Redressing Weddings

Clothing and LGBTQ+ and Feminist Marriers

^{Lesbian Wedding in New York with dresses made by Dangerous Mathematicians, photography by Parris Whittingham. Source: Wikimedia.}

Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in our podcast, Redressing Weddings: Clothing and LGBTQ+ and Feminist Marriers.

Redressing Weddings explores the complex and creative ways that queer, trans, and feminist folks think about, acquire, and experience wedding attire. We talk to thoughtful people about everything from suits and gowns to how wedding clothes shape family ties and body image. What we find is that for folks who’ve historically had a fraught relationship with the wedding industry, wedding attire is a portal into much larger questions: of belonging, visibility, politics, and more.

This podcast emerged from a research project at the University of British Columbia. It is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Episodes

Ep1 – Becoming Visible

In this episode, we introduce the podcast and explore the ways that LGBTQ+ people use their wedding clothing to be visible—or, sometimes, to be a little hidden.

Ep2 – Wedding Suiting: Fitting In

We hear from LGBTQ+ people of all genders about how they navigate choosing a suit for their wedding, and how meaningful suits can be in helping them feel like they fit in the world.

Ep3 – Wedding Gowns 1: Visions and Expectations

In this episode, we hear from queer and feminist women about their visions for wedding gowns—and how these sometimes bump up against other people’s expectations.

Ep4 – Wedding Gowns 2: Buying, Wearing, Remembering

We talk to queer and feminist women about their experiences of buying and wearing wedding gowns, and how gowns bring people together.

Ep5 – Wedding Attire and Family Ties

In this episode, we hear about how relationships with family are deepened, complicated, and tested as queer and feminist folks choose what to wear for their weddings.

Ep6 – Wedding Clothes and Body Image

We explore the complexity that queer and trans people, as well as feminists, experience as they navigate their body image in relation to their wedding clothes.

Ep7 – Wedding as Spectacle

We hear from a range of LGBTQ+ folks about how they play with the spectacular theatricality of weddings with their clothing and style choices.

Ep8 – Spectacular Weddings: Another Look

We hear from two people about how what looks like a wedding spectacle is exactly what can reveal people’s depths.

Ep9 – Gender Fluidity and the Wedding

Interviews with a lesbian couple and a trans man reveal how folks are thinking about gender fluidity as they get dressed for their weddings.

Ep10 – A Debut: Owen

In the first of three episodes focusing on a single wedding, Owen tells us the story of buying and wearing his wedding suit and accessories, and reveals how important they were in legitimizing his trans identity.

Ep11 – The Red Dress: Audrey

In this episode about a single wedding we hear from Audrey about her gorgeous red dress and all the things it did for her.

Ep12 – Joy All Over: J

To close out the series, we hear from J. It’s a fitting ending, as J’s story of buying a suit and staging a wedding ties together so many of the themes we’ve explored, and they give us a complete picture of the joy that can come from getting dressed for the wedding for LGBTQ+ folks.

You can also find us on Spotify and iTunes. Or, subscribe via RSS wherever you listen to podcasts.

Who we are

Dr. Ilya Parkins

Study Leader

Dr. Ilya Parkins has been working at the University of British Columbia (Canada) since 2007. She is Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies. Her research is about fashion, feminist theory, femininities, and popular culture – especially women’s magazines. Ilya has written a book (Poiret, Schiaparelli and Dior: Fashion, Femininity and Modernity) and twenty articles and book chapters on the relationships between fashion, gender, and culture. She can be reached directly at ilya.parkins[at]ubc.ca.

Kenya Gutteridge

Research Assistant

Research Assistant Kenya Gutteridge is a freelance editor, writer, and podcast producer. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, where she studied fashion extensively with study leader Dr. Ilya Parkins. Kenya was a member of the editorial collective for the student journal that’s what [we] said, and has published her writing on fashion there, as well as writings on other topics in various digital and print media. She can be reached directly at kenyagutteridge[at]gmail.com.