Becoming Wilkinson

How does an unschooled yet eager man full of creative genius get chosen by Vogue Magazine for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award? Listen to Rio Uribe's fascinating story...

August 10, 2022 WILKINSON Episode 33
Becoming Wilkinson
How does an unschooled yet eager man full of creative genius get chosen by Vogue Magazine for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund award? Listen to Rio Uribe's fascinating story...
Show Notes


From an article by Max Berlinger in Vogue Runway:

"Some designers create for fantasy, some designers create for reality, and then there’s Rio Uribe of Gypsy Sport, who doesn’t bother differentiating between the two. In fact, that blurring of the lines is a hallmark of his brand, which draws deeply on the Chicano American experience and then filters it through Uribe’s viewpoint as a queer man.

This season, the designer showed in Los Angeles, the city where he was raised and has returned to during the pandemic. He had originally planned to show here in March of 2020, but the coronavirus upended that. So the mood atop the Petersen Automotive Museum, where his runway show was staged just as the sun dipped below the Pacific, was ebullient. Hoots and whistles rose up as the lights went down, and the clapping began before the first model even hit the catwalk. The clothes matched the vibe.

“The main arc is about Chicano culture,” Uribe said. “But there’s so many subcultures under that umbrella.” So he pulled together the looks of various groups: the swaggering machismo of the lowriders; the ornate street look of the cholos and cholas; the zoot-suit-wearing pachucos and their elegant pachuca wives, who flourished in L.A. during the 1950s; and the whitewashed, exoticized version of the bombshell Latina that was offered up by Old Hollywood. Sprinkle on top of those elements a heavy dose of the drag and vogueing scenes, and you get a sense of Uribe’s vision...."

Check out Gypsy Sport at Vogue Runway:
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/designer/gypsy-sport

And in LA Fashion Week:
https://lafw.net/portfolio-item/gypsy-sport/

Gypsy Sport's page:  http://gypsysportny.com

Photo: Copyright Wilkinson/2022

Opening and closing music courtesy the very talented Zakhar Valaha via Pixabay.

To contact Wilkinson- email him at BecomingWilkinson@gmail.com