Radimo LA Runway @ Junior High (05/06/18) // Show Review
Photos and article by Gomi Zhou
I am known to be someone who has high expectation for everything, and with that comes frequent disappointments. I woke up stressed out again on the day of the Radimo x Junior High runway show. As usual, I ended up setting inhumanly high expectation for the night.
I also came with worries. I worried that just like many other major queer events nowadays this was going to be another white-washed night. Since some online influencers were also walking and had been promoting the show, I worried that maybe it would once again, inevitably turn out to be a YouTube meet & greet. And mainly, I was worried because I’m still trying to get used to this newly introduced queer lifestyle for myself. It was just a lot of self-doubt, really. After years of calling myself straight and convincing myself that I was straight, I worried that I wouldn’t be able to fit right in with a crowd who had long been comfortable with who they are.
But the runway show still came out (no pun intended) to be everything I could have ever asked for.
7pm on the dot, I arrived at Junior High and a few kids had already got there. Assuming that they were fans of some of the influencers, most of them were surprisingly shy and quiet, contemplating with each other whether they should walk into the venue at such an early time. I also saw some parents, which I was once again surprised by, since mine will never be this supportive when it comes to this particular topic. Walking in, the space itself was lovely. Junior High looked like your typical neighborhood nonprofit organization but just with a lot more teenage angst and a lot more pink--which I found comforting. The pink neon signs, pins that said things like “GENDER IS OVER” felt so comforting to me. This was a space dedicated to the ones who are going through their late teen years and adolescence, the ones who are constantly on the search for an opportunity to speak up and learn but often neglected by the arrogant society who had deemed them as naive.
I had a short chat about the detailed layout for the show with Dan, who was the founder of the brand Radimo and the person behind tonight’s show. I could tell they were in a rush to make sure everything was ready to go, but I also noticed the obvious and genuine excitement behind their voice. Then came the long and slightly daunting wait for the actual show. People were all in small groups: the younger kids were mainly on their phones trying to avoid any awkward eye contact, and the adults were chit-chatting with each other about which bar they should hit together afterward. I myself spent the next hour or so talking to the girls who worked at Junior High and the other photographers. Everyone sounded so cool that they all seemed to be a “somebody” who’s working on some “projects”, a very typical scene you could find anywhere else in Los Angeles. To my surprise and comfort, even though the event was stated explicitly as a queer runway show, not once was there a question asked about sexuality. Maybe this was a given for the other attendees, but for me, a “baby queer” as one of my fellow photographers kindly made up the name for, it felt so foreignly accepting with a good type of intimacy. With all the different personalities I encountered before the show, I found it hard to imagine how would each person act in the audience crowd. Obviously, there were your groups of “stereotypical gays”, who were outgoing and ready for a good time; but the majority of the people looked just as awkward and timid as I was, feeling both excited and slightly nervous for the upcoming fashion show that was deemed to be “revolutionary” for the queer community. As it got closer to showtime, people started piling in. The more people there were in the same room, the more diverse the crowd had become. People in different age groups, ethnicities, occupations were all here for one reason: we were there to see a queer runway show, to support the queer community that we all love.
The runway soundtrack replaced the leftover awkwardness. Almost without warning, the first model walked out. With a loose striped shirt tucked into a knee-length student dress, they walked out with a notepad in their hand. They swayed their hair from side to side, delicately strode down the runway with sass. “YESSSS,” excited voices were as loud as the Beyoncé remix, everyone in the crowd was screaming and cheering now. The crowd was now acting as a whole that everyone was wearing an identical smile and screaming with joy and pride. The same dress and shirt were then worn by several other models who had different heights and different body curves, showcasing the different ways the same design could be worn in different ways by different people. After several outfits being showcased in this way, models started to stop in the middle of the runway and exchange articles of clothing from one person to another. One model would take off their silky flowery cardigan, hand it off to the next model so they could tie it around their waist. The two beautiful models would then walk down the runway hand in hand, showered once again by the overly excited and amazed crowd. The idea of gender was constantly being challenged round after round. All of the pieces were worn by at least two different people in two different ways. Models were presenting these designs in masculine and feminine manners, sometimes both manners at the same time. The gender of the models no longer mattered that everyone was equally as beautiful, proud and most importantly, happy as they strode with the confident smiles on their faces.
When the last set of models walked out, there was a split second of silence. Everyone in the crowd, including me, collectively gasped at the scene in front of us. Then all I could hear were roaring cheers, filling the room with love and love only. Miles, someone who I had been watching on YouTube ever since I was still denying myself, who had been advocating for LGBTQ+ rights since the very first day of his career, who just went through his top surgery, walked out bare-chested with the most muscular model of the night. Hand in hand wearing skirts and high heel boots, they strode slowly down the runway with confidence and pride. Emotions washed through me, not only because Miles had been one of the most important influences for my own journey, but the fact that this representation for the most discriminated against members of the LGBTQ+ community was done with apparent ease and showered by tremendous support in the room. The last time I met Miles, for the first time in my life I came out to a whole room of people despite the fact that it was being recorded from all angles; six months later, I was here sharing this evolutionary night with my beautiful community, for the first time without feeling like I was out of place. Six months ago, Miles was insecure as he kept on getting misgendered even though he had been on testosterone for a few months; and now, he was striding down a queer runway show confidently in front of a whole room of beautiful queer people. It’s crazy what six months can do, it’s crazy how much one can grow in just six months when you are surrounded by support--in this case quite literally.
My favorite thing about meeting new people or people who I look up to is that after you hugged each other, the smell of the other person would get carried by your hair and clothes for the rest of the day. I tried thanking as many people as possible, hugged a few who I had been following on the internet for literally years, and strode out of Junior High with no regard of the concept of gender but filled with love. I still have so much to learn when it comes to being queer and being comfortable with myself, and it can certainly be scary sometimes when you are living with a rather rare sexuality by yourself. But this night gave me so much faith and courage. The show by Radimo at Junior High visually challenged the concept of genders while accepted everyone in the room under the umbrella term “queer”. At the end of the day, love is love, and no one can deny someone for simply being themselves and feeling beautiful.
