See Inside LA's First LGBTQ Equality Fashion Week

WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA – Los Angeles met its first ever Fashion Week focused on the LGBTQ+ community over the weekend. Equality Fashion Week celebrated the queer fashion community at the Montrose Hotel in West Hollywood with a five-day experience of LGBTQ+ artists and designers, including pop-ups and fashion displays.

Patch caught up with queer designer and event producer Nik Kacy, who talked to us about their own personal journey with fashion, their footwear line, and what it's like to be a "triple threat minority" (queer, Asian, and transgendered) in the industry.

Emily Holland: Can you tell me a little bit about how your sense of style changed or impacted your transition?

Nik Kacy: My sense of style has evolved a lot throughout the years as I struggled to find my identity. I have always been a "tomboy" growing up, and mostly it's because I knew I wasn't meant to be born as a "girl," but as I didn't really know I had other options such as transitioning I felt forced to live as a girl and did my best to acclimate.

In college, and high school I tried to fit in by being "a girl" and even proactively tried to be more "girlie" in college as it was expected. But what I learned was that I didn't like to stand out, and just putting a dress on one day on campus caused a lot of attention where friends asked if I was "in love" just because I decided to dress more feminine. I realized at that moment that 1) me dressing up has nothing to do with the patriarchy and 2) I enjoyed f---ing with the gender binary. That led me to slowly evolving my style further, and it's now become a very muted closet of black, greys, greens, and blues. I am not a big shopper (ironically) and so when I find something I like, I buy a stack of it, so I never really need to think about what to wear. It's my signature look always... just simple jeans and a t-shirt or suit. I spice it up with accessories mostly as that's my first love – watches, glasses, rings, belts, and obviously my holsters.

In terms of how it impacted my transition – well, once I finally got to transition and have top surgery, for the first time in my life, I was able to put on something as simple as a t-shirt and felt like i finally was looking in the mirror at my authentic self. I cried and called my mom because I was so overwhelmed with joy and mourning. Mourning my past and the death of my old self, but joyful for the true me reflecting back at me. I think my style is plain and simple because I believe I want just me to shine through. Spending so many years not being able to be myself, now I'm passionately wanting to show the real, true, inner me however I can and letting that speak for itself.

EH: How did you get into fashion?

NK: I've always been a fan of fashion. Growing up secretly queer, I loved looking at my mom's Vogue magazines. She's a huge fashionista and I think that being exposed to her sense of style has always inspired me with fashion. We have very different styles...she's the quintessential woman with her colorful wardrobe, but the sense of style (I think) is something in our genetics. Everyone in our family is stylish (LOL!).

But the best part about being exposed to the magazines growing up, was it helped me realized I was looking at more than just the fashion... I loved looking at the gorgeous women as well. The supermodels of the 80s pretty much solidified to me that I was SO gay, haha. I wanted to marry Christy Turlington! I doodled a lot of menswear in school and thought about going into fashion but I also loved painting and computer science. I was a total gadget geek, taking electronics apart and putting them back together.

I remember once my grandpa was impressed I took a TV apart secretly and got in big trouble for it, but I could tell he was actually impressed. I ended up getting a degree in Fine Arts and Advertising with a double degree and a minor in International Cultural Communications. I really didn't think I would end up in fashion, it was more a fantasy. But after working at Google for more than three years, I realized that this was my chance to take the leap and try to fulfill my bucket list items while I was still single with no family to be responsible for.

I was tired of not being able to find shoes, and after a lifetime of being disappointed and invisible I wanted to provide a solution for myself. So I traveled to Europe and went to international shoe fairs and asked why shoes had to be limited by the gender binary and why shoes for folx like me were not being made when it would not cost these big corporations very much money at all to expand their sizing. The overall response was they saw the niche, knew it was there but that it was not "worth it" for them. They didn't see big enough profits, I guess. So hearing that fueled my fire even more, because now I felt like they were saying I was not worth it... my community was not "worth it," so I said f--- that, I'm gonna make my own damn shoes then for me and my community!

EH: What was your inspiration for your footwear line?

NK: When I was traveling throughout Europe trying to learn about the shoe industry and finding factories who would be willing to work with someone like me and who would be willing to break a very long tradition of shoe making and allow me the chance to try something new, I really sat down and drew out all the shoes I ever wanted to wear.

My first collection was very much "masculine of center," but as I'm learning the trade and the art of shoe design, I'm starting to play with my ideas more and see if I can push the envelope. For the Fortune Collection, I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, per se. I just wanted classic styles but modernized for a gender free and gender equal fit with signature accents to make it more current and different.

For the new Destiny Collection, I wanted to push for design styles that were prevalent and see how far I can push these master craftsmen to think outside the box. I faced a lot of push back and struggles, but in the end I told them, "we will make something different and we will grow more from it." I'm also working on high heels because I believe shoes should not have gender assigned to them and high heels are sexy forms of shoes that everyone should be able to wear as well in the same comfort and fit as my other shoes.

EH: How did you come up with Equality Fashion Week?

NK: After presenting at several queer fashion shows in the past three years, including Queer Fashion Week in Oakland, Rainbow Fashion Week in NY, Superbutch in Toronto, and the prestigious DapperQ NYFW Fashion Show at the Brooklyn Museum, I felt sad that LA didn't have its own LGBTQ-focused fashion week. We have such a plethora of queer talent here and everyone is too busy to put something together, so I had been wanting and wishing for something like this for the past few years. Finally when the Montrose Hotel hit me up to participate in a celebration of their re-launch, I saw an opportunity to not only give them a chance to do more than they could imagine but to give back to our community in a way that could have longevity instead of a one night party.

Of course the staff was super stoked and excited for the opportunity and vision. I pitched it as a producer because they didn't have anyone to produce their event, and I know for myself that I didn't want to do anything half-assed so it was a wonderful and natural partnership. Bringing our entire community together allies and Queer alike to celebrate our diversity and inclusivity.

EH: What types of hurdles do members of the LGBTQIA community face in the fashion industry specifically?

NK: Lord, where do I even begin with this question....I can't speak for others, but from my experience I had so many hurdles. Without backing from major funding, and funding my company including all conception, development and prototyping stages purely thru my own savings and then a subsequent Kickstarter campaign, it is very hard to produce an entire footwear line. It's very costly and time consuming.

Factories generally don't want to work with you without quantity and name. Plus, being a triple threat minority (queer, Asian, and trans), I was met with a lot of resistance, transphobia, homophobia, racism. When I first started, people would speak without even looking at me or hold entire conversations without translating. Or, they would treat me like I didn't know what I was talking about or tell me I was wrong and try to make me feel stupid because I wanted to create something new and different.

Many factories didn't want to work with me because they told me that's not how you make a shoe and that it had to be a women's or men's fit. But I didn't give up, and kept looking and explaining until they finally gave in and gave me a chance.

EH: Why is it important to showcase people of varying sexualities and genders, but also people of different shapes/sizes?

NK: I would like to think that the answer here is unnecessary, but the fact that its a question speaks volumes on why it's needed.

EH: How did Equality Fashion Week differ from a traditional fashion week, like LAFW?

NK: Besides being run, organized and produced, performed and managed by a majority of members of the LGBTQ+ community (with exception to the Montrose Hotel), we are body, race, and age inclusive, and have an array of talents performing and showcasing all the myriads of talents our community has.

EH: What do you want the theme or “message” to be for Equality Fashion Week?

NK: Well the name speaks for itself... Equality. We want to increase visibility for those who have been historically under-represented and inspire others to support equality whether it be politically, socially or economically.

Photo Credits:

1. Main image of Nik Kacy by wrytoastphotos.com
2. Photo courtesy of Lior Boroda (ILDK Media)
3. Photo courtesy of Lior Boroda (ILDK Media)
4. Photo courtesy of Peter Leal
5. Photo courtesy of Peter Leal
6. Photo courtesy of Peter Leal
7. Photo courtesy of Peter Leal