Welcome back to Hi Femme!, dapperQ’s sibling visibility project celebrating the incredible contributions that stylish femmes make to queer fashion. This edition, we’re featuring Hannah Jennings-Voykovich, a 35 year-old queer woman from Auckland, New Zealand. She moved to Portland, OR six years ago to pursue love and a couple of roller derby championship dreams, and wildly managed to achieve both. When she’s not working my day job, you’ll find her chasing waterfalls or climbing walls with her girl Lindsey, running her dog Ziggy tired, or drinking sauvignon blanc on her porch.
Hi Femme!: Can you talk a bit about how you define queer femme style and what makes it transgressive?
Hannah: My version of queer femme style is deliberate and conscious. I want to be a visible queer woman in the world I live in. At work, I’m the only woman, only lesbian and only immigrant rolled into one; my otherness is already on display. My day-to-day style choices are a way for me to claim my otherness as my own. While I sometimes feel unlucky to work in a space where there are no other folks like me, I do understand what a privilege it is to choose visibility, and to actively take up space.
My experiences in the LGBTQ+ community are wildly different to my workplace, but I still think it’s important to wear my femme identity with pride. Femme presentation can read as straight to many, and I want to challenge this notion by dressing super femme, and super queer.
Hi Femme!: How would you describe your personal style?
Hannah: I enjoy bright colors, bold prints, costume jewelry, impractical shoes, and novelty purses. Sometimes I refer to my style as “human fruit salad;; other times I call it “drag queen-lite.”
Hi Femme!: Who are your fashion icon(s)?
Hannah: Iris Apfel. Lena Waithe. Janelle Monae. Sasha Velour. Lizzo. Tank (@thinktank20 from @tankandthebangas). The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, especially Sister Bearonce Knows (@bearonce_knows). Amina Mucciolo (@studiomucci). Troy Soloman (@abearnamedtroy).
Hi Femme!: What item in your style arsenal can you not live without?
Hannah CHEAP SHIT. My style needs color options to work, and I’m on a budget!
$5 NYX Liquid Suede lipsticks
$3 Easton Baseball belts
$5 vintage parrot necklace
Photos by Mattie Krall Photography (@mattiekrall). For more of Hannah’s style, follow on Instagram @hannerjv or on Twitter @hannahjvpdx
