Queer AF fashion show a celebration of LGBT style and culture – Worcester Mag
The line to get into the Palladium on Sept. 9 stretched all the way down the block and around the corner, full of people from all walks of life dressed in bright colors. Older gay couples and teenagers in rainbow face paint stood side by side in the cool night air, all waiting to show their tickets at the door and find a good vantage point for the Queer AF fashion show.
Inside the building, organizers for the show were running through the final preparations for the night’s celebration of LGBT style and culture.
“Maybe it’s because I’ve been involved this whole way, but you feel the energy when you come in here,” Love Your Labels founder Josh Croke said.
The show was a fundraiser for Love Your Labels, a nonprofit that serves LGBT youth in Central Massachusetts, and featured clothes designed by two teenagers who participated in its Threads fashion design program. Other designers who showcased their work included Asha Ama and Sam Donovan, who both appeared on “Project Runway,” and Rufus Dixon, who grew up minutes away in Marlborough.
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In the press area before the show, Croke spun around to show two reporters the outfit they would wear onstage as one of the show’s co-hosts. The outfit, which Dixon designed, included a blue and black leather vest with a cutout in the back, and Croke had paired it with dark, glittery makeup.
Dixon said that he was looking forward to seeing models and drag queens taking their turns onstage, and that the collection he was showing in Queer AF was intended to play with conventional ideas about gender.
“I wanted to do something unexpected for menswear, something hyperfeminized. No silhouette has a gender. My garments are really sensual for male people to wear,” Dixon said.
Upstairs, anticipation and perfume hung in the air. Veteran drag queens Lady Sabrina and Bootz socialized with models over a pre-show buffet, while singer and guitarist Giuliano prepared for a solo acoustic set.
“I remember the first place I ever performed was Club 241, and the cops used to sit in the parking lot and wait for us to leave so they could pull us over and strip search us,” Lady Sabrina said. “I’ve been in drag since 1986, and I’ve watched the community evolve, watched drag evolve, watched sexuality evolve. It’s a wonderful thing.”
“Even 14 years ago, when I started, they would have security guards with us in case something happened to us. It’s so different now,” Bootz said. “This culture, queer culture, is so accepting. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
During the show, dance troupes, musicians, drag performers and models of all ages and backgrounds took their turns onstage. One drag queen somersaulted across the stage, leaped into splits, and did a handstand against a wall while the audience encouraged her.
New York drag queen Peppermint, who rose to international fame as a contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” co-hosted the show in a flowing black gown.
“This is my first time in Worcester,” Peppermint said at one point to wild cheers.
The models who walked onstage all came from the Worcester area, and the crowd cheered particularly loudly for those who sprinkled vogue dance moves into their runway walks. Voguing, a dance style invented by Black trans women and gay men in the 1980s New York ballroom scene, has gained more attention in recent years after being featured in multiple TV shows and referenced on Beyonce’s recent album “Renaissance.”
Cuts from “Renaissance” served as the soundtrack to Ama’s show, with models showing off her designs to songs like “Cuff It” and “Alien Superstar.” Ama said that the collection she showed at Queer AF was dedicated to Black women and to using love and empathy to address the pain that society causes.
Another of the designers was 13-year-old Finn Santora, who participated in the Threads LGBT youth fashion program earlier this year. He sent models down the runway in matching sets of loose button-down shirts and shorts, and afterward, he waved to the crowd wearing a dark galaxy-patterned suit that he had made by himself.
“I didn’t realize I was going to find who I am,” Santora said, standing next to the models who wore his designs.
Worcester drag queen Robyn Millyonz, who was crowned Second Majesty at the Pride Worcester Pageant in August, was the last performer of the night, lip-syncing to Doja Cat’s “Vegas” with three dancers behind her.
Afterward, some audience members sat down closer to the stage for a Q&A session with Peppermint, while some went upstairs to hit the dance floor at the Float afterparty and others left the Palladium for home or for downtown Worcester’s bars.
“This is the most queer joy energy I’ve felt, ever,” Croke said.