Designer Daniel Silverstein showed his couture collection ZERO WASTE DANIEL to NY’s fashion and buyers setting the stage ablaze with an explosion of color, performance, and sheer joy and every handmade piece was created from upcycled fabrics.  Brooklyn-based- ZWD is dedicated to transforming textile waste into wearable art. Using the brand’s signature patchwork and mosaic techniques, it creates genderless collections, custom designs, and performance looks that prove sustainability and style can coexist. The label has been recognized for its pioneering approach to upcycling,

Daniel explained to Queerguru that  Inspiration for the collection traces back to The Harlequin Boy, a childhood story my parents read to me. In it, a clever Venetian boy dreams of going to Carnival but does not have a costume, so he gathers scraps from others’ outfits and sews them together, creating a patchwork look that outshines them all. As a queer person running this business with my husband, I cannot ignore what is happening around us. Right now, marriage equality, trans rights, and basic protections for marginalized groups are openly under attack. It is frightening to think that what feels fundamental to my life and my community is in jeopardy. But through that fear, I choose to still create.

So on  this one night drag icons and ballroom legends brought the collection to life, lip-syncing and performing in upcycled couture as muses, models, and headlining entertainers, transforming the night into a dazzling fusion of fashion and performance art. Raja Gemini and Yvie Oddly, both winners of RuPaul’s Drag Race, stepped into Zero Waste Daniel’s upcycled couture. Yvie’s look, sewn from a retired hot air balloon donated by a lifelong friend of Silverstein’s, featured a 20-foot train and covered the stage, billowing as Yvie performed Shirley Bassey’s “Over the Rainbow.”

The show was hosted by Kiki Ball-Change and Selma Nilla and also featured Drag Race alum Plasma and self-proclaimed “theater queen” in a tribute to Bernadette Peters, a set from the legendary House of Xtravaganza, King of Drag winner King Molasses, Julie J, Essa Noche, Dawn, Hanukah Lewinsky, Chelsea Piers, and Kizha Carr, New York’s reigning “Entertainer of the Year,” and a live rendition of Andrea Bocelli’s “Time to Say Goodbye” from Jasmine Rice LaBeija.