Watch the Qwear Pride 2021 Virtual Fashion Show
The Qwear Pride 2021 Virtual Fashion Show was produced by Qwear Media and featured QTPOC designers, Show & Tell Concept Shop, and PatternNation!
Watch the show on Instagram @qwearfashion:
Show & Tell Concept Shop, founded by Alyah Baker in 2011, is a platform for a unique, vibrant, inclusive design that promotes unapologetic style and joyful living. Their carefully curated assortment features their handmade Show & Tell Collection alongside an evolving selection of ethical and sustainable goods from like-minded brands. They believe in socially responsible practices, authentic self-expression, and radical acceptance and celebration of people of color, LGBTQIA+ folks, Women, and other marginalized communities.
PatternNation is a collaborative and inclusive fashion design brand and creative platform showcasing the art music and fashion designs of Cydney Eva and Costa Besta. Their collaborations are aimed at connecting artists who embrace bold color and patterns globally.
PatternNation was founded by Vancouver Canada born artist and fashion designer Cydney Eva. Cyd is a visual artist, painter, muralist, fabric sculpture artist, and clothing/jewelry designer. She studied Visual Art and First Nations Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancity and now lives in Cape Town South, Africa. CostaBesta is a South African Zulu artist of many talents, a recording artist, performer, DJ, fashion designer, and photographer. His ability to design clothes and thrift the best garments in town, and fuse them with an old-school feel creates his one-of-a-kind aesthetic. He is the co-creative director at PatternNation, where he installs blobs, paints walls, sneakers, and garments, designs clothing, and makes music.
All the clothing made by PatternNation is sewn and designed with love in our home studio by Cydney and Costa. Most of their garments are one-of-a-kind and they use a mix of locally sourced fabrics, original sublimation prints, silk-screened textiles, and hand-painted/dyed materials. They often upcycle pre-loved garments and always consider the sustainable nature of the clothing they create. All of their designs are un-gendered/unisex as they believe gender does not have to define what we wear. They plan to expand their clothing selection/sizing and have an online store based in Canada by the end of 2021.
Pattern Nation collaborations engage with many indigenous and radical thinking artists globally. As an act of decolonization through art PatternNation shoots, events, classes, films, and clothing aim to create conversations around identity politics. Part of the platform’s mandate is to create more space for people of color in fashion and to facilitate cross-cultural sharing through art. The aim of PatternNation collaborations are to work directly with artists from various backgrounds and create content that subverts the usual consumption of Caucasian minimalist work in the art and fashion worlds.
