Review: The Beyond Fashion Fest made a dandy impression in downtown Iowa City, showcasing streetwear, grunge, indigenous and avant garde designs

Wright House of Fashion’s latest event was a two-day showcase of art, comedy, talks on fashion and diversity, and of course, fashion shows. The first fashion show of the inaugural Beyond Fashion Festival was Jamie Sauncoci’s JS Wear, sponsored by the Great Plains Action Society and hosted in the Graduate’s ballroom.

The show opened with remarks from Marie Krebs, managing director of the Great Plains Action Society, and Jessica Engelking, GPAS’s representation director, followed by a demonstration of multiple Indigenous dances by the Morningstar Dance Troupe, a family troupe based in the Meskwaki region in Tama. 

Sauncoci’s clothes had a modern silhouette — slinky form-fitting dresses, a cardigan in a sunny green, a shirt with the JS Sauncoci logo emblazoned across it — with an Indigenous touch in the details. Skirts were adorned with ribbon detailing, black and white images of Native men in full headdresses reflected across black fabric like reflections on water, and the looks were styled with traditional elements like beaded moccasins and necklaces.

Simultaneously, down the street, Jade Auichi’s show Garbitch was a somber affair hosted by Dandy Lion. Models in ragged clothes roughly sewn together with harsh red-yarn stitches stumbled and slunk down the runway, clutching at stomachs and arms with a cringing fear. Soundtracking the show was a reading of the text of Iowa’s HF 583, which narrowed the definition of “male” and “female” to bioessentialist definitions while removing gender identity as a protected category from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, and SSB 1237’s section 13, which would to restrict the disbursement of Medicaid funds for the purpose of treatment related “to an individual’s gender dysphoria diagnosis.”

The show ended on a triumphant note as a voice rose above the droning narration, stating, “Trans care is health care — and I’m living proof.” Auichi emerged, beaming in a wedding dress dip-dyed at the base with the colors of the trans flag, feathery angel wings over their shoulders. It was a welcome turn towards a defiant positivity in a show haunted by a somber dreariness. Most of the pieces in the show were upcycled garments with the red-yarn motif used as embellishment, ringing the hem of a dress mixed with flowers and carving a crude heart — but little details elevated the pieces like LOVE embroidered on the back of a Frankensteined sweatshirt and a trailing piece of red netting drifting from the back of the angelic bridal gown as a final bloody reminder of the still-present threat of violence.

The fashion shows wrapped up with a streetwear showcase in the alleyway outside of LGBTQ nightclub Studio 13, where the setting sun aligned with the alleyway and cast golden light down the runway. The show started late, but local rapper, DJ and Wright House of Fashion board member Zef Walker-El brought the energy up. “This is the first ever fashion fest in the state of Iowa,” he said. “And y’all made that happen.”

Illinois-based brand COPE Apparel sent mottled jumpsuits, jean jackets and boxy denim sets down the runway, emblazoned with embroidered logos. A standout piece was a swishy bomber with camouflage collar and back details.

Everything’s Cliche (Spike Dupree)’s looks had the chaotic, upcycled look that’s starting to define the Cedar Rapids designer look — seemingly normal T-shirts on the front with skull appliques bursting out the back, slouchy windbreakers crisscrossed with bright patches of vintage prints, a business-y grey skirt with anime-styled eyes peering out with a frantic desperation. 

Outsiders’ custom-printed looks channeled a cowboy-meets-Mad Max vibe with a frenetic mix of textures stitched haphazardly into pants and skirts, screenprinted with wavering, ghostly faces, logos and sketchy, flamelike lines that broke up the mostly black looks with stark white.

Destined (Zorte Edo)’s work was a Y2K-vibey throwback, with glittering rhinestone logos, a boxy album-cover style tee, and flared sweatpants in bright yellow and pink.

The show wrapped up with a showcase of pieces from Finer Streetwear Co., an Iowa City brand that’s been in operation since 2018 when Markeece Johnson first opened the small store off of Highway 1. Finer Streetwear’s offerings were casual and wearable with edgy twists, like sweatpants with Rick Owens-style zips to transform them into flares and fire-engine red sweatsuit with “KNOWN FOR PUTTIN THAT SH!T ON” in bold black lettering across the back. 

“I love the community we’ve built,” said model Malaika Cheatham after the show. “Both here and in Cedar Rapids, I’m so proud of the community we’ve built.”