Can you be an outlier and a fashion darling at the same time?
Rio Uribe of Gypsy Sport isn't worried. He admits he was a bit after winning with two others the lucrative 2015 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, but so far, so good.
"It used to make me nervous, actually, when I first won," he said. "I was, like, what are people going to expect now?"
Then the 31-year-old, $300,000 richer from the competition, spent a few weeks in Paris, trying to figure it all out.
"I wanted to see what I could do and how I can carry my voice forward without feeling the pressure to always outdo myself," Uribe said as a continuous loop of models hit his latest gender-fluid runway during men's week.
"I think what it is to always go back to my roots and my roots are with DIY clothing, so I made a lot of the clothing by hand. There's also a fun element, and if we're not having fun it's not Gypsy Sport."
On a runway of artificial turf, Uribe was, again, true to himself. His New York-based brand has been around since 2012 and he has maintained a commitment to unisex design, putting men in dresses and exposing a trans female breast to drive home the idea that we've all got them, nipples and all.
"I was inspired by so many things this season, starting with soccer and sports. I wanted to take rituals from sports and turn them into ritualistic clothing," Uribe said. "That led me into DIY, turning some soccer jerseys and football jerseys into dresses and lingerie. And then I was also inspired by eveningwear. We've never made eveningwear but I really wanted to have lace and fringe and pearls and all of those elements in there. So it kind of became a big mashup of sportswear, eveningwear and fantasy wear."
On those fronts, he scored.
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