Greetings Spring Flowers! I’ve been saying that it’s spring for months (it hasn’t been) but now I can finally officially say IT’S FUCKIN’ SPRING. Honestly, about goddamn time. Minneapolis has been dreary and I am ready for a sunburn already.
My favorite part of spring is my annual “cut all my jeans into jorts and regret it later” phase. I’ve been stocking up on jeans all winter. I’ve kept a bunch of pairs that didn’t quite fit as if cutting off the bottom half will somehow magically make them fit properly. What will I wear on a rainy day? That’s a question for Future Archie to deal with.
Fun story: Once at A-Camp I was SO ENTHUSED about the summer sun I cut every pair of jeans apart only for it to snow the next day! Very fun!
Spring is the best time for fashion in my opinion! A time for light jackets, layering, body hair, cut offs, sunburnt tattoos, backpacks full of beer, all the good stuff! So let’s talk about spring fashion! What are you wearing these days?
I’ve got basically three go-to looks I just repeat over and over again. And let me tell you: they never get old.
My first look is jean shorts, a cut off shirt with some gay words, and striped socks. This is my classic. I don’t think it’s adventurous, or even interesting, yet I’m writing about it anyway. My favorite socks are here, here and here. You didn’t ask but I thought I’d share! You’re welcome!
My second look is ~fancy jacket~. This is usually my leopard print coat (it’s not warm, it’s terrible for winter) or my rose-embroidered leather jacket. It doesn’t really matter what’s under these because they stand out on their own.
My third look is mesh because it’s finally time to wear mesh so damn right I’m gonna expose my binder, my midriff, my tits!
So how are you blooming this spring? Show me pics! Describe your favorite outfits! Give me whatcha got! Let’s talk spring fashions, or anything else that’s on your mind!
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Unrelated crowdsourcing:
My therapist gave me medical orders to go on vacation. I haven’t used any of my vacation days this calendar year, and so I have 20 days. Where should I go? I’m thinking the first week of July. I live in NYC, and I don’t drive, so anywhere I can get to from JFK/LGA airport that doesn’t require a car, is good for a solo queer, would make a good week away, and doesn’t break the bank. Thoughts?
I highly recommend Montreal for all your chill car-free vacation needs! Good public transit, cheap, queer, most people speak English AND you can taste the Montreal bagel, NYC’s greatest rival. Also eat Portuguese egg tarts on the plateau. There’s also good queer standup in mtl, and a multi-story gay club where I once fell down a flight of stairs onto a bouncer during pride. 90% it’s called Sky but I’ll be honest, I was really only along for the ride.
Second Montreal – early July is actually the best season. I’ve never known a people more happy than Canadians in mid-summer. There’s a major festival every week (Jazz festival, comedy festivals, etc.) and it’s beautiful and the food is wonderful (get a chocolate babka from Cheskie’s a the corner of Parc and Bernard, just trust me on this) and I started my best queer life in the Gay Village and the Mile End when I lived there a bunch of years ago.
A city with a good lesbian scene that’s fun, lively, and maybe has a beach? Maybe somewhere on the west coast like Portland or Bay area? Then do a day spas, or a trip to nearby vineyards, good food, and a some spots dedicated to lgbtq women.
Oh this sounds dreamy
GO ON VACATION! I love that your therapist instructed you to! I love Montreal! I also think portland area or Seattle would be fun too!
Third Montréal. We have a very short, hot, swelteringly humid summer and oh my are we ever explosively into it ! Festival after festival, as @theleafiest said. As an alt to July, you could aim for our Pride Festival which is in August, 10 days of queer exuberance, Aug. 8-18.
Regardless of the dates, there’s fun, food, and babes.
I live in Asheville NC and just saying, it’s beautiful. There are also flights from Newark (I’m from Jersey) to the Asheville airport for literally 45 dollars. Sooooo
hi archie, jorts are always the right call, i feel
this summer my look is gonna be shorteralls and i am e x c i t e d
SHORTERALLS <3 Excited with you!
EXCITED FOR US JAY
Shorteralls are such a good look that so rarely get the love they deserve
P I C T U R E S !!
I’m in the middle of a fashion journey at this time. My shoulders have only just now, in my 29th year, become a shape I like to see/have. I’m wearing polos at work instead of rolling up flannels, I fit in twice as many t-shirts as before, I’ve purchased tank tops(although I have yet to wear them outside, where I would burn in the shade)
I may be working up to the first summer of my life I don’t just determinedly pretend is not happening.
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┻━┻ ︵ ヽ(°□°ヽ)
┻━┻ ︵ ＼( °□° )／ ︵ ┻━┻
Yesssss there’s no time like now to wear those tanks out n about!! Why delay the summer sunburn any longer.
Love your table flips ! Artistic and thorough
For some reason, it’s March here instead of May; i.e. light jacket, and rain. I like jackets with pockets because I have more space to put stuff on me. I can have my wallet in the front pocket, phone in my inside jacket pocket, my keys by themselves in another, and hemp cigs + a zippo in another. Shirt pocket it also works as I can have my headphones separate from my phone and keys. More pockets the better. Speaking of which I need to get a new slimmer wallet. Hello, BTW you look great in all your pics and hope all the cuties say hello to you!
How is everyone’s week going? My week has been fairly good. Spend Sunday with my best friend as she had her going away party. It might be temporary as she may have lined up a job here at the end of summer, which would be great! I also got to meet some of her other friends, which included two very cool gay men that are sort of fatherly to her. One of them makes homemade medicinal peach jam(from the tree in their yard) and it tastes really nice and made me feel good. They host like musical events on the weekend. Yay to new friends! We went to a family owned Mexican restaurant for really good food and drinks. Then a wine bar, which made this tasty charcoal activated black wine slush. On our way back had a borderline negative interaction with a chatty lyft driver. No need to tell gal pals what to do after he drops us off.
I also got a refund check, which was a nice surprise. May use it towards either gas money for a vacation or bag for work or may be used lens if I am lucky on ebay. I also had way too many snacks this week so maybe it would be better spent on a used bike and me riding a bike more. Suggestions are welcome.
Not sure what my plans are for the long weekend, but there is a queer ladies event going on Sunday night that is focused around strippers. I am trying to see if any friends are interested in joining. Some is also hosting a beach day on Monday but will have to see what the weather is like. May just go to my new regular spot and take a nap or take my tablet and read.
One of the few images I can share from Sunday, me wearing the new AS They/Them pin(still needs to glow in the dark), which is excellent!
Thank you for viewing and reading my post. Have a positive and safe long weekend!
Way to represent AS merch! Also I forgot it was a long weekend for some folks until you wrote this
Thank you. Yeah AS merch is pretty great. I own the first one too, but my best friend has that one with her clothes somewhere. And have to get it back from her if she comes back or visit the mitten state.
I have some jean capris. They’re the closest I’ve come to wearing shorts in over 20 years.
As for blooming… well, it feels more like withering right now but that’s the nature of being a new grad and hunting for a job (especially while I’m stuck living with my parents [Note: Thankfully my parents are not part of the problem.] in Kansas D:).
Woof that is a tuff place to be to start the summer! Good luck job hunting!
Thank you! I’m sending my resume throughout the aerospace industry, so hopefully I’ll have something decent soon. :)
My stepdad decided to cut my leggings once because it was summer :( I was complaining about ‘I don’t have any shorts’ so he got scissors and just cut my leggings? Ironically, leggings are the long trousers which are actually cooler than shorts – they catch every breeze.
I finally decided to wear mostly ‘boy clothes’. I’m NB and keep going between ‘I’m a trans guy’, ‘I’m a butch lesbian’ and ‘I’m a really camp trans guy’. Is that other people’s experiences? It’s mine anyway.
I’m wearing the most feminine outfit I’ve worn all week. An AS t-shirt (the yes cats one), a pair of camel shorts, a hat (not sure its name) and my usual trainers. Even in this, I had some guy say ‘excuse me mate’.
Unless my stepdad or mum or the rude guy at the supermarket is outing me (my parents don’t do it on purpose, I’m trying to explain what non binary is to an old man and a middle aged woman who don’t ‘get it’), I get called mate everywhere I go with this haircut, especially by guys (women call everyone love especially handsome guys so I’m not fussed about that, women are laughing at my jokes more). I really like it. I’m trying to figure out why I like it, I suppose part of it is gendered but another part of it is that it just feels the right level of friendliness, female pet names feel either too patronising or too intimate.
Tomorrow – I have the football shirt everyone hates. It’s my birthday and it’s a new shirt so I’m getting it, besides I’m used to looking unusual and I personally don’t think it’s that bad. I like unique home shirts because they actually feel like they’re worth the £40. And a football jacket if it’s cold and jogging bottoms if it’s cold but shorts if it’s warm. Trying to work out how ‘ok’ I feel in my navy shorts with that shirt, otherwise going for these camel ones. And then I’m wearing a positive omen t shirt and a positive omen scarf I got 2 years ago.
I went shopping for my own presents and I got loads of clothes! Finally feel like my girl cousins feel, fashion obsessed. Ironic because I’m feeling so masculine but that’s just a stereotype that men can’t like fashion. I got a pair of navy shorts, a pair of navy jogging bottoms and a blue shirt with pictures of tropical islands on (which yes feels camp).
So yeah, I finally feel ‘into’ fashion. Haven’t dressed/looked this masculine since I was 14 and it makes me feel comfortable with how I’m treated/happy with how I’m treated and happy with the clothes I’m wearing.
Gener feels can be very confusing. I sometimes I am like maybe I am agender, no wait maybe a trans woman? Really I just don’t want to be seen as cis.
Happy birthday!
I feel the same about being cis het. Which is honestly kind of hard cos I’m bi anyway.
Or about flirting with someone who is less pretty than me. I know that sounds shallow but what I mean is ‘handsome’ doesn’t appeal to me, even in cis guys I’m into femininity.
Camp guy femininity feels different to me than female femininity. Less makeup and spa days more ABBA and brightly coloured shirts. Mostly I’m masculine but I feel like if I was AMAB I would be cis but a slightly camp bisexual.
I realised when I said that (especially the makeup thing) how silly I sounded.
Basically ‘as a woman’ I feel a pressure to wear ‘invisible makeup’. I feel like even Boy George isn’t pressurised to do that, only men on the news or something. It’s a personal feeling and even in myself, it doesn’t happen when I’m wearing Goth makeup or something else which is obvious and vibrant. And of course some guys like spa days etc.
Basically, the femininity I’ve felt pressured to like all my life I never have done but I still have a feminine side and it took a lot to admit that to myself.
Damnnnn gender! It’s hard! It’s confusing! It’s all over the place!
Happy birthday!! And I love buying myself clothes as presents to myself (birthday or not)!
I know, it really is! I’ve felt rubbish about it for so long and now I’m enjoying it.
I’m finally loving fashion :) Now I’m letting myself dress how I want, it’s fun rather than work. I only used to feel like that about football shirts. With other clothes, it was a nightmare of feeling bad and buying clothes I felt so-so in.
Part of the fun was I was choosing it myself but my parents got it :) Really nice of them :)
Thanks for the birthday wishes :) I really don’t feel 31 though! I thought I’d be a ‘grown up’ by now. I guess I’m grown up enough to know what I want from life and that’s mature enough.
There mere thought of taking a pair of scissors to any of my beloved jeans makes me want to break out in hives. I live in jeans, no matter what the weather. I’ve worn jeans in 52 degrees Celsius and I’ve worn jeans in minus 27 degrees Celsius. Denim Jeans is my mistress and I do nothing but bow before its rugged, hardy awesomeness.
Hahahah I love this comment I wouldn’t dream of cutting your jeans 🖤
Hi Archie! It’s fun to see you’re hosting a Friday Open Thread, and spring fashion is sooo your topic.
My outfits don’t really change that much from season to season, which can definitely get boring. For the past few years I’ve basically mixed things up by wearing different t-shirts, but I ended up with an absurd number (125!) of them and now they take up huge amounts of space. I have banned myself from buying more until I pare down the accumulated mass.
I’ve been trying to think of something different to “treat myself” to for spring, trying to think of something that won’t just be another t-shirt or another hoodie. Especially since I’m currently unemployed, I want it to be special! But all my ideas lose their appeal after a day or two.
“I have banned myself from buying more until I pare down the accumulated mass.”
I wish you the best of luck with that. Some of my tshirts are frankly older than most of the folx on AS.
OK that’s a very weird thing to say.
ANYWAY, suffice to say, Tshirts are quite possibly the only thing holding the Universe together, so… pare wisely.
Yessss to treating yourself but I know the STRUGGLE of wanting new clothes and somehow just ending up with…more graphic t-shirts.
Hmm I need to do that too. One of my shirts is 13! I got it as an 18 year old student and it’s very ‘studentish’.
There’s a ‘clothes swap’ in our local area so I might take it down to that.
For all those waiting in suspense, I bought new skateboarding shoes today. They should hopefully be more comfortable and support my ankles better than the ones I’ve been wearing. So I may have treated myself while also taking care of myself.
In spring I develop a lust for broad brimmed hats.
I tell myself I have enough of them already but my hair has darkened over the years and that white hat with the black trim would pop more than the 3 perfectly serviceable black hats I already have.
As I have an ungodly heat tolerance, I comfortably wear pants in 90F(32C), my look isn’t too far off from winter just less layers and no fluffy warm fabrics.
Also I do not like the way sunscreen feels and the sunscreens that feel the least icky aren’t cheap so the less of it I have to put on the better.
So it’s quite shocking for a friend of a friend who doesn’t really know me to see me at a queer dance party perfectly sober just dancing wearing a bra for a top. They expect modesty 100% of the time I guess or assume I’m body shy?
I don’t have any pictures of anything I wear really…put Janelle’s Q.U.E.E.N looks, casual office-wear, Lydia Deetz, and Marceline the Vampire on a budget into a blender and ta-da that’s the daytime look.
Your description of your look is AMAZING. Also kudos for being able to wear pants outside in 90F, I can’t even BE outside in 90F
It sounds amazing but most of the time I’m so lazy, unless I have to be somewhere appearance matters I’m in newish pants and a t-shirt nearing 15 years old and oh god I have a t-shirt of mine from 1999 that still fits. This is the Marceline aspect of “Are they a vampire or a packrat?”
The trade off for the ability to wear pants in 90F weather is 60F in April makes me suspicious and upset that winter hasn’t let go.
I’m a chicken legged baby who loathes cold and snow with an intensity one would expect from a person who grew up shoving it or maybe a crotchety senior citizen leery of falling, not a child of the subtropics.
LONG LIVE JORTS!!
I had a massive existential crisis last summer because I was moving towards a more masculine presentation and felt weird about most short situations (also, cargo shorts weren’t really my vibe) and I was anxious for MONTHS probably and then one day a week before autumn started I remembered jorts were a thing?????? and I was SAVED!!
I never buy shorts right off the rack! It’s so much easier for me to just do it myself than to find a pair that’s the actual fit I want
Archie, I love your optimism and your cutoffs but it is not shorts weather in Minneapolis!😉 It is the eternal damp.
Basically my seasonal clothing change is switching from sweaters and long sleeve tops with jeans (or dress pants for work) to t-shirts and short sleeve tops with jeans. Can’t wait to wear summer dresses!😲🌞
WHY IS IT STILL SO COLD IN MPLS!? I am in denial.
For the first time in basically forever I’m excited to wear my summer clothes, mostly shorts and crop tops! (both floral ofc! cause everything should be floral patterned) BUt also know that by July, my summer depression will have me craving the comfort of a sweater and winter movies lol
Enjoying what you can while you can is a good idea.
Yessssss!
I’m in Florida for work at the moment and I wore mostly flowy floral tops with knee-length jean shorts, and a couple of times a dress and once short-shorts, everything with my maxxed-out leg hair on display for every colleague to see. I’m usually too shy to show my leg hair at work, but it was too damned hot to hide it so I just pretended I was confident and rocked it. I was hoping it was a queer signal but actually I got more attention from guys? I had one blatant flirtation-ship and one friendship turn into a “maybe we should go on a date? I find you super attractive”, so I guess the leg hairs are working.
Yessss when I first stopped shaving I def had to fake it till I made it in terms of feeling confident about it all being on view! But now it’s not anything I think twice about
Thanks Archie, glad it gets easier! I’m cool with it in almost all settings now, but work and first dates are holdouts. The weather definitely helped encourage me :)
FOT feels like a great place to announce I’ve had a conclusion I don’t give a fuck about something.
The thing I don’t give a fuck about is if people think or view freeing slaves is villain coding in a character I have NOT written as a villain because that says something about them not me or any character.
Especially if those people happen to be fellow Americans because they of all people should be able to realise slavery as an institution to be something not easily or peaceably abolished. Even if they can’t detail the Civil War they know it happened.
Jeans and t-shirts year round. If it’s cold I’ll throw on some flannel. For outdoor activities, I will dress appropriately, usually involving performance t-shirts.
Archie, where is that chest harness from?? It’s great
Huh – I learn something new every time I read AS. I had no idea that cut-offs are now called jorts. I prefer cut off cargo shorts to cut off jeans – I like looser clothes in summer.
And hey! It’s finally warmed up in Chicago. Thursday evening it was warm enough to wear a maxi sundress and eat ice-cream outside.
My favorite part of summer is wearing sundresses. It’s the most femme thing this tomboy femme wears.
My mom recently told me that when I was a kid, she always felt like I was ready to march up a mountain while wearing a my favorite dress and really I don’t think much has changed.
Ah spring. Right now I’m living in jeans and leggings and tanktops and a baggy sweater i call blanket sweater. Once it gets warmer I dig out the crop tops. Currently I’m in Florida on vacation and it’s so so warm so I’ve broken out the shorts and my bathing suit has become a shirt. I ain’t complaining.
BTW Archie, I see you got photobombed…
Archie ARCHIE
1) these looks???? who gave you the right????!!
2) bless you for saying you wear the same outfits on rotation now i can finally live my truth (i mean ive been living it but now i can do it without shame)
3) all my spring looks are basically what we saw and will see at a camp, tanks and shorts/capris and sneakers MAYBE leggings if im feeling frisky but i am a comfortable butch and will only put on ‘fits when i know i can go from the event straight to a car that will lead me home otherwise im built for comfort not style like what if i need to carry someone (ever since giving ppl so many piggyback rides this is a constant thought for me)??? i cannot do those in not sneakers
4) i have work in literally one hour and have no idea what im wearing cause i slept through wash day believing “ill do it when i wake up early” knowing good and DAMN well i would do no such thing so ill have to share a pic later tonight
5) YOU LOOK SO DAMN GOOD + LOVE YOU hope youre having a great weekend!!!
Why would a parent be ok with calling their 8 year old trans son William but not ok with calling their 31 year old son Liam and insist on calling him by his birthname?
My mother is weird.
Yes jorts! With the kids, we’ve always followed the policy of any jeans with blown-out knees (which, let’s face it, is most of them by spring) get turned into cut-offs. I might be doing that with some of my own jeans before too long.
As it is, as I’m right across the river from you (okay, technically, I’m on the west side of the Mississippi, but with the way the river curves, it’s more like across the river from Minneapolis twice), I’m not quite ready to give up the lower half of my jeans quite yet.
So mostly I’ve been rocking jeans with a tee or tank, got my vintage Austrian army heavy field shirt that makes a perfect spring jacket, and I just got some purple Chucks which I am so pumped about because they’re perfect.
BTW, I am in awe of the red planet jacket. That’s amazing.