Kayla Guminiak works in New York helping to create costumes for theatrical productions. Not only is she a dressmaker for others, but she also has a tradition of making a dress for herself each year for Pride.
Last year, Guminiak sported a dress that had presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s face across a rainbow print. But this year’s dress has made her a Twitter celebrity.
It was a tweet from last year’s Pride month that inspired the dressmaker’s latest Pride outfit.
Last June, as you may recall, there was an awful lot of hype about the new Ghostbusters movie starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and SNL cast members Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. While there were a ridiculous number of complaints about the female-led remake of the 1980s hit comedies, the unwanted attention wasn’t exclusively negative towards this film and its stars.
In fact, some people were a little too enthusiastic about the all female cast. One Twitter user was creeping on Kate McKinnon and her SNL co-star came to her defense with a simple tweet:
Guminiak knew she had to use this “iconic” tweet for her 2017 Pride dress.
“It was just so ridiculous and silly and fun, and I love making and wearing ridiculous, silly, and fun things, so I decided to do it,” she told BuzzFeed.
Guminiak designed her own fabric, which featured Jones’ hilarious tweet with rainbow print and sent it off to Spoonflower to have the material made. Then as she explained in her Twitter feed, the dressmaker “used the strapless bodice pattern from @SewGertieSew’s Ultimate Dress Book (but obviously added straps) with a simple gathered skirt.”
The New York woman was particularly proud of those straps and posted about them on her Twitter account, too:
“The straps of my Pride dress just say ‘she gay’ over and over again and it is probably the best design choice I have ever made.”
A Message to “Creepy Dudes”
“No woman enjoys unwanted advances by creepy dudes, either on the internet or in real life, and so often we just ignore it, so it’s nice to see somebody actually say ‘stop it,'” Guminiak told BuzzFeed.
“And as a gay woman (especially as a feminine, often-assumed-straight gay woman), there have been times when I’ve been hit on and I just want to yell ‘I’m gay, dude, stop it!’ So, plastering it all over my body seemed like a pretty good choice.”
Viral Appeal
On June 25, Guminiak tweeted a thank you to Leslie Jones for inspiring this year’s Pride dress. The Tweet has since been shared almost 5,000 times with nearly 20,000 likes.
Hundreds have complimented the dressmaker for her work, with many requesting their own “she gay” dresses. Guminiak hasn’t completely ruled out the idea of making dresses for others and estimates it would cost $250-300 for a custom dress.
One thing she wasn’t expecting was nationwide attention for her dress. A couple of days after her Tweet went viral Guminiak joked that she would probably have to come out to her family now that she’s famous.