I wanted to actually challenge that and say for some people wearing a wig, a full face of makeup, and a gown is actually about feeling natural.

With the latest collection I was thinking through how so many times people tell me that if I want to look more 'convincing' or 'believable' then I should just 'tone it down.' The idea is that 'dressing up' is about artifice. With each iteration I was giving myself more permission to imagine more expansively. What's the biggest difference between your third fashion line and the two previous ones? I think all of them are building off from one another. reclamation is turning destruction into joy.' there is a magic to navigating the world in this body: I see things other people don't see - so when the camera invited me in: I surrendered to the ritual & found myself smiling on the other side. perhaps it was a whim (or death drive) but somehow I decided to bring it with me. it reeked of both fear & sweat, pungent, unforgiving. I saw this dress, still stained with the tint of their laughter, discarded on my living room floor like a fruit rind - or an ex.

Vaid-Menon wears a slip-dress made famous via an Instagram post earlier this year, in which they wrote 'The day after being called a tranny in this outfit I had a photo shoot. The colorful patterns and layered textures of Alok Vaid-Menon's third fashion collection riff on traditional Indian designs, early Hollywood glamour, 1980s shoulder-padded excesses, stuffy Victorian-era collars, and sexy short-short hot pants-all filtered through their gloriously joyful femme fashion aesthetic.Įach item in their latest collaboration with New Delhi fashion designer Adrianne Keishing bears a name like 'Biological,' 'Innate,' or 'Natural,' reclaiming terms that have long been used to police the identities and expressions of those with nonconforming genders like that of the internationally renowned Indian-American writer and performance artist.

Femme in Public by Alok Vaid-Menon