Inside DapperQ’s Groundbreakingly Queer NY Fashion Week Show

Since its very start, the fashion industry has been created and run by queer designers. Just look to some of the greats -- Giorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gaultier, Olivier Rousteing, Marc Jacobs, the late Alexander McQueen, the late Halston -- for reference.

The irony, perhaps, is that it's also an industry that rarely highlights any sense of queerness. Queer website DapperQ's annual runway show sets out to change that.

Entitled Bloom in partnership with Brooklyn Museum and sponsored by Transguy Supply and Meow Wolf, DapperQ's show is one that celebrates queer designers and their queer clothing, exploring a world where fashion falls into more than two binaries because, in reality, it does.

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

"A piece of fabric is not gendered. We assign that meaning to it," DapperQ creator Anita Dolce Vita says as she makes herself scarce backstage on Thursday night, giving room to the eight designers and over 70 models getting ready to take up space.

They step out and step in, out of boxes created for them, into new realities they're creating for themselves. Realities that reside on the third floor of the Brooklyn Museum with hundreds of people, whooping and cheering, affirming that this show means freedom to them, too.

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

LLESSUR NYC models glide, effortless but striking, using the runway to bend and shift in ways only Russell Peguero's designs allow. Those of Devonation ooze romance and whimsy, while models of THUY Custom Clothier flaunt sharp lines and tailored suiting. Stuzo highlights loud prints and colored fur. One model slips out of slinky, opera-length gloves, revealing a message -- "Protect Trans Kids" -- written on their forearms.

"Fashion is a form of self-expression," Stuzo founder and designer Stoney Michelli says backstage, a veteran of DapperQ's seventh annual show. "It's anything you want it to be, wherever your wildest imagination can go."

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

"When I was younger, if I had seen this representation, it might have catapulted me into this business a little quicker," they add (their designs are now worn by A-list actress Lena Waithe).

Hesta by Hester Sunshine's models strut in three words: fiery, red, plaid. Miniskirts, mini shorts, and vests meet clunky boots, some dripping in chains. Transguy Supply grants the crowd a show in tees and skin-tight briefs, giving cheeky a whole new meaning. LANDEROS NEW YORK plays with a white, black, and neon color palette, emphasizing angular cutouts. Freeman by Mickey marries rainbow with leather, each look building up to the designer's iconic finale -- a kiss of fervor shared between two models.

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

"For many years, [queer] designers and [designers] of color, especially in the United States, were seemingly overlooked," LANDEROS designer Andre Landeros Michel says. "This is the place where we are completely free to showcase our work."

But queer fashion is more than an escape from normativity. As Dolce Vita says, "it's a tool for rebellion. It's a means for liberation."

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

And what's better, it's an invitation for others to take part, like disabled and queer model Julian Gavino, whom some might know from his stint on Project Runway.

"It's not often that you see disabled models on the runway, and disabled and queer -- we usually really have to fight for our space in the fashion world," he says, assuring that this space is one of inclusivity.

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

With music blasting, drinks flowing, and crowds of queer folks bumping along, DapperQ's fashion show is entertainment and flare threaded with unapologetic inclusivity, a fashion week rarity. It's revolutionary in an industry idolized for its revolutions.

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

But lest we forget, queer designers created the mold we call "fashion." They will be the ones to change it.

Photo courtesy of @TheStreetSensei.

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