‘HIV Unwrapped’ combines science and style for New York Fashion Week
The floor was on fire when molecular structures met ballroom aesthetics and decades of scientific research to create colorful couture at “HIV Unwrapped,” a runway show that made its US debut at New York Fashion Week on Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Nexus Club in Tribeca. The project paired leading HIV scientists with students at … Read More
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The floor was on fire when molecular structures met ballroom aesthetics and decades of scientific research to create colorful couture at "HIV Unwrapped," a runway show that made its US debut at New York Fashion Week on Saturday, Sept. 13 at the Nexus Club in Tribeca. The project paired leading HIV scientists with students at Parsons School of Design to create fashion pieces inspired by their research to tell the stories of the people fighting to end the global epidemic.
The New York debut was co-hosted by Karl Schmid, a broadcast journalist and the founder of +Life, a multimedia brand dedicated to raising awareness about the realities of living with HIV. The project was first presented in Australia at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, where students turned lab coats into fashion, with subsequent iterations in Rwanda and the United Kingdom. It takes a long-stigmatized epidemic and brings it to the mainstream in the hopes of reaching new audiences.
[caption id="attachment_59074" align="aligncenter" width="467"]
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis.Sam Guttell for Plus Life Media[/caption]
“'HIV Unwrapped' isn’t just serving looks, we’re serving truth. This is where fashion collides with science, to spark conversations that matter,” Schmid told a crowd prior to the show’s start, sharing that he was diagnosed with HIV in October of 2007. “HIV doesn’t discriminate, because despite all of the tools we have, stigma and fear still holds us back.”
The runway featured a star-studded cast of models and guests, including "Hamilton" star Javier Muñoz — who has lived with HIV since 2002 and recently visited Washington, DC to lobby against cuts to HIV funding — and Demetre Daskalakis, the out gay former immunizations director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who resigned last month, warning the agency was “past the point of no return.”
[caption id="attachment_59067" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
"Hamilton" star Javier Muñoz.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
Some of the models on the runway were people living with HIV and some were not, but there was no way to tell the difference, demonstrating the individuals are more than their diagnosis.
One of the researchers pushing the boundaries of HIV science is Deborah Persaud, MD, professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, who has been on the front lines of the epidemic since the 1980s.
“I really think it’s important for us to have open conversations between people in the fashion industry and in science,” Persaud told Gay City News. “I think it’s really important to spread that message of hope, that we’ve made a lot of progress with treatment.”
The fight against HIV/AIDS has been complicated in the past months by the Trump administration, which recently cut funding and withheld previously-appropriated HIV aid to other countries. Last month, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cancelled $500 million intended for mRNA vaccine research, just days after researchers announced promising results in developing an HIV vaccine.
Despite the challenging political climate, Persaud said she remains hopeful, “because such amazing progress has been made.”
Persaud shared her expertise with Asato Kitamura, who designed a black gown with repeated hand-embroidered white motifs to represent the repeated act of taking daily medication for people living with HIV.
[caption id="attachment_59070" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Asato Kitamura's design is showcased on stage.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
Ayinde Bradford was inspired by the New York City ballrooms of the 1970s and 80s. He designed color-blocked yellow and blue pants and a jacket with a red lapel and an altered hood, in reference to a photo of Angie Xtravaganza, a Puerto Rican trans performer and founder of the legendary house of Xtravaganza who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991.
The print on Bradford’s design references an image of rectal tissue pulled from a colonoscopy, which is often used for HIV research, taken from the work of Luis Montaner, executive vice president of The Wistar Institute, who is also the chair of the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee.
[caption id="attachment_59068" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Ayinde Bradford's work, spotlighted here, draws from the city's ballroom scene in the '70s and '80s.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
“This is an opportunity to do research within the queer community, and I love that as a queer person myself, and really engaging with the mothers and the fathers of history,” Bradford told Gay City News. “I love that I can use my tools and my talent to support a larger cause.”
Chris Beyrer, MD, the director of the Duke Global Health Institute, has been fighting HIV for the past three decades. His work is personal to him; his partner, Ed Luther, died of AIDS in 1991 at 31 years old. Beyrer and his sisters memorialized his life in a patch of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which was on display next to the runway.
“We need to do everything we can to connect to the next generation,” Beyrer said. “Young people keep exploring their sexuality, and they keep needing what HIV science has to offer — prevention, care — and part of the challenge is connecting people who might benefit from our services to those services.”
[caption id="attachment_59069" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on display.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
HIV science has made tremendous progress over the past three decades, with tools such as pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP) preventing new infections, and daily medication making people who are HIV-positive undetectable, meaning that there is no risk of transmission to others.
Beyrer’s work recently brought him to Thailand, where he conducted a trial that provided PrEP to men and trans women selling sex in Thailand in a non-stigmatized way. “We literally turned off HIV; we did not have a single new infection in over 1,300 sex workers on PrEP,” he said. “So it can be done, and it can really make a difference.”
At the same time, Beyrer added, at a societal level, it’s “a great disappointment that we’ve never been able to really move beyond the stigma.”
One way to reach past stigma, he added, is, “to reach younger people sooner, and support the joy and beauty of sex and sexuality. It doesn’t have to be connected to risk anymore and that’s an amazing thing.”
The New York premiere of "HIV Unwrapped" — presented in partnership with GLAAD; the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine; Equal Pride; and the Council of Fashion Designers of America — will be featured in a broadcast special on Hulu in time for World AIDS Day, which is commemorated on Dec. 1.
Dr. Demetre Daskalakis.Sam Guttell for Plus Life Media[/caption]
“'HIV Unwrapped' isn’t just serving looks, we’re serving truth. This is where fashion collides with science, to spark conversations that matter,” Schmid told a crowd prior to the show’s start, sharing that he was diagnosed with HIV in October of 2007. “HIV doesn’t discriminate, because despite all of the tools we have, stigma and fear still holds us back.”
The runway featured a star-studded cast of models and guests, including "Hamilton" star Javier Muñoz — who has lived with HIV since 2002 and recently visited Washington, DC to lobby against cuts to HIV funding — and Demetre Daskalakis, the out gay former immunizations director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who resigned last month, warning the agency was “past the point of no return.”
[caption id="attachment_59067" align="aligncenter" width="700"] "Hamilton" star Javier Muñoz.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
Some of the models on the runway were people living with HIV and some were not, but there was no way to tell the difference, demonstrating the individuals are more than their diagnosis.
One of the researchers pushing the boundaries of HIV science is Deborah Persaud, MD, professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, who has been on the front lines of the epidemic since the 1980s.
“I really think it’s important for us to have open conversations between people in the fashion industry and in science,” Persaud told Gay City News. “I think it’s really important to spread that message of hope, that we’ve made a lot of progress with treatment.”
The fight against HIV/AIDS has been complicated in the past months by the Trump administration, which recently cut funding and withheld previously-appropriated HIV aid to other countries. Last month, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cancelled $500 million intended for mRNA vaccine research, just days after researchers announced promising results in developing an HIV vaccine.
Despite the challenging political climate, Persaud said she remains hopeful, “because such amazing progress has been made.”
Persaud shared her expertise with Asato Kitamura, who designed a black gown with repeated hand-embroidered white motifs to represent the repeated act of taking daily medication for people living with HIV.
[caption id="attachment_59070" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Asato Kitamura's design is showcased on stage.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
Ayinde Bradford was inspired by the New York City ballrooms of the 1970s and 80s. He designed color-blocked yellow and blue pants and a jacket with a red lapel and an altered hood, in reference to a photo of Angie Xtravaganza, a Puerto Rican trans performer and founder of the legendary house of Xtravaganza who was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991.
The print on Bradford’s design references an image of rectal tissue pulled from a colonoscopy, which is often used for HIV research, taken from the work of Luis Montaner, executive vice president of The Wistar Institute, who is also the chair of the National Institutes of Health Office of AIDS Research Advisory Committee.
[caption id="attachment_59068" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Ayinde Bradford's work, spotlighted here, draws from the city's ballroom scene in the '70s and '80s.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
“This is an opportunity to do research within the queer community, and I love that as a queer person myself, and really engaging with the mothers and the fathers of history,” Bradford told Gay City News. “I love that I can use my tools and my talent to support a larger cause.”
Chris Beyrer, MD, the director of the Duke Global Health Institute, has been fighting HIV for the past three decades. His work is personal to him; his partner, Ed Luther, died of AIDS in 1991 at 31 years old. Beyrer and his sisters memorialized his life in a patch of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, which was on display next to the runway.
“We need to do everything we can to connect to the next generation,” Beyrer said. “Young people keep exploring their sexuality, and they keep needing what HIV science has to offer — prevention, care — and part of the challenge is connecting people who might benefit from our services to those services.”
[caption id="attachment_59069" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Parts of the AIDS Memorial Quilt on display.Dashiell Allen[/caption]
HIV science has made tremendous progress over the past three decades, with tools such as pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP) preventing new infections, and daily medication making people who are HIV-positive undetectable, meaning that there is no risk of transmission to others.
Beyrer’s work recently brought him to Thailand, where he conducted a trial that provided PrEP to men and trans women selling sex in Thailand in a non-stigmatized way. “We literally turned off HIV; we did not have a single new infection in over 1,300 sex workers on PrEP,” he said. “So it can be done, and it can really make a difference.”
At the same time, Beyrer added, at a societal level, it’s “a great disappointment that we’ve never been able to really move beyond the stigma.”
One way to reach past stigma, he added, is, “to reach younger people sooner, and support the joy and beauty of sex and sexuality. It doesn’t have to be connected to risk anymore and that’s an amazing thing.”
The New York premiere of "HIV Unwrapped" — presented in partnership with GLAAD; the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine; Equal Pride; and the Council of Fashion Designers of America — will be featured in a broadcast special on Hulu in time for World AIDS Day, which is commemorated on Dec. 1. 
