’t need to dress up.
[Carrie twirls around wearing a teal A-line dress with black polka dots, a big black bow on her blue, dyed hair, the blue Rohesia belt, the pink Callie Vog Socks, and the silver Soul Speed Sparky sneakers.] I love dressing kind of pin-up. You can’t always afford a lot of neat things but if you know your measurements and can order online sometimes you can find this great stuff. I used to dress very conservatively because I worked on a conservative TV show doing wardrobe and costumes and stuff and then one day I met this Fluevogologist that was just kind of pin-up and over the top. When I left the entertainment industry and could just be myself and could just work at Fluevog and show up every day to the best of my ability I kind of absorbed part of the inspiration from that person. Not only did that inspiration carry me, my look at Fluevog is literally Fluevog-inspired.
[Carrie shows her newsprint pants, a black t-shirt with white print, and an open short sleeve knit sweater over it.] So this is a more relaxed outfit more of a me on my day off. If I’m dressing comfortably it means I’m the most comfortable in an emotional situation or with the people or being in a scenario and I feel less like I have to put something on around someone or in a group or in a setting so this is just kind of like the version more come-as-you-are than have-to-get-ready.
Most importantly, the best styling tip is: if you feel good in it and you like wearing it, that’s your style. The most important thing is to just be something you want to wear, you just have to feel good in it.
I’m wearing a vintage wash Snoopy shirt with some extra wide-leg jeans. The designs on the Riverdale, they kind of remind me of when I was in high school and you would doodle in the margins of your notebooks, so I went for like “oh, back in the day…” kind of ’90s fashion style. For me, my style choices tend to reflect my interests and my likes, like today I have my Snoopy shirt, and then afterwards it tends to reflect maybe any event or what my mood is for the day so it varies a lot.
For the second outfit I’ve got a lacy meshy green jacket that actually I had a friend convert from a dress shirt into a jacket because I wasn’t feeling the dress shirt anymore and I’ve paired it with some ripped jeans because those are classic and then I’ve accessorized with some gold necklace and earrings. [Gestures to their drip-shaped earrings.] My drip! The way I decide what to wear each day is primarily like “order of operations”. So I go: comfort, what will be comfortable today based on the weather or where I’m going to be, and then it’s going to be who am I seeing and what do I want them to know about me today?
So for this outfit I got a asymmetrical shirt/jacket/dress, my mom picked it up for me when she was in Hong Kong at some nondescript marketplace and I’ve paired it with a brooch from a cartoon that people may or may not recognize. This is also a gift from my brother when he was in Japan so he picked it up for me and I think it paired really well with it. The way I describe my style is like evolving and my mom is aware of that, so she knows I’m playing around with textiles and mesh so I think this was a really good find for her because she thought I would like the shapes of the sleeves and the asymmetrical parts of it and she was very right.
Want more fabulous ‘fit inspo? Check out our 2023 Style Sessions!
