At Chromat,
“Super-Human Women of the Future”
Rule
Green lasers, black body cages, and fembots of many shapes, sizes, races, and sexualities stalked the Chromat runway show last night. The Friday the 13th scheduling was appropriate, considering the witchy vibes. “This season we started with mindfiles,” said Becca McCharen, the pink-haired designer behind Chromat, “which is a concept by Martine Rothblatt. She made a clone of her wife.” Well, sort of a clone. If you missed Rothblatt on the cover of New York magazine, she is America’s highest-paid female CEO, who’s also transgender. McCharen explained that mindfiles are “everything you’ve posted online, social media, texts, collected into a digital file that reflects your personality. Eventually scientists are thinking that personality will reflect your consciousness. So if your mom or boyfriend dies, you can still text with them and call them.”
Green lasers fired out of a model’s chakras (and nipples), while other real-size models came down the catwalk with slicked-back ponytails and black painted brows. “The Chromat woman isn’t just straight, white, and skinny. We cast a lot of trans women this season. We are always looking for strong, powerful women, and for me that’s the epitome of strength, to go out of societal norms and evolve to be the truest self that you know you are,” said McCharen. Isis King fromAmerica’s Next Top Model made an appearance, as well as Gisele Xtravaganza of the House of Xtravaganza.
Chromat’s models and collaborators are friends and muses. And the brand is growing fast––Azealia Banks will be featured on the cover of Playboy’s April 2015 issue wearing a Chromat piece. McCharen’s version of a bride, a white BDSM look lined with Swarovski crystals, was co-created by Shoplifter, aka Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, who styled Björk for her Medúlla album cover. As for the crystals, McCharen explained, “Swarovskis are man-made replicas of a real diamond, so everything from top to bottom was re-created from nature.”There’s power in reconstructing nature through technology, but typically that vision is portrayed by a mad scientist like Dr. Frankenstein, not a transgender CEO like Rothblatt. Or as McCharen described the Chromat ethos: “super-human women of the future ready to take over the world.”
By Austen Rosenfeld
Green lasers fired out of a model’s chakras (and nipples), while other real-size models came down the catwalk with slicked-back ponytails and black painted brows. “The Chromat woman isn’t just straight, white, and skinny. We cast a lot of trans women this season. We are always looking for strong, powerful women, and for me that’s the epitome of strength, to go out of societal norms and evolve to be the truest self that you know you are,” said McCharen. Isis King fromAmerica’s Next Top Model made an appearance, as well as Gisele Xtravaganza of the House of Xtravaganza.
Chromat’s models and collaborators are friends and muses. And the brand is growing fast––Azealia Banks will be featured on the cover of Playboy’s April 2015 issue wearing a Chromat piece. McCharen’s version of a bride, a white BDSM look lined with Swarovski crystals, was co-created by Shoplifter, aka Hrafnhildur Arnardottir, who styled Björk for her Medúlla album cover. As for the crystals, McCharen explained, “Swarovskis are man-made replicas of a real diamond, so everything from top to bottom was re-created from nature.”There’s power in reconstructing nature through technology, but typically that vision is portrayed by a mad scientist like Dr. Frankenstein, not a transgender CEO like Rothblatt. Or as McCharen described the Chromat ethos: “super-human women of the future ready to take over the world.”
By Austen Rosenfeld