Love Your Labels - Queer AF Fashion Show
{ Melissa Hanson }
Is there a fabric more storied than denim?
With a difficult origin rooted in exploitation — denim fabric was produced through the labor of enslaved people, who also wore the garment while working under harsh conditions — this textile’s journey is rugged and transcendent. Denim became a symbol of Americana and then of labor rights. Indigo wares were synonymous with the working class, youthful rebellion, and resistance.
This fabric and its history are at the core of the 2026 Queer AF Art+Fashion Show by Love Your Labels, a Worcester nonprofit organization that supports LGBTQ+ youth and families with programming such as Threads, where middle- and high-school-age youth explore personal expression, gender, and sexuality through fashion design. Queer AF in Denim will take over the historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester at 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18, during the city’s Pride Month celebration, a bold exploration of denim as defiance, reinvention, and style.
“This is an incredibly potent and relevant theme for many reasons,” says Joshua Croke, president and founder of Love Your Labels. “Fashion is inextricably linked to the legacy of oppression that exists in this nation and across the world. We need to name the realities of the present state of the fashion industry. It is not historical to say that fashion is tied to enslaved labor. That happens today in 2026, so we need to call out the reality of harm that has driven this industry, and we also have a lot of power as people involved and connected to this industry to bring about change.”
At Queer AF in Denim, runway collections from a slate of national fashion designers will be replete with jean fabric and flanked by performances. Headlining the evening will be Cain Culto, a former worship pastor turned queer renegade, who blends left-field pop and hip-hop with global influences to create music that pulls at the threads of faith, politics, race, and capitalism.
Drag artists Sir Royce of Fitchburg and Vilette of Boston, winners of the second annual Make. It. Werk. drag competition by Love Your Labels, will bring their fiercest moves to the stage.
A hallmark of the Queer AF experience is seeing bodies of all identities, sizes, and abilities on its home-grown runway. Queer AF holds model calls in Worcester and seeks to uplift folks who have wrongly been told by mainstream media and beauty standards that their form is not worthy of the catwalk. Queer AF loudly proclaims that everyone is beautiful, all bodies deserve to be seen and celebrated, and all experiences are worthy of this spotlight.
Queer AF guests are encouraged to upcycle denim into a unique new look. Need some inspiration? Throughout the summer, Queer AF has been exploring four denim archetypes:
The Renegade: This punk-rocker or outsider doesn’t play by the rules (Think Debbie Harry, George Michael, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen)
The Throwback: This character is all about vintage charm, reinventing storied looks (Think Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley, Farrah Fawcett, Marc Jacobs)
The Shapeshifter: A style chameleon, this persona knows fashion transcends norms and binaries (Think Lady Gaga, Madonna, Rihanna, Janelle Monae)
The Truthteller: This historian honors the realities and complexities of denim and the people who wear it (Think Bruce Springsteen, Janet Jackson, Sade, Patrick Kelly)
Queer AF in Denim is part of the Big Queer Worcester Weekend alongside the Worcester Draglesque Festival, which is hosting its festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, also at Mechanics Hall.
The 2026 show will be Queer AF’s seventh iteration. Past shows have included stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race (Raja Gemini, Kori King, Peppermint, Mariah Balenciaga, Jackie Cox, Jan Sport, Joslyn Fox), Project Runway (Utica Queen, Mondo Guerra, Asha Ama, Sam Donovan, Pretty Snake), America’s Next Top Model (Cory Wade), NBC’s The Voice (Ryleigh Modig), model Rain Dove, and comedian Erin Hattamer to Worcester.
Tickets for Queer AF in Denim are on sale now at queeraf.org. Designers will be announced in the coming weeks. Follow @thequeeraf on Instagram for updates ahead of the show.