So last week I talked about what the balls were and what goes on at the balls. For this post I wanted to share a few of my favorite personalities and also share what the scene was for me.
To start I want to talk about my love of the old ballroom scene. I never got to experience the old ball scene you see in Paris is burning because I was a baby when it was filmed and when I did come around to the scene most of the personalities you see in the movie were rarely seen at the balls and by now most have passed away. These Personalities were my introduction to ball walkers and some of my favorite ball personalities of all time namely Willi Ninja, Pepper la Beija, Carmen Xtrava and Octavia St. Laurent. This was the case with a lot of kids coming up in the nineties whose first glimpse of the scene was that doc. When I first got into the scene I thought it would be like the paris is burning ball but I was in for something completely evolved. The nineties gave way to a whole new breed of boys and girls who weren't around for Jennie Livingston's filming in the late 80's AND the scene had completely changed. It was huge there were so many new houses like Latex Revlon Mizrahi Karan and Evisu. The categories were intense and very competative. It was spectacular to see. The first ball I ever went to was Latex Ball in 2003 at the Roseland Ballroom with my friend who was in the house of Revlon and set to walk butch queen up in drags but "missed" her category when it was called I knew she was really just scared and i didn't blame her because like junior la beija said "It do take nerve"
Here's a video of the Latex Ball 2003 the first 30 sec is of my favorite voguers Leyomi Mizrahi when she was the new girl on the block
This vids of Leyomi's greatest moments which have gave her, her Legendary status in the ball scene.
This is Javier Ninja my favorite at hands performance
Giselle Xtravaganza is my favorite Femme Queen Face and Runway
For this post I wanted to talk about the little known underground culture of the gay ball scene in NYC.
I first came to know about the ball scene in 2003 through a transgendered friend of mine I had met at school. She told me all about the Ball's that were being thrown. The "houses" or families in the scene and all the different categories one could walk.
If you don't know anything about ball culture, it is an underground LGBT subculture where people "walk" or compete for trophies and prizes at a Ball. The Balls are usually thrown by a "house" the Village Voice explains houses as...
...houses are loose-knit, typically same sex, confederacies of "children" who adopt a family name, usually swiped from a fashion designer, and adhere to rules set up by a presiding "mother" and "father."
...a big raucous band of "children" (the house members): drag queens, butch queens, transsexuals - mostly MTF but some FTM, a few non-trans girls and one or two straight guys. The smattering of girls and straight guys notwithstanding, the houses are, essentially, cabals of young black and Hispanic men obsessed with being fashionable and fabulous.
The members of different houses compete in different categories to win themselves and their house a trophy and usually prize money which usually goes to the house mother and/or father. Everyone wants to be in a winning house, the fabbest house and there are even awards given to the "house of the year" at the annual awards ball.
Some of the categories you can compete in at a ball are...
Butch Queen Vogue Femme/Female Figure Performance — Give a stunning performance using the five elements of vogue: hands, catwalk, duckwalk, floor performance, and spins and dips
BQ Realness — Judged on participants' ability to blend in with heterosexuals by giving Thug, Pretty Boy, School Boy, or Executive
FQ Realness — Judged on participants' ability to blend in with female heterosexuals
Realness With a Twist (Twister) — Judged on participants' ability to blend in with heterosexuals, then come back and vogue fem
BQ/FQ/FF Runway — Judged on participants' ability to catwalk, usually with a requested outfit or color
Bizarre — Judged on participants' creativity to design a costume based on what the category asks for
Labels — Judged on how many of the year labels a participant is wearing and their authenticity
BQ/FQ/FF Face — Showing off your clean, perfect, smooth face
BQ/FQ/FF Sex Siren — Giving sex appeal mostly in sexy underwear such as thongs, briefs, or bikinis
European Runway — Often a Butch Queen Category, European runway is brought in over the top effects that are more likely to be seen in a high-cost European fashion show; the person walking walks like a female or feminine model, not like the male models of America.
American Runway — Much like European Runway, American Runway is usually a Butch Queen Category but is often walked by TransMen and Butches/Studs, but the models walk as a masculine models from America, not feminine models like in European Runway.
Butch Queen up in Pumps — Basically the same as Labels or Runway but you must wear heels usually six inches or more
FQ/BQ in Drag Female Figure Performance — Give a performance (usually lip-synched) of a famous female figure
Hands Performance — Give a voguing performance using hands only
Virgin Vogue Femme — The same as vogue femme but for participants who have been voguing for less than one year, as per Legendary Icon Selvin Khan
Virgin Runway — The same as Runway but for participants who have been walking Runway for less than one year, as per Legendary Icon Selvin Khan
Best Dressed — self explanatory
Annnnnyway, we did a screening at my house of the documentary Paris Is Burning.
Paris is Burning was made in 1990 by documentary film maker Jennie Livingston and it chronicles the ball scene in the late 80's in New York If you havn't seen this movie you should watch it to really understand how the scene evolved and how it works.
Here is the trailer for Paris is Burning
The scene evolved and changed a lot from what it used to be in the 80's through the nineties and in 2006 Wolfgang Busch (another documentary maker) released a seqal to Paris is Burning compromised of 10 years of footage and interviews with ball scene personalities.
Here is the trailer for How Do I Look
So I started learning about all the different categories one could walk at a ball. I started listening to the beatz of the ballroom and I started to get to know all the major ballroom personalities. I had basically fallen in love with Ball culture. I started going to the balls and seeing the vogueing and runway in person. I then started to learn how to vogue, walk runway and even started making my own beatz sampling other famous ball beatz. All vogueing beatz sample Masters At Work's Ha Dance and the crash in the song has become synonomous with vogue dips.
That'll be all for this post. In my next post I'll share more about the scene and my experiences with it.
For this post I wanted to share a few of my fashion illustrations and talk about some of my inspirations.
The following Illustrations were done as fabric rendering exercises.
all are done in marker and pencil on marker paper.
(Please excuse the bad photo quality, One of these days I'll scan them)
TRANSPARENCY
DENIM
PLAID / STRIPE
SATIN
KNIT
FUR
These are two pages from my portfolio of a capsule collection I did for a client.
My favorite fashion illustrator who inspires my own illustrations is Arturo Elena. Arturo is amazing at capturing photo realism in his illustrations and he is truly a master at rendering.
Arturo is also a fashion illustration instructor but only teaches in madrid :(
till I go to Spain I'll just have to settle for studying his illustrations and practicing on mine.
For this post I wanted to share photos of my drawings of my spring 2011 semester of foundation. The course was Drawing II Ideation & Imagination. Here are the drawings in the order the assignments were given...
Create an image using only I's and O's.
This first assignment was about choosing a theme that we had inhabitions about. I chose androgony because of inner reflections about embracing both feminine and masculine sides of my personality.
ANDROGONY
For the second project we had to choose an organic and a non organic object to combine in a surreal way. I chose an issue of Vogue and the cosmos.
Organic and Non-Organic
In this next project we had to either choose between a sewing machine and a grandfather clock. Carol our teacher always told us to find the nature of an object and to understand the nature of the objects. She would often say "What does it want?" I had to choose the sewing machine because of the relationship I've had with the sewing machine.
Sewing Machine
Our Next assignment was a self portrait...
Self Portrait
The second to last assignment was the "Displaced Monument" which is pretty self explanatory. For my monument I went to something I've had a fascination with for a long time, Versailles. For a location I chose a mythical place in China because I've always marveled at the epic landscape paintings of China. The ones you might see at the Chinese take out restaurant.
Versailles in China
Of all the artwork I' did during my foundation year (last year) here at Parsons School of Design this video entitled FLIGHT has been my favorite to produce and somewhat embarressing to watch. I really have to thank Carol for allowing us to chose any medium of our liking for some projects. She is one of the best teachers I've ever crossed paths with. Carol was so much more than just an art teacher she was an inspiration. In our final project for the year we had to address flight and the elements within which it exists. Thrust Lift Weight and Drag. Inspired by one of my favorite artists Matthew Barney I decided I wanted to try my hand at Video Art and this was my outcome...
Carol has a way of bringing out your inner artist and taking her course was the greatest thing I've done here at Parsons thus far.
