Status Symbol

GS Life and Style lets ’em know you’re single and ready to mingle.

Four years ago Jacqueline Sharlup walked into a restaurant and noticed a woman who worked there, smiling at her. Jackie wondered, “Is she smiling at me because she thinks I’m pretty? Is she smiling at me because that’s her job? Is she smiling at me because she just thought of something funny?”

Sharlup left the restaurant and sat in her car, wondering what to do. “I was so dying to say to her, ‘Do you want to go get a cup of tea or something?’ ”

It can be a very uncomfortable and scary thing to approach a cute stranger, especially if it’s unclear whether or not she rides the same bus.

Sharlup didn’t return to the restaurant, but that moment was the inspiration behind her new jewelry line, GS Life and Style. The GS (or “gay and single”) pendants are made of high-quality stainless steel and come in a variety of designs. The pendants take the guesswork out of meeting people, and Sharlup has now added T-shirts to the GS line.

The pendants are a modern turn on a concept that goes back generations. Symbols of lesbianism and availability that have shown up in the past range from cock rings worn around women’s necks in 1970s San Francisco, to a colored handkerchief out the back pocket; in the early 1900s it was common for women to give one another violets as a symbol of their affection; in the 7th century Sappho’s poems describe her and a lover wearing garlands of violets.

Sharlup has a timeless and borderless vision for her symbol. “I would like for GS to go and travel all over the world. I don’t want to say it’s a problem or an issue but most people feel the desire to have that special person by their side. [

GS pendants] can help people to connect to each other because you really just have to wear it. You don’t have to go to a gay bar, you don’t have to go on a gay dating site.

Not to push those things down, but a lot of people don’t want to do that stuff. They just want to live their life every day, go to the supermarket and have the possibility of bumping into somebody and maybe getting a date or making a connection.”

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