“If you like something—cheer! We’re from Brooklyn!”
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso was hyping up the crowd on Saturday night for The People’s Runway, a community-focused fashion show that highlights talent from the city’s sprawling district (and, to many, its creative hub). “This isn’t golf, this isn’t tennis; if you like something, make some noise!”
Now in its second year, the project first unfurled with the help of KidSuper designer Colm Dillane, who has lived and worked in the borough for virtually his whole life. He is a proud graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School in Fort Greene and runs his “Dream Factory” in South Williamsburg. As Dillane tells it, he invited Reynoso to his studio some time back, and lamented the current state of affairs of grant funding. “Every person that I know that gets a grant is already a rich business that seems to know how to scheme the system,” Dillane recalls telling him. “How can I become a conduit of government funding to young creatives?” Reynoso invited Dillane to become the borough’s first-ever Arts Ambassador. “And I said, ‘Fuck yeah.’”
“As someone who’s gone through the fashion industry and seen what helps and what hurts, I’m trying to create something that I knew could benefit designers.”
Wyclef Jean, Lauryn HillMatteo Prandoni/BFA.com
The fullest expression of Dillane’s role is The People’s Runway, held on the steps of the Borough Hall—a Greek Revival building at the edge of Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn—which takes five designers (from a pool of over 300 applicants) and, most visibly, gives them a platform to display their work. Additionally, it awards each with $15,000 in funds, plus the potential of more with partnership deals, and mentorship. Launched last year, it was supposed to be a one-off event, but proved so successful that it’s now planned to be an annual occurrence.
A front row that included Joey Bada$$, Jerome Boateng, and Da Baby—plus hundreds of onlookers—got a taste of the borough’s rich and diverse talent. There was Moses Aina of IGBO-SISUN, a trans woman whose explosively vibrant works referenced her family’s African heritage and her belief in standing out and being seen. Rey Jaiteh, meanwhile, presented his effortlessly cool collection of streetwear-meets-business casual, inspired by his bifurcated life as a creative with a corporate day job (who can’t relate?). Laurel Tiange Fang of Laurel Blue presented sinuous clothes in watery shades and rope details inspired by both the ocean and technology. There were the mind-blowing, gravity-defying silhouettes in wacky furs from Kuai Li of Quine Li and the cheeky pop-art, postmodern charm of Roderick Reyes, who staged a faux heist, including surreal pieces covered in store alarm tags and finished with a dramatic cape covered in 100-dollar bills. Dillane then presented a few of his own demonstrative pieces, including one look modeled by his mother.