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Mr Capital Pride Leather 2008

Back of a man standing outside on a busy sidewalk. He is wearing thigh-high leather boots, a thong with a red handkerchief tucked into the band, a leather cap, and a leather vest with bedazzled text reading MR CAPITAL PRIDE LEATHER 2008.

Boss Tweed, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Leather came to be associated with the queer community post World War II, when veteran motorcycle clubs began to pop up— some for gay men, only. Leather came to be associated with masculinity, helped by popular media like The Wild One (1953) with Marlon Brando, and gay men were drawn to this masculine style of leather jackets and caps. The handkerchief or hanky code, known as flagging, were quiet signifiers of sexual interests among the queer community. Everything down to the colour and placement told people who were in the know exactly what the wearer was looking for. This man at a Pride parade in New York City in 2009 is using both the leather and red handkerchief to express himself.