Rainbow Fashion Week
One Designer’s Vision
Rainbow Fashion Week returns to New York City – one of the four fashion capitals in the world – for the third consecutive year kicking off Manhattan’s pre-Pride events with eight days of queer fashion shows, June 17-24, 2016.
When it comes to Fair-a-Porter … green is the color du jour!
This year, founder and producer Jag E. Beckford is taking Rainbow Fashion Week’s love affair with its Social Responsibility Platform to the next level. The savvy entrepreneur decided to do something revolutionary and announced she will be hosting the first-ever Carbon Neutral fashion week.
Conceptualized in June 2013 by Jag E. Beckford, Rainbow Fashion Week brought to New York City and introduced to the United States the first Inaugural 8 Days of Queer Pride Fashion Shows with a social responsibility message. Endorsed by New York City Mayor, Bill DeBlasio as “An Official New York City Pre- Pride Fashion Event,” RFW not only brings fashion at its finest but as well displays the skills of fashion industry insiders & experts as out and proud LGBT professionals.
We recently spoke to this visionary fashion designer more insight on this amazing event and her take on the fashion world
The Standard Magazine: You have had such a diverse career, why fashion design and why now?
Jaguard Beckford (Jag): Now, has actually been always. I designed custom jeans in the 90’s and sold them for my 3 years in law school. I had a table in outside the LGBT Center and sold custom tees, jeans and jewelry. So deciding to do fashion at this point in life is because my mom encouraged me to do so on her deathbed. She told me life is worth it if you do what you love. I quickly got to work and within 2 years launched my own clothing line for the females who are more male identified like myself.
TSM: What was your impetus for starting Rainbow Fashion Week?
JB: I get asked this question often. I am a natural artist, I do photography, sing, dance, draw a true left-brain right brain individual. While I stood above my audience at the JagandCo launch, I was marveled at what the behind the scene creative had accomplished. The make-up was superb, the bois look handsomely dapper, the styling compositions was just the right composition of male identified were to female identified ware. Basically women were wearing clothes design for “male identified” but the femmes killed it. The photographers one on each side of the stage did a live photo shoot during the fashion show. For me “Art” was everywhere and I said, wouldn’t it be great to have such a show. “The Art of Fashion Shows.”
TSM: Can you explain the meaning of a carbon neutral fashion show and why is it so important?
JB: A carbon Neutral show is where the producers raise their level of consciousness. How much energy they consume and how they can reduce it or choose a more green friendly type. For us, the consumption of electricity and use of solar energy makes it carbon neutral. Take our Rainbow Pets event, where our mission is to have the City of New York enact a “Dog Waste Composting” bill. When purchasing cutlery, and disposable dinnerware, biodegradable so we make our purchases from Greenpaperproducts.com. It is important because the Textile industry is the second largest polluter of our global water system. It means selecting strategic partners like Gem Pawn Brokers, who have looked at their industry and policies and decided to re-brand their mission as to what goes to be melted down and what can be put to use outside their norm. The fashion industry as well as all industries must stand up and pay attention to this and we must all collectively do our part, within our industry.
TSM: In an industry that has seemingly been open to the LGBTQ community, do you think that we have reached equality in this arena or do we still have a ways to go?
JB: Not really. This industry has been open to the LGBTQ community in a passive sense. The flamboyant window dresser, or queer hair stylist is the person of choice because they are “artist” they learn the trade and then they artistically master it. Therefore, they are selected because they render the best results. But that is not an equality ideal. That is a necessity ideal. The person seeking looks within our community for the best and brightest, rather than selecting within our community because of our sexuality preferences. We still have a long way to go, because there are not enough opportunities for the upcoming. The industry is very elitist and the old boys seem to have things tightly sewn up.
TSM: Who are your fashion influences?
JB: Ralph Lauren. Givenchy, Lanvin and Versace. I love simplicity, elegance and showmanship. The attention to the detail is what excites me about these designers.
TSM: What was it like the first time you showed at Fashion Week?
JB: It was a bit intimidating at first, but once I heard the responses back house of the other models and designers watching me dress a model, I knew I was where I was supposed to be.
TSM: What are your thoughts on all the fashion reality shows that have popped up as of late?
JB: I love them. There are more movies to feed our appetite; more television shows to whet our whistles and more fashion content to appease the Fashionista.
TSM: Who in the fashion world would you like to collaborate with?
JB: If the choice included them all being here and well, Ralph Lauren. Givenchy, Lanvin and Versace
TSM: What do you think will be the next big thing in fashion?
JB: Technology. Tech clothing, outdoor fashion gadgets, very futuristic things that ironically we’ve been looking at since the Twilight Zone, Star Trek, MadMax etc. Ironically, that is exactly where fashion is going.
TSM: And finally, what’s the next big thing for Jag?
JB: Rainbow Fashion Week Dream Academy and our very first Women’s Economic Empowerment Program, where we will be sending and receiving models, designers, photographers etc., from abroad and sending our people internationally to broaden their experience, view and perspective of their craft and hopefully inspire them to see what difference they can make in the world outside the US. Our first program will be 10 women in Roatan Honduras receiving Industry grade sewing machines, sewing kits, 100-watt solar panel and 5000-watt solar power generators. Roatan’s Goodwill Ambassador Patricia Gutierrez and the Mayor of Roatan have already granted us land use for this program. We have their blessing and will be starting a GoFundMe campaign this summer.
We’ve been watching a case of a woman named Eartha, there where the court has upheld an original ruling…ending 16 years of an illegally unconstitutional fight over about 600 acres of land that belonged to her family. This ruling freed this Eartha up to “execute” on land development projects, such as the “building of Roatan’s 1st Textile company and work towards securing “funding” for women and youth economic development.
RFWDA will fund the 1st round of this economic program making necessary purchases. We will then pay these women to be come our production house. Next we will select various RFW designers and place their line in production. Once the women earn enough to repay into the system, the next 10 women will enter into our program.
Jag is an amazingly inspirational woman and business entrepreneur who, going from ordinary to extraordinary, continue to lead a new generation of women and to make a difference. www.RainbowFashionweek.com
