How Lesbians Invented Fashion (And Monocles), feat. Ellie Medhurst

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HAVE YOU HEARD OF FASHION?
HAVE YOU HEARD OF LESBIANS?
Well then, this might be the episode for you.

Now, we all know lesbians can chop wood and bring order to almost any situation – that is why they are so highly paid, and why I, personally, feel subservient to them. #GayRights

And yet, despite their near-total domination of the world order (and my life), fashion is not one of the accomplishments we typically associate with our lesbian overlords.

This is bigoted and historically wrong, because many lesbian women helped invent Fashion.

Some of the most notorious lesbian and bisexual women over the last 500 years were known for their bold fashion choices, from King Christina's equestrian menswear to Anne Lister's combinations of lace bonnets and lordly overcoats. (If one is going to extract coal from one's lands, one must always serve cunt.)

In the last two centuries, in particular, lesbians got even more experimental. The Sapphic revival in the Victorian Era brought Grecian fabrics to prewar England and France, while the Post-WWI Gender Revolution brought monocles and tailored suits to Berlin, Paris, and Harlem.

These advances in sartorial lesbian technology didn't just allow women to experiment with fashion. They allowed lesbians to do what they do best: find one another, fall in love, move in together, break up, and then fall in love with each other's exes.

AND THEY LOOKED FIERCE WHILE DOING IT.

Join Bash and his lesbian fashionista expert guest this week, Eleanor Medhurst, as they uncover and recover the story of what lesbians wore and why we're still talking about it today.

Florals for spring may be groundbreaking – but lesbian fashion has always been herstory-making. (I'll workshop it...)

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Episode Credits

Written and hosted by Bash
Edited by Alex Toskas
Produced by Dani Henion
Guest: Eleanor Medhurst

© Sebastian Hendra 2026

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