Photos: Chicago Fashion Week show is first to celebrate work from all openly LGBTQ+ designers

Each year, Chicago Fashion Week stages creations by local designers through a series of events and runway shows.

But this year brought a first: More than a hundred attendees gathered at an art gallery in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood last Thursday for the sold-out Queer Couture Runway show. Executive producer Madison Smith and artistic director Emry Yarger said it was the first event in Chicago Fashion Week to explicitly state it was created by queer creatives to highlight queerness in design.

The show featured nine designers ranging in experience levels and styles. Organizers said the idea for centering the show around queerness came up organically.

“All the art that we’ve created together has had some amount of queerness to it, we just can’t get away from it,” said Smith. “Immediately, we were like, ‘Oh, obviously, it’s a queer show.’”

Smith and Yarger acknowledge that queer creatives have always been a part of the city’s fashion scene. They wanted to create an environment of openness for up-and-coming designers looking to try new ideas.

“Black and Brown, queer and trans people set our culture across the board, and that deserves to be honored and recognized,” said Yarger. “I am super hopeful that this was a space for folks with those identities, for all queer folks, to present their work and to show how they are the tastemakers of our whole culture.”

The list of designers included In Between Branches, Daisy In Chains and Jaluda by Antonio Arcé. For some designers, it was their first time creating a collection. Gregory Pagán-Hill, who goes by the moniker Uncle Greg, said he’s been sewing since he was a child. His work is inspired by his mom’s love for quiltmaking — one that guided his own path as a quilter.

“I didn’t see myself as a designer, I saw myself as someone who sewed because it was a necessity, and that was something that my mom did a lot.” said Pagán-Hill. “This whole thing is a discovery for me, it’s trying to see how far I can push myself creatively.”

Frida Benitez, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s fashion program, has been sewing and screen printing for about eight years. Benitez’s brand, Reina de Colores, draws inspiration from their Mexican heritage and androgynous, unisex clothing. Benitez said the show allows them to share their work with more people and immerse themselves in the local fashion scene.

“Chicago fashion is so unique, and even just like seeing people out at parties, or like drag shows, I love to see what people make and what people customize, and then even what people wear out on the street,” Benitez said. “It’s really powerful, and I don’t think there’s any other city like it.”

Scroll down to see more images from the runway show, captured by photographer Jessie Alcheh.