From the clothing, to hair and makeup, and all the way to the venue, fashion week is all about pushing boundaries. Yes, people are wondering if top models will be gracing the runway, and if they can get their photos snapped by street style photographers, but fashion week has a much deeper meaning now. For years, the fashion industry has been called out on not being diverse enough and not promoting enough inclusivity throughout the media and campaigns, and especially at fashion shows. Whether it’s editors of color who’ve shared that street style photographers ignore their looks on the street, or models who’ve stated they haven’t been cast based solely on the color of their skin, voices are louder than ever. The LGBTQ+ community doesn’t get much love as fashion month takes off, especially on the catwalk, but now change is coming for that too.
DapperQ’s catwalk is defying the stereotype of what a model “should” look like with models from all walks of the LGBTQ+ community to showcase their gender non-conforming pieces.
Founded by Anita Dolce Vita, dapperQ’s theme this NYFW was ‘dress code’, with the goal of unifying 10 designers whose intention was to strip the gender conformity associated with fashion, in their words, ‘queering’ it and exhibiting the talents of LGBTQ+ designers.
The theme was there to challenge designers to decode clothing and to take down stereotypes that are associated with certain garments. More than 65 models strutted their stuff on the catwalk at the Brooklyn Museum this year, contributing to what Dolce Vita calls the “queer fashion revolution, one of the most stylish forms of protest of our generation.” The models were all-encompassing in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and body type and featured athleisure, suiting, intimates and more, making it the most inclusive NYFW show to date.
For the fifth year in a row, dapperQ broke down the barriers and stereotypes in the fashion and LGBTQ+ communities alike. Dolce Vita shines a rainbow lens onto a world that leans so thin and white when it comes to both designers and models for her shows. Can we get an amen?
DapperQ is the premier queer style and empowerment website specifically for masculine presenting women and trans-identified individuals. Dubbed GQ for the “unconventionally masculine,” dapperQ was among the first digital spaces to champion “menswear” for those traditionally under-served by mainstream menswear media and designers.
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