This article appears in the September/October 2023 print issue of Boston Spirit magazine. Subscribe for free today.
They call it “the Queer Met Gala of Massachusetts.”
And with the lights, music, celebrity drag performances, pageant of local drag favorites and all the incredibly creative fashion (both on the runway and on many of the attendees), it surely felt just as thrilling for the 500+ attendees who experienced last year’s show live and in person.
Your chance to capture the excitement this year comes on September 8 in Worcester, Massachusetts’ historic Mechanics Hall. It’s the fourth annual Queer AF: Art+Fashion Show fundraiser, hosted by and benefitting the great, local work of Love Your Labels. Doors open at 6 p.m., the show kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and tickets are available at mechanicshall.org/queer-af-xxiii/.
Headlining the show are RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 3 and All-Star Season 5 Mariah Balenciaga, and Jackie Cox of Season 12. “Plus, we have an incredible lineup of designers,” says Joshua Croke, Love Your Labels president and founder. “We’re also working more closely with local businesses, featuring styled looks from local shops.”
The theme of this year’s shindig is “I Am a Galaxy” and attendees are invited to dress in “galaxy-themed” fashion. Bold choices are encouraged. “Some folks might come in full alien impersonation,” Croke says. “Some might come dressed as their interpretations of Saturn. Some might lean into the stellar astrology component. And for folks who dress to theme, there will be an audience participating runway walk during the show for those who want to.”
Love Your Labels is the Worcester-based nonprofit that supports LGBTQ+ youth in exploring their identities and expression through art, fashion and design. Their mission is to encourage young people in Central Mass. to be their authentic selves through programming like Threads: Woven Together, which uses fashion design to help high school–age youth on their journey of self-discovery. “We’re going to be sharing a short new docu-style video about Threads to give folks a little bit more behind-the-curtain of the work that goes into the program and the experiences the young people have,” says Croke.
“We also have a youth fashion designer-in-residence program, where a former Threads student comes back and is compensated to support our fashion curricular team helping the kids in Threads. It’s our own peer-to-peer learning model.” And the resident designer also gets their own budget to work on their own collection for Queer AF.
In this year’s show, two former Threads students, Tyler Charpentier and Finn Santora, will be featured designers.
“Threads is very much built around the gold standard for project-based learning,” says Croke. “Even for folks who might not pursue fashion after this course, or as they move into their career, we’re teaching extremely valuable life skills both in and outside of fashion. Like sewing, hand-sewing, being able to hem your pants, but all the way to organizational management work, project management. The students are working from the beginning to the end on a single garment, which they’ll then showcase to the public in a youth fashion show”—usually held in January or February.
“Queer AF fuels our LGBTQIA2S+ youth programming in the most joyful way possible,” Croke says. “While the entertainment-filled show is a major fundraiser for our work, it is also about centering queer joy and community pride as we work toward collective liberation. We need spaces and communities where each person can show up authentically as themselves without fear of discrimination.”
Croke is also excited to share news of the nonprofits’ “$10 from 10,000 Campaign,” with its $100K goal. “We’ve been an all-volunteer organization since 2019, and we have an incredible team of people that show up and put in the work. We’re in a place of needed growth because of demand for our programs and more support resources for queer and trans youth in our community, not only from the kids but from their parents and families.”
“Worcester’s queer community has evolved immensely in the past few years,” says Charlie O’Donnell, Queer AF cochair and member of Love Your Labels’ board. “Working with Love Your Labels and Queer AF has opened my eyes to the local LGBTQIA+ community’s need for more encouragement, progress, and support—this is something Queer AF will deliver in September, spotlighting amazingly talented Worcester queer artists and performers.”
More: loveyourlabels.org; click here for Queer AF: Art+Fashion Show tickets
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