Queer fashion returned to the runway on Thursday with dapperQ’s seventh annual fashion show, kicking off New York Fashion Week.
The show, which returned following a two-year hiatus during the Covid pandemic, featured work by eight LGBTQ+ designers: DEVONATION, FreeMen by Mickey, Hesta, LANDEROS NEW YORK, LLESSUR NYC, Stuzo Clothing, THÚY Custom Clothier, and Transguy Supply.
Queer artist Cakes Da Killa opened the show with a musical number. Drinks were supplied by Henrietta Hudson.
The show, a celebration of queer and gender-bending fashion, took on a particular resonance this year, as anti-LGBTQ+ bills surge in state houses around the country. “We are a direct defiance of that,” Anita Dolce Vita, owner of dapperQ, told NBC. “Standing in our truths and showing up as our most authentic selves is beautiful, but it is also dangerous. So, creating this space is so important because it is a safe space.”
In addition to featuring out designers, the show also featured a variety of LGBTQ+ models of different sexual orientations, gender identities, and abilities.
“As a queer and disabled person, I’m not usually represented on the runway,” said model Julian Gavino, speaking to NBC. He said that he took to the runway “for my younger self and other younger people who may be out there and thinking, ‘nobody looks like me’ because I used to also think ‘no one looked like me.’”
GO Magazine Managing Editor Dayna Troisi was in attendance alongside other queer writers, influencers, reporters, and personalities. For those who weren’t able to attend the seventh annual dapperQ fashion show in person, check out the rest of Grace Chu’s photos for GO Magazine here.
