Fashion Week Got Political In The Best Way

Innovative designs and vibrant fabrics were not the only things taking up space at dapperQ’s recent New York Fashion Week show at the Brooklyn Museum.

On Sept. 5, the annual dapperQ event, billed as NYFW’s “largest LGBTQIA+ fashion show” and known for its celebratory boisterousness and activism, marked its ninth year — and it did not fail to deliver. Powerful performances punctuating the runway show highlighted global violence and our resistance, especially anti-Blackness, the need for transgender- and queer-inclusive health care, and body positivity. Models strutted to pop songs and freedom as well as the rhythmic, resounding calls from the audience. Looks were served, but the event was also a reminder that style is inherently political.

The show started with chants supporting Palestinian liberation reverberating throughout the museum’s rotunda, which set a mood immediately. Soon after, the brand FreeMen by Mickey featured a Black queer model death-dropping on the runway to Teyana Taylor’s “WTP,” a musical nod to queer ballroom culture. The fact that all of this happened in a space that’s been accused of perpetuating colonialism injected energy into the audience that lasted until the very end. The overarching theme was palpable: Resistance is always in style.

Barely able to stay in my seat, I was gushing over reimagined versions of some of my favorite New York style staples — leather anything, varsity jackets and oversize puffers — while also super engaged with the critical dialogue taking place between the clothing, the models, the music and the audience. In addition to FreeMen by Mickey, designs were featured from Transguy Supply, Zoe Grinfeld, Keith Kelly, Austin Alegria, Hanna Hamam and Jose Gonzalez. The experience was so much more than a fashion show; it was more like a pep rally with a very clear political message.

For those unfamiliar, dapperQ is a multipronged fashion platform that aims to celebrate the glorious spectrum of queer-affirming style. Its runway show gives space to an all-queer production team, designers and models as a way of combating the lack of diversity in the mainstream fashion industry and fashion week spaces.

Buffy Sierra, an artist who hosted and served as runway coordinator for the event, described it best in her introduction to the show, calling fashion “liberation…