Chicago’s Radical Visibility Collective return for their second showcase

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Sep 9

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What happens when three individually versatile artists come together to make an eventful evening of fresh and fierce fashion with a communal cause? Multi-dimensional artist and musician Vogds, the ultra-intentional couturier Sky Cubacub of Rebirth Garments and street fashion extraordinaire Compton Q (above) melded minds to design pieces and make music for the extraordinary experience of diverse joy known as Radical Visibility Collective. After a successful 2018 show, the inspired Part Two received a welcoming reception at Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago, a city that has boasted some of our favorite queer forward-thinkers in the past decade. As the video below shows, RVC2 aimed and accomplished to create a loving environment for the models and performers to celebrate themselves in futuristic fashions surrounded by friends. The event was further enhanced by a collection of new tracks made in inspiration for this show, curated and produced by Vogds.

RVC2’s collaborative communion was not just an act of unveiling new design work but a means to show what fashion can look like and who it can be for. While carrying the familiarities of their previous collection, RVC2 continued to uphold the group’s values, much which has further developed from Sky’s Manifesto, for their recent August event. “We make fashion for the full spectrum of gender, size, and ability; focusing on forwarding people with disabilities, fats, femmes, POC, queers, and nonbinary folx,” Vogds explains. “One of our strongest ideologies is to be radically visible in space via color/design/etc, to stand out against mundanity, everyday identity-oppression, and the evils of our current political situation while fighting for accessibility, gender expression, and sex-positivity. The future is QueerCrip, so get used to it and come dance with us!”

PHOTOS: COLECTIVOMULTIPOLAR MODELS: MISS ALEXIS, GABRIEL ANAYA, KENNEDY

Custom-made clothing was showcased on over a half dozen models and clients, many who are producers, singers, rappers and beyond. As an intensive effort for the trio, all of which have their own artistic pathways to navigate and attend to, Rebirth Garments’ first full time employee Calla Bordie graciously helped with the construction of the outfits. “Since Compton is about to go to grad school at Central St. Martins and Vogds was focusing on the music, Calla and I fabricated and patterned all the garments, with a few exceptions,” Sky said of the process. “Vogds patterned their garment and fabricated it with Calla assisting and Compton patterned and fabricated their outfit, Gabriel's Scarf and Chris' crutch fins poufs.”

PHOTOS: COLECTIVOMULTIPOLAR MODELS: MAKAYLA, C'EST KEVVIE, JUJU MINXXX, CHRISTOPHER MCGUIRE

Additionally Sky made a secondary “ready to wear” line featuring prints Compton and model Gabriel Anaya designed. “For this collection, I wanted to channel my love for Shōjo anime and manga in which queerness and expression through fashion combine to create these awesomely powerful and sensitive warriors," muses Compton, whose own aesthetic creations are rich with imagination and influence. The RVC symbol popped up in redesigned formats and the blend of shades from the first collection (pink, purple and blue) and the recent second collection (orange, lime, neon yellow with black and white patterns) formed together for a jubilee of vibrance.

PHOTOS: COLECTIVOMULTIPOLAR MODELS: SKY CUBACUB, VOGDS, COMPTON Q.

An event especially amped by dancing, the soundtrack provided by Vogds was another intensive collaboration that added a layer of excitement and energy as a major presence in the show. Indie artists that were part of the shows also collaborated on the RVC2 EP, such as dominatrix rapper Juju Minxxx on "Axxxess Butch" and plus-size trans model and queen C'est Kevvie on "Chromophilia”. The ethereal dreamstress Afroshoujo added their own flair to the soundscapes with Sky Cubacub on “QueerCrip Power”. Sky created a zine of the lyrics to be accessible for deaf and hard of hearing folx along with “Access Bitch” and “Access Butch” sticker designs by Katherine Grace Eremia (attendees also signed an Access Pledge when purchasing).

Read more about the clothing process in our interview with Sky Cubacub. Vogds will be featured in WUSSY’s Vol. 7 print issue with Violet Chachki which can be pre-ordered here.

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