Need to Know
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US – New York-based label DAMES has dropped a new collection of clothes and accessories merging street style and street sense, designed to bolster women’s safety thanks to built-in self-defence features.

Founded by domestic violence and sexual assault survivor Mary Katlyn O’Malley, DAMES’s ambition goes beyond apparel, building a community empowering young women to ‘be free, to be cool and to not take any sh-t’.

To that end, the brand’s collection, Safe Space, is a modern-day armour for women, drawing on workwear staple pieces such as holographic elements or reflective fabrics to inspire a feeling of protection and confidence for the wearer. The line also carries wearable self-defence accessories in the shape of a Power Puff Knuckle spike ring with brass, a hyper-whistle, a safety alarm, and a Safety Spike Lipstick with a hidden switch blade.

‘I created DAMES so women could be safe and sexy at the same time,’ explains O’Malley, adding that ultimately, the brand’s socially charged Doom Dressing is denouncing the fact that women have accepted the feeling of being unsafe as being normal.

US – A new study has revealed a positive correlation between being transgender or gender non-conforming and the prevalence of sleep disorders in young people, with a concerning number of individuals in that group suffering from poor sleep quality.

In a bid to better understand youth’s sleep health under the lens of gender studies, researchers from the University of Michigan polled over 1.2m young people aged 12–25, of which 2,603 identify as transgender or gender non-conforming. The results are alarming – transgender teens and young adults have been found to be four times more likely to have a sleep disorder than cisgender peers.

An overall suboptimal mental health may contribute to poorer sleep health among LGBTQ+ individuals, as depression and anxiety are known to worsen sleep quality. In addition, researchers suspect that gender-affirming therapy has a positive impact on transgender youth’s sleep health, as it is proved to improve overall mental health and suppress stress factors linked to insomnia.

The study advocates screening and testing this population for sleep disorders to better support them, and stresses the ever-growing importance of the Queer Care Market in addressing LGBTQ+ health challenges.