Color Outside the Lines: Creative Queer Businesses to Support
With Pride Month in full force, there’s no better time to celebrate the vision and unapologetic creativity of LGBTQIA+ owned brands. These bold, boundary-breaking businesses aren't just serving looks and products—they’re serving purpose. From powerful messages of love and identity to meaningful support for vital causes, these brands are making waves and rewriting the rules. Jejune Magazine is here to cheer them on and highlight the trailblazers making the world more inclusive, one idea at a time.
Customland
Who They Are: Customland is a space where you can personalize garments, express creativity, and find one-of-a-kind pieces. In-store, in Los Angeles, you can participate in a clothing swap, get clothes altered or repaired, or shop the independent label consignment shop. The owners also offer airbrush and embroidery lessons for $25.
Founders: Best friends Geeg and Halsey started Customland as a creative studio to upcycle clothing together. Eventually, Customland grew to what it is today. Geeg (They/Them) specializes in embroidery and tailoring. Halsey (She/Her) is the airbrush artist on site.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: Semi-monthly Customland hosts Laughs @ the Land, a comedy and fashion show. You can experience stand-up performances with fashion elements.
Material Grrrlz
Who Are They: Material Grrrlz connects a worldwide community of crafters through a website offering free knitting, crocheting, and sewing patterns. There are also community events every month that anyone can participate in. In the past, Material Grrrlz collaborated with Kate Spade in a bag charm-making workshop.
Founder: Alexa Kari (she/her) is a textile artist dedicated to celebrating the craft work of young women and queer people. Kari finds inspiration from big patterns, bright colors, and feminine silhouettes. She specializes in printmaking and textiles and hopes to inspire others to participate in the practice of craft through those mediums.
Price Range: $
Fun Fact: For $7 a month, you can subscribe to the “Snail Mail Grrl” membership and receive merch, every issue of their magazine, and other goodies.
Couplet Coffee
Who Are They: Couplet Coffee makes coffee more fun and approachable. Unlike other specialty coffee companies, Couplet Coffee isn’t pretentious and doesn’t hide the ingredients in each brew. You can also buy fun branded shirts and sweatshirts, super cute tote bags, appliances, and even get a consultation with a barista to learn more about coffee.
Founder: Gefen Skolnick (She/Her) started Couplet Coffee to bring the masses the love and joy of great-tasting specialty coffee. Skolnick markets Couplet Coffee as being built for everyone.
Price Range: $
Fun Fact: Couplet Coffee collaborates with artists for limited edition drops.
Automic Gold
Who Are They: Automic Gold is a size-inclusive jewelry line. Each piece is made of real gold, ethically and locally sourced in New York City. Automic Gold promises lasting pieces in a broader size range and selling at fair prices. The company's message is encouraging investment in recyclable, long-lasting pieces.
Founder: Al Sandmir (They/Them) created Automic Gold out of a desire for jewelry that wasn’t too masculine or too feminine but that fit genderqueer style. Sandmir has a background in metalsmithing and jewelry design. Each design takes inspiration from different cultures, this stems from their background as an indigenous, queer, non-binary person.
Price Range: $$$
Fun Fact: Each piece Automic Gold offers is tested for comfort.
Ash+Chess
Who Are They: Ash+Chess is a stationery and gift company featuring bold, playful, and retro-inspired designs. Because of its inclusive and affirming designs, A+C is popular amongst the LGBTQIA+ community. Over 1,000 retailers sell their art, and they recently opened a brick-and-mortar store.
Founder: Queer and trans couple Ashley Molesso (She/Her) and Chess Needham (He/Him) started Ash+Chess to uplift the queer community. Both are also the authors of many publications, including Queer Tartot: An Inclusive Deck and Guidebook and The Gay Agenda: A Modern Queer History and Handbook.
Price Range: $
Fun Fact: A+C has collaborated with brands such as Target, Smartfood, and Skittles for their Pride Month lines and designs.
The Peach Fuzz
Who Are They: The Peach Fuzz offers many fun things, such as clips in the shape of animal crackers, stickers, and other accessories. Through its art and products, Peach Fuzz advocates for many marginalized groups. Some of these groups include racism, sexism, climate change, mental health, and politics.
Founder: Elizabeth Hudy (She/Her) started The Peach Fuzz to make progressive advocacy accessible and fun, providing people with a colorful way to raise their voices. Hudy makes art to give people an outlet to scream that they should really care what happens to other people.
Price Range: $
Fun Fact: The Peach Fuzz has donated over $185,000 to charities, such as The Last Prisoner Project, National Abortion Network, and Root and Rebound, supporting various causes.
Phlemuns
Who Are They: Phlemuns is a black-owned fashion label selling unisex clothing. Each collection is crafted with intentional design and accessibility in mind. The brand approaches its business with an inclusive, slow fashion approach through the production process and the materials used.
Founder: James Flemons (He/Him) wanted to bridge the gap between elevated fashion and everyday communities, so he created Phlemuns. He finds inspiration in nostalgic elements and updated modern aesthetics.
Price Range: $$
Fun Fact: Celebrities like Bella Hadid and Solange Knowles have worn Phlemuns.
Leila Jinnah
Who Are They: Leila Jinnah is an accessories brand with elements of fine art, ethical and local production, and upcycled materials. Accessories include veils, bridal wear, jewelry, and scrunchies. Leila Jinnah has collaborated with many brands, such as Official Rebrand and Laal.
Founder: Leila Jinnah (She/They) is a fashion designer, artist, and art director known for her unique, often hand-painted designs.
Price Range: $$$
Fun Fact: Model Coco Rocha has worn a hat designed by Leila Jinah.
Cocolab
Who Are They: Cocolab is an oral hygiene brand that makes products that you’ll never want to stop using. Their most popular floss product is woven with 85% recycled polyester spun from water bottles that would have otherwise ended up in landfills. Each floss dispenser is reusable after all the floss is used up; you just need to buy the refill.
Founder: Two sisters, Chrystle (She/Her), a dentist, and Cat (She/Her), an artist, started Cocolab to make flossing more fun, motivating, and rewarding for everyone with products that rebuild oral health and nurture well-being.
Price Range: $
Fun Fact: Cocolab sells 14 flavors of floss, including mint, watermelon, strawberry, confetti cake, and apple cinnamon.
Goodlight
Who Are They: Goodlight is beauty beyond the binary. Its products and purpose promote a more inclusive definition of beauty. The brand motto is that everyone deserves to step into their light and be celebrated for authenticity. Goodlight is also gender-inclusive. All products are formulated to be clean, vegan, cruelty-free, and sustainably produced.
Founder: David Yi (He/Him) is a leader in men’s beauty, identity, and Asian American advocacy. He champions DEI and advocates for inclusion in media. He has also written the book PRETTY BOYS. Yi has committed 1% of sales to True Colors United.
Price Range: $
Fun Fact: Goodlights' logo features a moth, a powerful symbol for many of us who decide that we never needed external validation to conjure our own good light.
LGBTQIA+ small businesses play a vital role in creating inclusive, community-focused spaces. Many also embrace sustainable practices, showing that business can be ethical and impactful. Supporting them means uplifting diverse voices and fostering a more colorful equitable economy.
