NEW YORK, NY – Rainbow Fashion Week (RFW) is returning to New York City – one of the four fashion capitals in the world – for the third consecutive year kicking off Manhattan’s official pre-Pride events with “Eight Days of Queer Fashion Shows,” June 17-24.
According to the word on the street green is the color du jour! This year, founder and Executive Producer E. Jaguar Beckford (Jag) is taking RFW’s love affair with its social responsibility platform to the next level. The savvy entrepreneur decided to do something revolutionary and announced she will be hosting the first-ever Carbon Neutral Fashion Week.
Conceptualized in June 2013 by Jag, Rainbow Fashion Week was introduced to New York City and the United States as the First Inaugural 8 Days of Queer Pride Fashion Shows with a social responsibility message.
Endorsed by Mayor Bill DeBlasio as “An Official New York City Pre- Pride Fashion Event,” RFW not only brings fashion at its finest, but also displays the skills of out and proud LGBT fashion industry insiders. Every aspect of the production – from the hair & make up artist, celebrity stylist, designer, choreographer, and set designer- RFW brings you the “Art of Fashion in Not Your Average Fashion Shows.”
LGBT fashionistas are slated to serve up a dazzling platter of colors, patterns, prints and styles throughout the weeks event; setting the tone for the Fall/Autumn looks.
The glam squad who will be sending their latest collections down the runway includes: celebrity couturiers Andre Soriano (Style Network’s fashion competition series “Styled to Rock,” produced by Rihanna), Dwight Eubanks (Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta), and Jag’s own label, JagandCo.
Other Designers include: Karen Gravano, Milan Chris Gordy, Jimmy Crystal, Coogi, Ashley Stewart, Barron Wise, Robert Negrin and Egypt Ukele.
Featuring also brands from Lainy Gold, Trans is Beautiful Clothing, The Mannequin Project, Pretty Boi Couture, Kesuave Clothing, Sinister Apple, Stud Fit Nation, These Pink Lips, GorinBrothers, Tickle Me Pink, Thuy Custom Clothing, Pretty in Pink, Intimate Grind Identity and The Glamour Queenz to name a few.
This fashion endeavor doesn’t just stop there!
RFW fills in another important gap, as there are no other fixed events representing the LGBTQ community in any of the major fashion capitals. Because the goal of RFW is not only to support the business of queer style, but also to foster a social responsibility; each fashion installment becomes a platform for activism and the promotion of sustainability – providing awareness to the following causes: global water crisis, anti-bullying, anti-domestic violence, body positivity, marriage equality, trans-justice, LGBT youth homelessness, among other major issues still facing the LGBTQ community.
After attending a summit at the Hudson Institute, which addressed the destruction of the Himalayan glaciers and speaking with Sharon Kahn of Water Keeper Alliance, Jag re-wrote RFW’s mission statement to make it a global pledge to educate new designers of the responsibilities they bare when ordering, utilizing and disposing textiles, to consider bio safe vendors and consider several “re-purposing ideals.”
To that end, RFW’s goals are to reduce their electric energy consumption by 1/3 through the use of solar powered generators and panels, urge the City of New York to mandate dog waste composting through its Rainbow Pets event; recycle, re-purpose and re-use clothing through its Dumpster Divers event – ultimately, becoming the “first carbon-neutral fashion week” of its kind. Focused on the endeavor to create a morally accountable fashion week, Jag and RFW are committed to work closely with strategic partners and industry leaders such as Viridian, Blue Water, Gem Pawnbrokers, CERES and Earth Justice to help educate the event’s audiences about new ways to reduce our carbon foot prints.
This third edition of Rainbow Fashion Week will officially kick off Friday, June 17th; launching with the “Top New Media Moguls Black Tie Affair” celebrating 50 outstanding achievers: in the LGBT community for their efforts in media, community, fashion and beauty.
Eight days of exceptional queer fashion shows, with daily themed runways: Top New Media Moguls, Drag’Stars and Trans-Justice, Rainbow Pets, Queer Kids, PhotoViews, Rainbow Tots, Trans’’ition, Urban Knights, Inside The Celebrity Closet and Body Dysmorphia, Hair du Soleil and Kids Who Tech (where FIT meets MIT in a fashion clothing Hackathon for solar energy wearables).
Stay tuned to see what’s on deck for Rainbow Fashion Week in NYC.
