Fashion

Fashion

Volume 41, Numbers 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2013
Amy Herzog, Joe Rollins
Excerpted from the Editor’s Note

House of Dior. House of Chanel. House of St. Laurent. House of Mizrahi. House of Labeija. House of Pendavis. House of Ninja. House of Xtravaganza. Emerging in the 1970s and 1980s within the underground black drag ball scene, house networks provided a critical community for queer youth of color. The ball circuit, whose history extends to the Harlem drag balls of the 1930s, was revitalized in the 1960s by black drag queens frustrated by the restrictiveness of the existing drag culture. Balls were held in the early morning hours in Harlem, allowing for the safe passage of contestants in their finery through the streets, and for the participation of ball-goers who worked late hours hustling. The performances, and the fashions, were legendary. The first house was created in 1972, when Crystal LaBeija, in an inspired promotional move, co-sponsored “the first annual House of LaBeija ball.” With a nod to the glamour and the patronage system of the great fashion houses, the drag houses instituted their own family structure, headed by mothers, and sometimes fathers, who oversaw their “children,” some of whom faced rejection from their biological families or their working-class African American and Latino communities. While the houses were initially formed to prepare and promote their competitors in upcoming balls, they provided space for much broader, adaptable family roles, with room for members not interested in “walking” to offer support and companionship.