Unique Boutique: You never know what you might find!

TLDR: Visit us to find individually sourced, creatively crafted, environmentally responsible fabulous clothing and accessories. Everyone is welcome. Queer joy is resistance.

In Queer and Trans Fashion Brands: Resistance and Revolution in the 21st Century (2025), Kelly Reddy-Best details how the emergence of queer fashion styling as a declaration of our existence, as one way we recognize each other, and as how we decide how we are seen, can be acts of resistance. Declaring ourselves here and proudly queer through how we present ourselves has become one way we tell the world we are proud, and we are fabulous.

At the same time, because we all live under late capitalism, queer “branding” has become available to corporate interests for window dressing and profiteering, as the commodification of everything from ballroom culture to Pride marches attests. The haste with which large corporations used and then abandoned us when it was no longer politically advantageous (we’re looking at you, Target) help illustrate a surface-level investment in recognizing LGBTQ+ declarations of fashionable existence. Queer fashion brands, started by community members and allies who want to make it easier for butches, trans folk, non-binary and genderqueer people, and people of different sizes to feel good in bodies historically problematized, have to walk the line between financial sustainability and being co-opted by the fashion industry.

There’s also the pressing question of environmental sustainability. Queer performance artist and podcaster Peterson Toscano (https://www.petersontoscano.com/presentations), shows how if we want to survive as a species on this planet, our future has to be queer. Weaving together bible stories, queer history, and climate change, he demonstrates the collusion of patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, and capitalist waste and carelessness. Embracing new ways of being made possible by queer sensibilities allows us to imagine ourselves anew. This includes new ways of being with each other, and with the earth and its non-human inhabitants.

Starfish Art’s Unique Boutique is our small contribution to these complex issues, at this difficult political moment. We want to declare ourselves here. We want to make a safe space for queers of all kinds to feel beautiful and have fun. We want to establish a lovely community space for our lovely communities. We also want to thoughtfully and responsibly engage with what Reddy-Best calls commodity activism, to avoid advancing capitalism’s wasteful agenda.

So: When you visit us, you will find individual pieces of fabulous clothing and accessories. Some will be vintage pieces. Some will be upcycled. Some will be consigned. Some will be the results of classes we have held which focus on re-using what we have to make new and wonderful things for ourselves and each other.  We will sometimes also host local designers of all kinds of adornments and accessories. Come have fun with us, and let’s celebrate color and joy.