100 Women We Love

by Melody Wells, editor

July 10, 2008

Tags: 100 women we love, activists, annie leibovitz, artists, cynthia nixon, daniela sea, entrepeneurs, god-des and she, heather matarazzo, jackie warner, jane lynch, kate clinton, lesbian, martina navratilova, melissa etheridge, politicians, suze orman

Niki Cutler
Cutler’s urban apparel line "for lesbians, by lesbians" began with informal "bitch sessions" at a coffee shop in Baltimore, Maryland. She and a friend emblazoned a few t-shirts, and Dykes in the City (DITC) took shape, announcing lesbians as serious models and unique fashion consumers. The fashion line courts both butch and femme, and blends playful with political. One olive-green army jacket reads, "DO ask, DO Tell"; a camouflage t-shirt proclaims "NO TO BOMBS. YES TO BOMBSHELLS." The U.S. patent office denied Cutler a copyright, claiming that "dyke" was a derogatory word, but DITC continues to deck out lesbians in their own dignified class of fashion, blurring gender lines and affirming that hotness knows no bounds. –LF