Your Radical Visibility Zine is highly based not just in philosophy but actualized practice. Tell us more about why this is important to you and how clothing tackles activism beyond simple ideology.

My work is all about Radical Visibility and making clothing for queer folx with disabilities. I am trying to promote our Physical visibility because it is an important step towards political and social freedom and equality.

The Women’s dress reform movement of the 1850’s was instructive to me in the way the suffragettes used dress as a political statements and a way to subvert and gain respect. Needing the clothing to allow for full range of movement, needing it to be easier to put on and easier to clean is what rational dress was about. We have learned from the past successes of oppressed peoples and should actively adapt those techniques to fit our needs as oppressed people today.

In the past couple of years Trans folx and disabled folx have been seen more in media, but there are still not enough clothing lines that are focusing on our needs. I am using Radical Visibility as a call to action to dress in order to not be ignored, to reject “passing” and assimilation.

What is your aesthetic inspiration based in?

In Radical Visibility, aesthetics are not just as important as the functionality; aesthetics are inherently political in their function. All of the designs in Rebirth Garments use fantastically bright colors. This is because “colour threatens disorder – but also promises liberty” which is a quote from David Batchelor’s book, Chromophobia. Exuberant geometry is used in many different ways, in the patterns printed on fabric, and in the cut of the garments, power clashing with layered and spliced together patterns. Any geometrical shape is awesome, but triangles are especially encouraged due to the effort to triangulate and subvert the binary. Clothing cuts that highlight our bodies, not hide them. Being clear and confident signified by transparent fabrics. We are not confused, and we are not apologetic for being ourselves.

I am also heavily influenced by a combo of my favorite childhood things - Xena: Warrior Princess, Sailor Moon, and the Spice Girls, a perfect holy trinity of 1990’s queer femmes. I think that if you smashed these three together, they would turn out looking like my clothing line.

We would love to know more about the collaborations involved with the photographer and other contributors for this shoot.

Sandra Oviedo a.k.a. ColectivoMultipolar is a Chicago based photographer who loves the dance floor, artists, and their creative spaces. Inspired by a diverse collective of artists she is often surrounded by, she began to use ColectivoMultipolar in honor of that diversity. Born in Mexico, her first flight was to Chicago during her adolescence and felt in love with the city and its community. Having studied Communications, she discovered photography was the ideal language to express what it means to be alive.

All of the photos are taken by ColectivoMultipolar who I have been collaborating a lot with in the past 2 years. This is the first time that I have gotten to do a photoshoot that hasn’t been documentation for a show, so it was exciting to have the models wear multiple lqqks and getting more time than just a couple of minutes to perfect their poses. It is really wonderful working with a Mexicana power dyke photographer. She is very caring, positive, and conscientious with the models which I have found to be very rare in a photographer. I feel very lucky because I have been able to work with a few of amazing photographers over the years, but a lot of my experience in the past was very misogynistic, fetishising, belittling, fatphobic and ableist. Sandra puts everyone at ease, while being able to capture the spirit and personality of the models and making sure the clothing is also being shown off. We had a lot of fun in this photoshoot and I think that comes across.

In one photo, Alex is wearing a binder that is a collaboration between Rebirth and Vulpinic Vestements! It is one of my pastel sports binders and it is embedded with a geometric hexagon pattern in silicone. We will be taking custom orders for these binder/ sports bras in any color that I offer with silicone in any color Vulpinic Vestements offers. Vulpinic Vestements is an exploration in the infusion of silicone and fabric into wearable art. Bright colors and dimensional, caricatured forms dominate the designs. Molds are hand sculpted or 3d printed, then run in skin-safe, platinum based silicone. Pigmentation comes from inert earth pigments or makeup grade pigment.