“Not Your Average Fashion Show:” Rethinking Black Queer Women’s Activism in Queer Fashion Shows
Abstract
1. Introduction
But the one thing I thought about was that one day way back when, someone sat down, with whoever it is, some gay white man whomever, and they said let’s do this, let’s have a show about blah, blah, blah, and let’s make sure that the models are 5’10” and they’re zero to two, and have very elongated bodies, and alabaster skin, and they all look duplicative of one another, so on and so forth, and this is how we’re going to present fashion. And so, as I started to think about it, I was like well, someone came up with that idea: I’d like for the new model to change– to break that mold.—E. Jaguar Beckford1
2. Background
2.1. Rainbow Fashion Week Origins
2.2. DapperQ Presents: iD Origins
3. Interpretive Framework
BlaQueer Style’s Origins and Theoretical Underpinnings
4. Results and Discussion
4.1. BlaQueer Style Is…Bringing the Margins to Center
4.1.1. Hair du Soleil
4.1.2. PhotoViews
4.1.3. DragStars
…and she let him know what it is, and he decided to beat her to death. Because he don’t want his manhood to be exposed or over, and now she lost her beautiful, talented, young, daughter of God. And I was with you to fight this case, and we ain’t win. We didn’t get justice. Even though the videotape told on him and he finally confessed, it still didn’t get justice the time that this man want to kill another human being. I have asked this mother to come tonight because we wanted to honor you and show you our appreciation. Even though this night is not going to cover and get Tina because I know how it feels to lose a child.10 June 29th will make five years of my son being gone, so I know how it feels to lose a child. And I’m letting you know that you’re not alone, you’ll never be alone, never, and Tina ain’t never went nowhere, you know what I mean. Thank you so much, everybody, give it up for this young lady’s mother, y’all.
4.2. BlaQueer Style Is…Practicing Solidarity and Building Coalitions
4.2.1. Anita Dolce Vita and dapperQ
4.2.2. (un)Heeled
4.2.3. iD
The collection includes handmade designs such as monochromatic black shirt- and-pant sets, black faux leather shirts, black and white geometrical patterns, reversible raincoats and bomber jackets some of which were mixed with accents of hot pink material. Various pieces from the collection become a part of Stuzo’s most aesthetic expression of BlaQueer Style. Many of the items in the collection have a name that relates to the theme of the collection.reflects a new generation that is disaffected by societies’ rules and standards of the way things “should” be. We rebel against brutality and injustices and create beauty despite the ugly. Enjoy!
5. Methodology
6. Conclusions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
- Origin/Message/Visions
- How long have you been designing and organizing fashion shows/events?
- Where did the idea to produce Rainbow Fashion Week originate? Why produce a fashion show?
- What’s the overall message and mission of RFW?
- What do you hope the people organizing the event will gain in addition to experience?
- What other opportunities have you had in connection with the work you do in producing RFW?
- What do you hope your legacy to be in the coming years?
- Terms and Definitions
- The term queer fashion was used a great deal during RFW. What does queer fashion and queer style mean to you?
- How would you describe the overall community around queer style? How would describe that community online?
- What do you think your role is in the queer style movement?
- Production Questions
- What does producing the fashion show from start to finish involve?
- Who organizes the event? How do you recruit people to work with the show?
- You mentioned in our short conversation that you paid for events out-of-pocket and in the future you would like to get more financial sponsors and investors? How do you get sponsors for the event? What usually compels sponsors to participate in the event? Who sponsored the event?
- What is distinct or special about this year’s show? Or if you can’t really reveal what this year’s show is about, what has changed over the years?
- You mentioned to me that many of the people involved in the show are volunteers looking to get exposure or build their resume whether it is for their photography, modeling, makeup, hairstyling, or fashion show production skills. How do people find out about the show, aside from model calls, how is it advertised to those who are not models, but are interested in being a part of the show?
- What demographic of people are usually drawn to the show as audience members? How do people find out about the show? Why do you think people are attracted to the show?
- What function does your social media accounts (Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter) serve for your fashion work?
- Social Justice
- There were several social issues addressed at each show last year, I can remember a few of them being; elder isolation, LGBT homelessness, reducing the fashion industry’s carbon footprint, body image, and trans identity. How does RFW decide which issues it will focus on? Why were these issues important to your organization?
- Identity
- What is unique about your identity and how do you think that shapes your influence and participation in the queer style movement?
- What does it mean for you to be a Black queer-identified woman doing the work that you do?
- I noticed at last year’s event many of the producers of the show are masculine-of-center women or androgynous. Was it important to you that these women were producers of the show? Was it intentional?
- Queer style tends to be broadly connected to gender and sexuality. What role does it play in the movement for Black Lives? How do you see race, culture or social class shaping your work in the queer style movement or how you plan Rainbow Fashion Week?
- Do you ever consider race or your racial identity, or social class (working class, middle class, upper-middle class) in how you navigate the movement or participate in fashion shows?
- Challenges
- What would you say are some of the biggest challenges that LGBT people of color have when trying to get their foot in the door of the fashion industry? How does RFW combat those challenges?
- What are some challenges that you have faced being a Black queer-identified woman and navigating the queer style movement?
Appendix B

| 1 | |
| 2 | Throughout this article, I use the term “fashion workers” to refer to the models, designers, drag queen performers, curators, and producers of the fashion events under examination. I use this term for consistency and to emphasize the labor involved in creating these events. |
| 3 | Vita did not respond to any of my requests for an interview. Therefore, I draw on existing written discourse online to construct a background of the show and Vita. I was unable to capture clear images of iD because I was standing far back from the runway in the venue of 1000+ people. Not being in a direct line of view paired with the fast pace of the show made it difficult to document the show visually. DapperQ published the images from the fashion show on their Facebook account. |
| 4 | African American literary scholar L.H. Stallings argues that trickster-troping, an “act of undecidability” in Black women’s cultural production, allows Black women to escape the meanings imposed on them by dominant structures, (Stallings 2007). |
| 5 | |
| 6 | It is crucial that I do not presuming one’s gender or pronouns, therefore, I use “they” as a pronoun when I did not know a person’s pronouns throughout this article. |
| 7 | Typically, the “small d” deaf refers to individuals who do not consider themselves a part of the deaf community, whereas “big D” Deaf refers to those who identify themselves as culturally deaf or are members of the Deaf community (Brekke 2016). When I am referring generally to people within the Deaf community or trying to complicate notions of queerness as social and cultural subversion rather than gender or sexual subversion, I use “big D” Deaf. However, when referring to the actual fashion worker, I employ “small d” deaf because I am unsure as to whether this person identifies as culturally deaf or is a member of the Deaf community. |
| 8 | I use “she” when referring to the drag queen’s persona and not as their preferred gender pronoun. The pronouns “she” or “he” is used instead of “they” if the person referenced deployed and affirmed the pronoun at the show. |
| 9 | I was unable to locate any information about the slain victim. The fact that it was difficult to piece together the minor details that I was able to gather during the event may be evidence of the lack of regard media outlets have for murdered Black trans women. |
| 10 | Tina is a pseudonym. |
| 11 | The high heel as a symbol of femininity is a common trope in mainstream fashion history. It is a narrative that centers cisgender heterosexual femininity, leaving gender non-conforming, trans, and non-binary expressions of femininity and masculinity illegible. “Un-heeled” plays on the question, what is femininity and masculinity when you center queer people in your analysis? |
| 12 | I chose to leave the slurs as they appeared on the clothing with added strikethroughs to closely match the stylization on the design. I did not feel like it was my place to sanitize the design in my analysis since it was a message the fashion workers used to provoke its audience. |
| 13 | Black As Fuck is an expression that means that a person is unapologetically Black and loves Blackness as much as they love Black culture. |
References
- Bailey, Marlon M. 2013. Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [Google Scholar]
- Bailey, Moya, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. 2010. We Are the Ones We’ve Been Waiting For: Young Black Feminists Take Their Research and Activism Online. Ms. Magazine, December. pp. 41–42. [Google Scholar]
- Beckford, E. Jaguar. 2017. Interview by Donnesha Blake. Personal interview. Adelphi, Maryland. June 28. [Google Scholar]
- Bernard, Katherine. 2015. Discussing Fashion’s Evolving Relationship with Gender. Refinery29. September 5. Available online: http://www.refinery29.com/peopleswear-gender-fashion-roundtable (accessed on 22 January 2018).
- BK Live. 2016. Queer Fashion, Race, and Gender Intersectionality (NYFW). YouTube, Uploaded by BRIC TV. September 8. Available online: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e6lSDLZTNU (accessed on 1 February 2018).
- Black Lives Matter. 2023. Proclamation: Black Lives Matter Day. Black Lives Matter. Available online: https://blacklivesmatter.com/blm-day/ (accessed on 21 September 2025).
- Boellstorff, Tom, Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T. L. Taylor. 2012. Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Brekke, Kira. 2016. Queer Fashion Is Not a Trend, ‘It’s a Social Movement’. Huffington Post. February 2. Available online: www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/24/queer-fashion-social-movement_n_7128374.html (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Byrd, Ayana D., and Lori L. Tharps. 2001. Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. New York: St. Martin Press. [Google Scholar]
- Cohen, Cathy J. 2009. Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics? In Still Brave: The Evolution of Black Women’s Studies. Edited by Stanlie M. James, Frances Smith Foster and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. New York: Feminist Press, pp. 240–67. [Google Scholar]
- Collins, Patricia Hill. 2008. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Cooper, Brittney C. 2015. Love No Limit: Towards a Black Feminist Future (In Theory). The Black Scholar 45: 7–21. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- DapperQ Team. 2015. [Video/Photos] VERGE Queer Fashions Show Takes Montreal, New York City, and Boston! DapperQ. October 7. Available online: http://www.dapperq.com/2015/10/videophotos-verge-queer-fashion-show-takes-montreal-new-york-city-and-boston/ (accessed on 2 April 2016).
- DapperQ Team. 2017. Digital Casting: Call for dapperQ NYFW Models (Volunteer). DapperQ. May 12. Available online: www.dapperq.com/2017/05/digital-casting-call-dapperq-nyfw-models-volunteer/ (accessed on 28 February 2018).
- DapperQ Team. n.d.aAbout. DapperQ. Available online: www.dapperq.com/ (accessed on 1 March 2018).
- DapperQ Team. n.d.bThe DapperQ Brand. DapperQ. Available online: www.dapperq.com/media-kit/ (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Fleetwood, Nicole R. 2011. Troubling Vision: Performance, Visuality, and Blackness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]
- Ford, Tanisha. 2015. Liberated Threads: Black Women, Style, and the Global Politics of Soul. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar]
- Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. 1983. The ‘Blackness of Blackness’: A Critique of the Sign and the Signifying Monkey. Critical Inquiry 9: 685–723. Available online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1343378 (accessed on 21 September 2025). [CrossRef]
- Hagopian, Maro. 2014. Photograph of Saint Harridan #BlackLivesMatter. Facebook. DapperQ. December 9. Available online: https://www.facebook.com/share/1B5hBnQLRL/ (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Hazelwood, Janell. 2010. Style Biz: How to Leverage Hair Shows into Dollars. Black Enterprise. Available online: http://www.blackenterprise.com/style-biz-how-to-leverage-hair-shows-into-dollars/ (accessed on 14 January 2018).
- Holland, Sharon Patricia. 2012. The Erotic Life of Racism. Durham: Duke University Press. [Google Scholar]
- hooks, bell. 1995. Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. New York: The New Press. [Google Scholar]
- Johnson, E. Patrick. 2005. ‘Quare’ Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know About Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother. In Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology. Edited by E. Patrick Johnson and Mae G. Henderson. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 124–57. [Google Scholar]
- Kafer, Alison. 2013. Debating Feminist Futures: Slippery Slopes, Cultural Anxiety, and The Case of Deaf Lesbians. In Feminist, Queer, Crip. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 69–85. [Google Scholar]
- King, Martin Luther. 1963. I Have a Dream. Speech delivered at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Lincoln Memorial, August 28. [Google Scholar]
- Lemonte, Debbie-Jean. 2016a. Photograph of Raised Fist BLM!!!. Facebook. DapperQ. September 13. Available online: https://www.facebook.com/share/16zzRt88h4/ (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Lemonte, Debbie-Jean. 2016b. Photograph of Stuzo’s Deprogram Outfit. Facebook. DapperQ. September 13. Available online: https://www.facebook.com/share/1aHg5BGejN/ (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Lenander, Johanna. 2007. Hair Wars. New York: Powerhouse Books. [Google Scholar]
- Prue, Steve. 2014. Photograph of #HandUpDontShoot at (un)Heeled. Facebook. DapperQ. December 9. Available online: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CwV27bKMg/ (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Smitherman, Geneva. 1997. Talkin’ and Testifyin: The Language of Black America. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Stallings, LaMonda Horton. 2007. Mutha’ Is Half a Word: Intersections of Folklore, Vernacular, Myth, and Queerness in Black Female Culture. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Stallings, LaMonda Horton. 2015. Funk the Erotic: Transaesthetics and Black Sexual Cultures. Champaign: University of Illinois Press. [Google Scholar]
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.aBlack AF. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/collections/womens/products/black-af (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.bBlack Since. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/collections/womens/products/black-since (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.cHuman Tee. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/collections/womens/products/neo (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.dOur Story. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/pages/our-story (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.eRebel X. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/collections/x-collection/products/rebel-x/ (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.fRebuild. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/collections/x-collection/products/rebuild (accessed on 28 February 2018).
- Stuzo Clothing. n.d.gX Collection. Available online: www.stuzoclothing.com/collections/x-collection (accessed on 27 February 2018).
- Sweeney, Miriam. 2016. The Intersectional Interface. In The Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class, and Culture Online. Edited by Safiya Umoja Noble and Brendesha M. Tynes. New York: Peter Lang, pp. 215–28. [Google Scholar]
- The Combahee River Collective. 1995. A Black Feminist Statement. In Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. Edited by Beverly Guy-Sheftall. New York: The New Press, pp. 231–40. [Google Scholar]
- Thomson, Rosemarie Garland. 2014. Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory. In The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior. Edited by Rose Weitz and Samantha Kwan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 86–104. [Google Scholar]
- Vita, Anita Dolce. 2014. DapperQ Masculine Gender Queer Fashion Show at Brooklyn Museum. DapperQ. December 10. Available online: http://www.dapperq.com/2014/12/dapperq-masculine-gender-queer-fashion-show-brooklyn-museum-models-carried-blacklivesmatter-signs-ended-hundreds-handsup-protest/ (accessed on 2 April 2016).
- Vita, Anita Dolce. 2016a. Fashion Gets Political at South by Southwest (SXSW). Huffington Post. March 28. Available online: www.huffingtonpost.com/anita-dolce-vita/fashion-gets-political-at_b_9551834.html# (accessed on 4 January 2018).
- Vita, Anita Dolce. 2016b. Here Are Queer Women of Color-Owned Publications to Read After “AfterEllen”. Huffington Post. October 11. Available online: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/queer-women-of-color-owned-publications-to-read-after_us_57e87828e4b00267764fc6f9 (accessed on 4 January 2018).
- Vita, Anita Dolce. 2017. DapperQ’s 4th Annual New York Fashion Week Queer Runway Show. DapperQ. September 2. Available online: www.dapperq.com/2017/09/30387/ (accessed on 4 January 2018).
- Wilson, James F. 2010. Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [Google Scholar]
- Wilson, Tabias. n.d.What is BlaQueer? BlaQueerFlow. Available online: https://www.blaqueerflow.com/about-2/what-is-blaqueer/ (accessed on 20 July 2017).
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2025 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Blake, D.A. “Not Your Average Fashion Show:” Rethinking Black Queer Women’s Activism in Queer Fashion Shows. Humanities 2025, 14, 195. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14100195
Blake DA. “Not Your Average Fashion Show:” Rethinking Black Queer Women’s Activism in Queer Fashion Shows. Humanities. 2025; 14(10):195. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14100195
Chicago/Turabian StyleBlake, Donnesha Alexandra. 2025. "“Not Your Average Fashion Show:” Rethinking Black Queer Women’s Activism in Queer Fashion Shows" Humanities 14, no. 10: 195. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14100195
APA StyleBlake, D. A. (2025). “Not Your Average Fashion Show:” Rethinking Black Queer Women’s Activism in Queer Fashion Shows. Humanities, 14(10), 195. https://doi.org/10.3390/h14100195
