Gay Lifestyles Exhibition
The Gay Lifestyles Exhibition was an annual consumer exhibition for the lesbian and gay market, held in London from 1992.
By 1994 the exhibition was in its third year. Writing in The Independent in November of that year, the journalist Mark Simpson cited it as evidence that style and grooming products had been marketed to gay men well before they were marketed to heterosexual ones, noting that it featured fashion shows and a range of men's products. The article in which he did so, "Here Come the Mirror Men", was the piece in which he coined the term metrosexual.[1]
Gay Lifestyles '94
The 1994 exhibition, branded Gay Lifestyles '94, was held at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 December 1994 under the slogan "Experience the sights, sounds and sensations". Publicity promised more than 250 exhibitors, and set out the range of the show: hairdressing, holidays, fitness, employment, clothing, home decoration, cookery, a disco, gay videos and Christmas shopping.[2]
Admission was £6.50 for one day in advance or £7.50 on the door, and £11.50 for both days in advance or £14 on the door, with reduced rates for parties of twenty or more. Tickets were sold by credit card on a central London number and over the counter at any branch of Clone Zone, then trading in London, Manchester, Blackpool and Birmingham. The organiser, identified in publicity only as CMA, operated from a telephone and fax number in the Henley-on-Thames area and also arranged a list of hotel accommodation for visitors.[2][3]
Exhibitors included the Back Pocket Guide, the free gay street map of London, which took a stall in both 1993 and 1994. The photographer Stuart Linden Rhodes photographed the 1994 exhibition; his images show stalls including one for an HIV and AIDS charity.[4]