Welcome back to Hi Femme!, dapperQ’s sibling visibility project celebrating the incredible contributions that stylish femmes make to the queer fashion landscape. For this edition, we’re featuring Corinne Kai, a writer, budding sex educator, sometimes poet and girl on the move currently residing in Brooklyn, NY. She looks at the world through the lens of an anti-capitalist, pleasure activist, femme-of-center queer woman. Corinne is a RAINN Speakers Bureau volunteer and is published on sites like Teen Vogue, Feministing and GO Magazine.
Corinne hopes to bridge the gap between anti-sexual assault advocacy work and queer positive sex education. She strongly believes in the power of language and accessibility. She has previously spoken and done sex positive workshops at many colleges, high schools and community centers.
Hi Femme! Can you talk a bit about how you define queer femme style and what makes it transgressive?
Corinne: Being queer and femme is about strength, divinity, healing and empowerment for me. I feel like so often, the power that comes from femmes uniting is what has pushed forward the queer community. When we are able to recognize that femininity does not equate what the mainstream wants us to believe (weak, soft spoken, cute, ditzy) we will be able to have true equality of gender expression. To me, being a queer femme is about so much more than style. It’s about emotional labor, witchiness, general badassery, fulfillment. And I think, with clothes, I am able to express that. But the truly transgressive thing that comes from queer femme fashion is that femmes are every gender identity. And when we come together in our femme-ness, we are able to celebrate something that society teaches us isn’t worth celebrating: femininity.
Hi Femme! How would you describe your personal style?
Corinne: My style is really inspired by the 80’s but in all dark colors. I can’t get enough pairs of mom jeans and jackets with padded shoulders and knee high socks will never go out of style, in my opinion. If I had to make my style definable, I would say dark, golden, 80’s inspired chic.
Hi Femme! Who are your fashion icon(s)?
Corinne: That’s a really hard question for me because I often find style inspiration from walking around the city and seeing architecture or lines in the sky. But lately, I’ve been incredible inspired by Hari Nef’s style. So good. I also am obsessed with the style of this person I follow on Instagram, the Creative Director of Little Beast, Stephen Alexander.
Hi Femme! What item in your style arsenal can you not live without?
Corinne: Only one? Okay, I would have to say my gold Crave vibrator necklace. I feel so empowered when I wear it, and it’s perfect because I’m also a sex educator!
Want more of Corinne’s inspirational style? Follow her on Instagram at @corinne_kai, on Twitter at @corinnekai_, or one her website at www.corinnekai.com.
