Amsterdam Rainbow Dress visits Vancouver just in time for Pride celebrations

Local icons Kendall Gender, Jaylene Thyme, and Norma Lize are photographed in the gown made of flags from countries where being LGBTQ2SIA+ is punishable by law

Icesis Couture at the National Gallery of Canada. Photo: Amsterdam Rainbow Dress Foundation & Adam Zivo

 
 

THE FAMED, 52-FOOT-TALL- AMSTERDAM Rainbow Dress is visiting Vancouver, just ahead of the 2023 Vancouver Pride Parade on August 6.

Created by the Netherlands’ Arnout van Krimpen in 2016, the dress depicts flags from 68 countries where it is punishable by law to be LGBTQ2SIA+—including the flags of eight countries in which homosexual acts can result in the death penalty. The bodice is made from the Amsterdam city flag.

The Rainbow Dress has been shown around the world to prompt debate and awareness about inclusion and equal rights. Along the way, it’s been modelled by a variety of people from the global LGBTQ2SIA+ community, in countries including Australia, Denmark, Mozambique, South Africa, the United States, and Sweden. The dress is shown through a widely shared fashion-art photo series (see past images from around the globe here).

While making its debut on Canada’s West Coast, the flag-adorned gown is being photographed by Jamie Mann, at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which it hit today, as well as on Jericho Beach and at the B.C. Parliament Building in Victoria. For the shoots, the dress is being worn by three local queer icons: Kendall Gender (runner up Canada’s Drag Race season 2), Jaylene Thyme (a Two Spirit Indigenous advocate), and Norma Lize (trans activist and member of Rainbow Refugee).

“In addition to our call for eliminating existing anti LGBTIQ+ legislations, we want to make our own community and our allies constantly aware that freedom needs to be maintained," Arnout van Krimpen said in the announcement today. :”Freedom needs love, freedom needs care because it is the most precious thing we have.”  

 
 
 
 
 

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ART & DESIGN, NEWSJanet SmithVancouver Art Gallery, Pride, LGBTQ+