Powered by the People, NYFW in Brooklyn
By: Shannon Barbour
“All I wanna say is that they don’t really care about us.” Michael Jackson’s words opened dapperQ’s, a queer style site, iD fashion show and rang loudly in the ears of many who don’t feel represented or included in fashion, the media and often society. But New York Fashion Week, once synonymous with elite industry insiders who can score show invites from the likes of Tom Ford and Alexander Wang, is expanding, evolving and becoming more inclusive, especially in Brooklyn.
“With fashion week you have this idea that it’s this elitist thing for these glossy beautiful women in Manhattan,” said Jessey Finizio, Refinery29’s sales director. “We want to be where the real people are and for us the heart of culture and art especially is in Brooklyn.”
Brooklyn was host to many fashion week events including dapperQ’s Brooklyn Museum fashion show and Refinery29’s 29Rooms installation, at a warehouse in Bushwick, both free and open to the public.
The dapperQ show was dedicated to the victims of the Orlando, Fla. Pulse Nightclub shooting with collections by designers and models who represented the LGBTQ community. Angie Chuang, Sir New York, Sharpe Suiting, Nik Kacy Footwear, Stuzo, The Tailory New York, Thomas Thomas and We Are Mortals debuted their new collections Thursday night.
Refinery29’s second annual weekend long funhouse was filled with freebies, silent discos and collaborations with big hitters such as Michael Kors, Lady Gaga and Nicola Formichetti.
The crowds at the 29Rooms and dapperQ couldn’t be more different, yet all looking for a fashion week event to be a part of.
DapperQ attendees wore heels that would make a six-inch look like a sad kitten heel and vogueing was the dance of the night.
In Bushwick, a heat exhausted line wrapped around a warehouse across from the Morgan Avenue subway station waiting to sign waivers to enter the 29Rooms. The line of fashionistas, creatives and sensibly dressed selfie loving Instagram devotees cooled off with Perrier, ice cream and makeshift fans crafted out of Refinery29’s newspaper size map of participating locations in the neighborhood.
Sophy Stfort, a fashion designer and student, has attended a few fashion week events and shows in the past, including Jason Wu and Yeezy Season 3, but braved Refinery29’s long line this year because it was accessible to the public.
“I do design. I’m just looking for inspiration,” Stfort said. “Because as designers you find inspiration from almost anything.”
While others attended these Brooklyn events to say “we’re so hipster,” social and political topics were prominent, making fashion week more than the clothes. Fashion week has a message and a mission.
For Refinery29, the mission is to create a space where the public can enjoy art and express themselves in multiple ways.
The controversial Black Lives Matter movement was ever-present at the Brooklyn Museum. When Black Lives Matter was projected on the screen, the crowd and models raised their fists in solidarity. 29Rooms visitors wrote Black Lives Matter directly on the hot pink walls of Art Hoe Collective’s room. It was painted in bold, black, block letters and contrasted with a #nolivesmatter scribble in the room created by a group of artists of color.
“This year’s theme is called ‘powered by the people,’ Finizio said. “A lot of these different aspects are very interactive. We want to have people feel like they are part of the art and part of this movement and that’s something that we’ve committed to.”
Themes of inclusivity and diversity took shape at both events. At the 29Rooms installations allowed visitors to celebrate their bodies by posing behind white drapery hung from the ceiling while large colorful spotlights illuminated each body into a vibrant silhouette.
Meanwhile at dapperQ’s show, Amanda Hayden, a social worker, waited timidly to see the queer and body diverse models.
“My first feeling when I came into this room is that I was intimidated,” Hayden said. “A lot of people in here are really beautiful and really fashion forward … I think it’s hard when you’re constantly bombarded by images of bodies that are not representative of yourself.”
Some brands have branched out and started designing for various shapes and sizes, but Finizio cautions that it may take a while for that to become the norm.
“We’re having dialogue, but it’s going to be a while, I think, before the really high fashion brands adopt that,” Finizio said. “And once they embrace that and it trickles down to some of the more mass brands, that’s something you’ll start to see a change in.”
Until then, fashion and art lovers, whether they feel included or not, will have to continue advocating for representation until the changes they want to see are adopted by more mainstream brands. Luckily, publications like dapperQ and Refinery29 will continue to work to change the industry and inspire the public.
“It’s not about empowering people,” Finizio said. “It’s about inspiring the power that they have within them to take control of whatever aspect of their life that makes them feel like their own individual.”
