On Sunday, February 16th, DapperQ and Whitney Day presented fashion for gender variants during New York Fashion Week.
Gender nonconforming people took center stage as 30+ models, representing brands who design clothing specifically for trans masculine, masculine-of-center, and gender non-conforming walked the runway during New York’s Fashion Week. Some of the brands ripping the runway were Designer Angie Chuang, Bindle & Keep, Bklyn Dry Goods, Charlieboy., Fourteen, Race Point Swimwear, and VEEA Androgynous Fashion.
The runway was graced with familiar faces such as Ryley Pogensky, one of the trans* models in Barneys New York new ad campaign, Sonny Oram of Qwear, as well as 30+ NYC queer models. Qwear is “a fashion website that serves as a platform for lesbians, queer women, and trans masculine people to share their experiences around clothing.”
wearing Topman, Bobby From Boston,
Wildfang, and Ambiance Couture.
(From PostureMag, by Allison Specter)
At the show were several outlets for fashion trends and the queer community including Qwear, Posture, Autostraddle, and Time Out New York. Sonny Oram, creator of Qwear, proudly walked the runway representing Wildfang with the button-down and Ambiance Couture with the bowtie. Outside of the “queer” centered designers, Oram also wore pants from Topman, socks from Topman, and shoes are vintage from Bobby From Boston. Although these resources are not centered on the gender variant community, they are increasing in popularity, according to Oram. Oram describes Bobby From Boston as, “a popular vintage menswear store… I don’t believe queers know about it as much as they should. Their shoe sizes are amazing for people with smaller feet. People love those shoes and always ask me where I got them because it’s so hard to find things of that quality nowadays for a good price.”
Oram became involved with the event through an invitation from Anita Dolce Vita of DapperQ. According to Oram, DapperQ and Qwear are “blog friends… and have done several collaborations.”
Gabrielle Rivera, writer, spoken word artist, director, and Autostraddle contributor, who wore BKLYN Dry Goods said, “It took me a minute to own that I’m going to be involved in this, to own my body, my shaky confidence, and to find pride in the amazing way that I’ve been asked to be a part of queer culture and QPOC visibility.” – DapperQ
@DapperQ and Lea DeLaria
The show was scheduled to feature Lea DeLaria of Orange Is the New Black, as well as see attendance from DeLaria’s cast member Laverne Cox. However, the pair were stuck upstate, according to DapperQ’s twitter account. DeLaria has rescheduled for an appearance during the fall New York Fashion Week event.
The fashion show and after party served as a marker for the 5 year anniversary of the queer fashion blog, DapperQ.
Other New York famous faces at the event included , famed New York City drag king entertainer Murray Hill as the MC and world renowned DJ Whitney Day.
Online Interview with Sonny Oram
*Note: I have reached out to Anita Dolce Vita to give their insight into the event. I will update the article once an interview has been completed.