–by Zara Korutz
Fashion Fantasy Comes to Life
The theatrical audience at 30 Wall Street was filled with characters dressed in fantasy costumes—a NWFW event like none other—hosted by model and actress Katherine Nunez. Conceptual event producers COSMODA, the brainchild of popular arts stalwart Daniel Hort and plus-size fashion legend Cathrine Schuller-Gruenwald, whose husband was Marvel Comics writer and editor Mark Gruenwald (1954-1996)—famed for his work in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe and Captain America Comic Books. Under their marquee immersive fashion fantasy brand Cosplay Runway, ALLIANCE launched as a sustainable fashion collaborative capsule series supporting the work of independent designers.
Harlem-based fashion designer Adrian Alicea was the inaugural designer under ALLIANCE to show his eponymous brand with a retrospective titled “Decades of a Living Legend.” The diverse models, cast by Catalina, wore clothes made of upcycled feathers, deadstock fabrics, and lace, exposing the body’s seduction with strong silhouettes and innovative lines. Alicea’s powerful trademark cultural fusion aesthetic comes from his collaborative design practices as a Latino community, art-centered fashion designer. Keeping with the cosplay concept was an expression of artistry with models in body paint wearing a hand-painted garment by New York City artist Charly the Magazine and “power piece” jewelry made from comic books designed in cuffs, necklaces, and masks by Stephen Cristopher Contreras.
Alicea’s extravagant collection of one of kind art pieces empowers us to be the superhero in our own story on the runway of life. Alicea gives inspiration to his collection as “memories from my diary”—including his world travels as a model for fashion giants Jean-Paul Gaultier, Gianfranco Ferre, Vivienne Westwood, Giorgio Armani, and the like. Having grown up in the Bronx after immigrating there with his family from Puerto Rico as a child, Alicea worked as a stock boy at Chiavari in the 1980s during the day and danced at the Downtown clubs like the Tunnel and Palladium at night. Alicea is the Voguing Icon of the Red Era of Ballroom and is a cultural legend in his own right for his dance performance in Malcolm McLaren’s “Deep in Vogue” and “Waltz Darling” videos. Alicea was the first in 1989, along with Willi Ninja, to take Voguing international by dancing on the runway for Thierry Mugler in the celebrated fashion iconic moment with supermodel Iman.
If you want to see realness in fashion, then sometimes you have to be courageous enough to seek it outside of the mainstream. Alicea’s unwavering humility, focus on doing right, and perseverance to remain true to his own life’s story translates in his collection as a vital necessity in the fight against the perils of fashion’s industrial capitalism.
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