‘Forms and Alterations’ breaks down stereotypes around queer fashion

A mannequin dons a dress made of bras; walls display photos of women wearing clothing made from inked-over pornographic photos.

The newest exhibition in Boston University’s 808 Gallery, “Forms & Alterations,” opened Friday. The show focuses on how people present their gender and sexual identities through fashion.

Featured pieces from the exhibition break gender boundaries and cultural norms to bring attention to the LGBTQ+ community, whose members have historically struggled to express themselves, according to Lynne Cooney, the artistic director of BU Art Galleries.

Much of the exhibition, Cooney said, includes avant-garde designs and unconventional materials to contest accepted and traditional stylings.

“A lot of artists are dealing with the politics of gender and identity,” Cooney said. “I was very interested in looking at performative quality because we perform what we wear and we perform in our bodies.”

While curating “Forms & Alterations,” Cooney made studio visits and researched potential contributors, most of whom are women or identify as queer. She said she wanted the exhibition to confront questions about gender identity while constructing novel concepts.

“These artists are dealing with issues in their work,” Cooney said.

Qwear, a fashion platform and one of the exhibit’s featured art contributors, premiered its new fashion line, Legendary Children, through an interactive performance on Friday that involved models reciting poetry and doing astrology readings for the audience.

Qwear partnered with Y2Y, an overnight young adult homeless shelter in Cambridge, to create the fashion line. Each Qwear model was able to design their own look and style to express themselves, an opportunity the designer’s website describes as “a revolutionary statement that models deserve autonomy over their bodies and presentations.”

Profits made from the fashion line will go in part to Y2Y.

Sonny Oram, founding editor of Qwear, said the brand’s goal was to help the LGBTQ+ community rise above stereotypes and express themselves however they felt most comfortable.

“I started Qwear in 2011 when fashion blogs were getting really big and I found very few blogs about queer fashion,” Oram said. “I wanted to strengthen our community by bringing everyone together on one platform.”

Oram said Qwear’s mission in “Forms & Alterations” was to combat the fashion industry’s body size standards by taking away the stage and “crafting each piece around the specifications of each model.”

Multiple artists reflect the urgency of overcoming obstacles for the queer community in their art. Brooklyn artist Katherine Hubbard presents a series of Polaroids where performance artist MPA wore construction materials like wood to contradict the typical comfort of everyday clothes.

“I didn’t realize there was such an overlap between gender, fashion and clothing,” said Eliza Shaw, a freshman in the College of Communication. “This made me very aware that there is an overlap.”

Morgan Williamson, a graduate assistant at BU Art Galleries, said the exhibition illustrates many of the uncomfortable topics people do not often talk about.

“This is about how gender is formed and identified through fashion and clothing,” Williamson said. “Some of these artists have taken these norms and are breaking them down.”

Featured artists in “Forms & Alterations” include Lisa Anne Auerbach, A.K. Burns, Claire Fleury and CarWash Collective, all women who have used their art as a way to express their gender and sexual identities. Some pieces also offered perspective on cultural stereotypes. Los Angeles-based Genevieve Gaignard displayed portraits of herself dressed as different roles and different races.

The exhibit will run through March 25 and will include special events like artist K8 Hardy’s “Outfitumentary,” which chronicles the evolution of Hardy’s personal style over 11 years, on Feb. 7 at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge.

“These artists are thinking about how to present identity in art and fashion,” Cooney said. “And who doesn’t love to think about a dress as a way to express identity?”