The Rochester Queer Arts Festival Announces Queer Fashion Show
Announcing Beyond Labels: Fashion Without Gender—A Bold New Runway Experience at the Rochester Queer Arts Festival
Presented by Luci & Dona • Main Atrium Stage • Afternoon of Festival Day
Opening the Curtain on a Boundary-Breaking Showcase
What happens when you invite designers to throw the binary out the window, turn a festival atrium into a runway, and hand the spotlight to a kaleidoscope of models who look like all of us? You get Beyond Labels: Fashion Without Gender—a live fashion spectacular that gleefully unpicks every “For Him” and “For Her” tag you’ve ever seen. Staged at the heart of the 2025 Rochester Queer Arts Festival (RQAF), this show is a full-throttle expression of the Festival’s mission to “Celebrate Queer Creativity and Community.”
On the afternoon of festival day, the Main Atrium Stage will transform into a catwalk where silhouettes morph, fabrics disrupt expectation, and gender is treated not as a rulebook but as a playground. Think structured gowns re-engineered for muscular bodies, sharply tailored suits that flow across curves, neoprene ballgowns, sequined jumpsuits with pockets deep enough for protest signs, and ruffled capes that refuse to pick sides. From punk deconstruction to haute surrealism, the only dress code here is daring.
Yet Beyond Labels isn’t just about spectacle. It is a living, breathing affirmation that fashion belongs to everyone—no matter how you identify, how you present, or whether you’ve ever set foot on a runway before. When the final look disappears behind the wings and the applause floods the atrium, we want every guest to leave believing that style has no single gender, age, body, or story—because the runway just proved it.
Designers Wanted: High School, Collegiate, & Professional Visionaries
The Rochester Queer Arts Festival is issuing an open call to designers across Upstate New York and beyond who are ready to buck tradition and build garments that speak in a new vocabulary. We welcome:
High-School Designers whose sketches ripple with fresh rebellion and unfiltered imagination.
College & University Designers eager to translate academic study into avant-garde reality.
Professional Designers & Independent Labels hunting for a platform to debut boundary-breaking collections.
Whether you pattern-draft daily or you’ve just sewn your first muslin, your point of view matters. Applicants must submit:
A brief artistic statement (250 words max) explaining how your work dismantles gender norms.
5 Photos of completed pieces.
3-5 Sketches
Deadline: July 15 at 11:59 PM ET. Selected designers receive an honorarium on-site support. Many designers choose to gift or sell looks to their models—this is entirely at your discretion. If you’re ready to stitch a revolution, hit the “Fashion Show Application” link on our festival website and upload your materials today.
Models Needed: Every Body, Every Identity, Every Experience Level
We cannot celebrate inclusive fashion without an inclusive runway. Beyond Labels is casting an expansive lineup of models that mirrors the rich diversity of our community. We seek:
All Gender Identities: cisgender, transgender, non-binary, agender, two-spirit, gender-non-conforming—anyone who wants to walk.
All Body Types: slender, athletic, curvy, plus-size, short, tall, seated, differently-abled—if you have a body, it belongs on our stage.
All Ages (14+): from high-school creatives to seniors who’ve lived through every fashion decade since New Look.
All Experience Levels: professional runway veterans, Instagram style enthusiasts, drag artists who lip-sync in stilettos, and folks who have never modeled but want a first shot at strutting fierce.
Selected models receive an honorarium and, at the discretion of their designer, may keep their runway look at a reduced rate. Application requires two clear photos (one headshot, one full-body—phone pics are fine) and a brief walking video. Deadline: July 15.
Why “Fashion Without Gender”?
Fashion’s history is stitched with rigid binaries: hoopskirts for women, frock coats for men; 1950s tailored suits and circle skirts; department-store pink and blue splitting the world into halves. But seismic cultural shifts—led by queer and trans communities—are ripping those seams wide open. Dressing rooms are turning unisex, runway labels are re-branding “menswear” as “themswear,” and the future of clothing is fluid.
In Upstate New York, this evolution is tangible. Rochester’s boutiques stock gender-free collections, Syracuse’s thrift shops are curated by non-binary stylists, Buffalo’s art schools teach pattern-making in neutral forms. Beyond Labels gathers that regional energy in one place, places it under floodlights, and invites thousands of festival-goers to witness fashion’s next chapter. It’s more than a show; it’s a movement of zippers, buttons, and bias-cuts declaring that self-expression can’t be contained by M or F checkboxes.
Meet the Presenters: Luci & Dona—Fab, Fluid, and Fearlessly Queer
If you’ve wandered Monroe Avenue in Rochester lately, you’ve probably seen the rainbow-bright storefront of Luci & Dona, the gender-fluid boutique founded by partners Michael and Josean Vargas-Rodriguez. Their relationship started in drag nightlife: Luci and Dona are their stage personas—glam alter-egos who loved to design costumes for themselves and their performer friends. When a passion for theatrical flair collided with professional backgrounds in fashion and graphic design, the duo launched a brand dedicated to custom looks for queer and trans clients who had long been ignored by mainstream sizing charts. Luci & Dona
Over the past five years, Luci & Dona have evolved from sewing accessories in a 700-square-foot apartment to unveiling a brick-and-mortar boutique filled with one-of-a-kind garments, novelty handbags, blinged-out jewelry, and wig creations from local stylist Carmen Adore. Their mission: provide a safe, celebratory environment where everyone—no matter identity—can explore style freely. “A body is a body, and a pattern is a pattern,” Josean told Spectrum News while cutting the ribbon on their Monroe Avenue store, emphasizing that tailoring should serve measurements, not outdated gender markers. Spectrum News
Visibility is baked into their ethos. As queer Latinx entrepreneurs, Michael and Josean intentionally positioned their boutique on a busy street to foster community and combat rising anti-drag and anti-trans rhetoric. Storefront fashion shows, pop-up drag revues, and styling workshops double as both commerce and activism, proving clothing can be armor in the fight for acceptance. Their pedigree in merging runway drama with community purpose makes Luci & Dona the perfect presenters for Beyond Labels.
