Lina Lecaro
As Pride month wraps up this week, we take a look at the colorful array of merchandise (fashion, accessories, beauty products, cannabis goodies) released for 2019, much of it via L.A.-based companies or brands with huge L.A. presence. Beyond signifying LGBTQ+ culture’s enduring fight for equality and celebration of freedom to love who we want, rainbows are cheerful and visually appealing. There’s not much to dislike about them regardless of sexuality. Some companies brandishing their products in spectrum hues seem interested on hopping on the queerwagon more for monetary reasons, than caring about the community, but thankfully this is the exception not the rule. Most in fact, donate to LGBTQ+ causes.
Ikea partnered with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) to release a rainbow shopping bag for $3.99, with all proceeds going toward HRCF’s educational programs for LGBTQ people. Target‘s Pride collection is one of the biggest and they donated $100,000 to GLSEN, an organization dedicated to making schools safe and inclusive, at launch. H&M‘s Pride collection, which has trans activist and actress Laverne Cox as lead spokesmodel, donates 10 percent of all global sales to United Nations’ Free & Equal Campaign. Doll’s Kill (which has a popular flagship store in L.A. on Fairfax Avenue) is donating a portion of sales from their” Club Exx Pride” collection to LYRIC — a center for LGTBQ youth in San Francisco, where they’re based. Burbank-based Unique Vintage revealed its second collection in support of the LGBTQ+ community this month with 10 percent of sales donated to The Trevor Project (providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention to LGBTQ+ youth). And American Apparel (yes, they are still around!) has a Pride line with proceeds going to the Los Angeles LGBT Center and, specifically, the center’s Trans-Cosmetic Drive. If you like anything here, get to shopping now — many of these company donations cease in July!
In addition to style statements, other rainbow products that garnered buzz include: Listerine‘s Pride-packaged mouthwash (but why?), OGX shampoos and conditioners, Shake Shack‘s Pride shake (not really “rainbow”), and The Melt’s rainbow grilled cheese (yuck). Dr. Martens made rainbow boots as they have in the past, Fossil did a rainbow watch, and funky local sock company Gumball Poodle put out more fun rainbow statement socks with the words “Gay,” “Love” and more. The cannabis industry attempted to tap into smokers celebrations of sexual freedom too — Medmen did a Pride line and Nuvata vape pens marketed their colored-coded “Mind-Body” series (each shade evokes a different mood) as a Pride flag you can toke. Rounding out the rainbow raging, makeup companies such as MAC and Urban Decay touted new products in every shade (and encouraged wearing them all at once) and influencers such as drag superstar Aquaria (with Nyx) and You Tuber Jessie Paege (with Tarte) released vibrant Pride-inspired eyeshadow palettes.
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