Brooklyn-based label Zero Waste Daniel (ZWD) ripped up the rulebook and stitched it back together in sequins and scraps at this year’s New York Fashion Week. In place of a catwalk, designer Daniel Silverstein staged a one-night-only drag extravaganza. For Spring/Summer 2026, Zero Waste Daniel offered more than a collection; it conjured a carnival.
Drag royalty and ballroom legends brought the patchwork garments to life not as passive models, but as muses, performers, and headliners. The show pulsed with colour and community as Raja Gemini, Yvie Oddly, and the House of Xtravaganza lit up the stage, while Lady Bunny commanded the decks, Jasmine Rice LaBeija belted Bocelli, and hosts Kiki Ball-Change and Selma Nilla kept the evening on high energy.
Every garment was handmade in New York from ZWD’s signature upcycled textiles, each one stitched with intention and a story. Yvie Oddly’s unforgettable gown, cut from the fabric of a retired hot air balloon, billowed across the stage with a 20-foot train as she lip-synced Shirley Bassey’s ‘Over the Rainbow’, transforming waste into wonder, scraps into spectacle.
The collection’s inspiration harks back to The Harlequin Boy, a childhood tale that Silverstein’s parents once read to him, in which a Venetian boy creates a costume from discarded fabric to dazzle at Carnival. That narrative of resourcefulness and beauty in fragments became the DNA of Zero Waste Daniel, and in this latest collection, it blossomed into a patchwork dreamscape showcased at New York Fashion Week.
Yet amid the glitter and joy, there was a sharper political seam.
“As a queer person running this business with my husband, I cannot ignore what is happening around us,” Silverstein said.
Pointing to the rollback of LGBTQ+ rights in the United States and beyond, the designer added, “Right now, marriage equality, trans rights, and basic protections for marginalised 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…
“Drag has always shown me what joy in the face of adversity looks like. This collection is about honouring those who lead, who inspire, who dare.”
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