k.d. lang and Cindy Crawford on the cover of Vanity Fair

Hetero women have long been inveigled into buying lipstick by impossibly gorgeous lovelies in advertising, but in the early 90s for the first time the top fashion houses opted for overtly Sapphic imagery to sell their wares. Chalk it up to ‘lipstick lesbianism,’ a trend spawned by the movie The Hunger in which Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon go at it as lady vampires, or Madonna playfully flirting (and maybe more) with her lezza muckers, but it crested with Cindy Crawford shaving k.d. lang’s face on the cover of the August 1993 issue of WASP bible Vanity Fair.

Looking back now it’s hard to appreciate its impact, but back then it pressed more than a few red buttons. Later, Cindy sort of ruined the effect when she and then hubby, Richard Gere, issued a statement declaring their avowed heterosexuality. The only consolation being that their marriage lasted no longer than a strawberry season. Oh, dear.