A Love Story: Reid Günter

Reid wears the Issey Miyake static-print top and Song for the Mute's rainbow woven jacket and straight-leg trousers.

For those privvy to Perth's vibrant hospitality scene, Reid Günter has long been a familiar face. Now, Reid is building upon her experience in the industry to foster a safer, stronger community for womxn through her work with Mix Haus. Dilettante caught up with Reid on set for Ashley Brockman's Love Story.

Earlier this year you co-founded Mix Haus. Can you tell us about the project and what it works to achieve?
Our core mission is to create an open and safe community to support all womxn in hospitality. The womxn who founded Mix Haus—Shirley Yeung, Pippa Canavan and myself—aim to educate, train and nurture future and current industry leaders to sustain more opportunities for womxn in the industry. It’s a group for womxn, founded by womxn. Mix Haus is here to bring a mix of people, with a mix of talent, to open a mix of opportunities!

What provided the initial spark for the founding of Mix Haus?
The idea for Mix Haus was born from frustration; of there not being a direct resource or community support that was purely for womxn in hospitality in Perth, especially one with a queer perspective.

Reid wears the Jaga black satin v-neck dress and Christian Wijnants coated cotton trench. Junior wears the Christian Wijnants ruffle-detail long dress.

Mix Haus prefers the term ‘womxn’, which may be an unfamiliar term to some of our readers. Would you be able to expand on the inclusivity of this term and why it’s the right choice for Mix Haus?
Womxn is a term intended to be more inclusive of transgender women. A lot of the time queer womxn are less recognised within an array of circumstances and professions, and this all-encompassing term celebrates the equality that everyone deserves.

I've heard you mention your new focus on being "unapologetically" trans. What does that look like for you?
My progression within my own transition has been stunted by an engrained construct called ‘permission-seeking’. Transitioning doesn’t look like any one thing; more often than not people have a pre-conceived idea of what a transgender body looks like. I have spent most of my transition seeking permission for validation and acceptance of my transgender body, trying to cater to what people expect a transgender woman to look like. Realising the dangers of conforming to what others expect of me, I am moving forward, unapologetically, into my individual self. I dress and present however I feel comfortable in the moment, and that does not make me any less transgender or any less of a woman.

From left to right: Stryker wears the Issey Miyake ray-print pleated dress. Reid in Song for the Mute's rainbow jacket. Opie in Comme des Garçons' brocade jacket and the Christian Wijnants striped shirt, with Jean-François Mimilla's drop earring.

How do fashion and clothing allow you to mediate your identity?
The clothing I wear and the fashion choices I make solely express how I feel on a day. As a transgender woman people continue to judge me silently, verbally, or physically based on what I wear. This is obviously tumultuous and taxing, but after a period of feeling silenced and seeking permission for basic respect, I have come to a point where I will no longer apologise for the clothes I wear. Instead, I will enjoy them and continue to be proud in my identity as a transgender woman.

Your personal wardrobe is entirely black! What draws you to black?
In the beginning of my transition, I decidedly wore black as a safety measure. I thought that by wearing monochromatic black, people wouldn’t feel so obliged to confront or attack me. However, as I’ve become more in touch with who I am, I now understand the power in limiting the colour that I wear. I choose to wear black as I don’t need colour to represent who I am. Black is every colour, combined. This choice has opened my eyes up to texture, quality, pattern, shape and structure.

Colours and shades are not assigned to any gender. Understanding this created a huge impact on me; since then, I feel challenged to pick out what I wear in a day with this limitation on colour—call it a gentle pushing of boundaries.

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See the full Love Story with Ashley Brockman here.

Photography: Tülay Dinçel.
Creative Direction: Ashley Brockman.
Hair: Pauline McCabe for Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Makeup: Ashley Brockman and Shana MacKinnon for Artists@Play.
Models: Reid Günter, Junior Moyo, Strykermeyer, Opie Robinson.
Production assistant: Stuart Williamson.
Hair assistants: Jodie Woodhall, Jasmin Montaut, Elle Rose Corby, Halle Crawford.