June 26, 2015
Summer Swimsuits: Show Your Pride!
Matthew Wexler READ TIME: 6 MIN.
We've painted it on our faces (or other body parts), waved it high above our heads and marched down city blocks around the globe with massive versions of it stitched together for all the world to see.
The rainbow flag, created by Gilbert Baker as a challenge from the indomitable Harvey Milk, first flew as part of the 1978 "Gay Freedom Day" in San Francisco. Baker once said, "The flag is an action -- it's more than just the cloth and the stripes. When a person puts the Rainbow Flag on his car or his house, they're not just flying a flag. They're taking action."
EDGE pays homage to the iconic symbol of our LGBT community, along with a few choice words about what those colors mean to some. Choose your palette wisely - it's Pride season, and eyes are wandering!
RED
"I'm in love with red. I think it's such a passionate color. Every flag of every country pretty much has red in it. It's power; there's no fence-sitting with red. Either you love it or you don't. I think its blood and strength and life." - Bryan Batt
Pistol Pete Tactic Midcut ($52.50)
www.pistolpete.com
ORANGE
"If love were a color, it'd be orange. Not because that's a romantic color, but because it's the sweetest. If you want to know how I feel about you, I just made some juice out of it. Grab a glass -- a tall one."
?Jarod Kintz, "This Book Is Not FOR SALE"
Mr. Turk Sorrento Swim Trunk ($118)
www.trinaturk.com
YELLOW
"I just go with the flow, I follow the yellow brick road. I don't know where it's going to lead me, but I follow it."
-Grace Jones
Rufskin Grant ($49)
www.rufskin.com
GREEN
"He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals."
-Oscar Wilde
T. Christopher Manhattan Trunk ($170)
www.t-christopher.com
BLUE
"Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore."
-Lord Byron
Nautica Palm Print Swim Trunk ($69.50)
www.nautica.com/mens-swim
PURPLE
"Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple."
-Regina Brett
(l) T. Christopher Newport Trunk ($140); Blue Kaleidoscope ($140)
www.t-christopher.com
Matthew Wexler is EDGE's Senior Editor, Features & Branded Content. More of his writing can be found at www.wexlerwrites.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @wexlerwrites.
