The lights went out on New York Fashion Week last night with local designer Anna Bolina’s runway show, as the staple brand of New York’s urban underbelly presented a fierce, gender-maxxed collection filled with studded latex, XXXL basketball shorts, and hooded body-sleeves to a group of the city’s most prominent visionary misfits.

“There’s no social hierarchy tonight!” laughed Dorian Electra, experimental pop artist, as the mosh pit of guests crowded around the front door of The Mezzanine, instead of forming a line. At first perplexed by the anarchist affair, which followed a week of the fashion industry’s most excruciating evaluation of who’s who, the guests loosened up. Once inside, it felt like a high school reunion of New York’s street kids, with everyone relevant to creating culture and nightlife, from Been Slackin’ to Ren G and Fashion, present. That is to say, for maybe the first time all week, this was a “no corporates allowed” event. 

In true nightlife form, the show began two hours late. The joy of being an in-touch brand with devout followers in this uninspiring landscape is you can do that and people will stay glued to their seats. “We are trying to put on a normal production, but it’s always going to be something else because none of us are normal. You can’t create that sort of community if you haven’t been in the trenches, fighting alongside each other,” said Anna Bolina backstage to V. When asked what was going on during all that time, runway model Saga Snow responded, “They were just finishing the looks. The producers kept trying to rush it but they were like ‘No, this has to be right.”

Following the girls as they inched along the runway in their pleasers felt like watching paint dry, a far cry from the hunch-backed power-pumping dominating the other sceney brands. “I wanted them to take their time because the clothes were restrictive and extreme. I gave them very little direction [on their walk] because the cast got the vibe immediately,” notes Bolina. Guests held their breaths for excruciatingly prolonged periods, in anticipation of someone’s teetering ankle giving out. That captivation is a clever reflection of the contemporary scene; the cool kids are always rooting for each other, behind incredulous stares.

The afterparty was powered by remarkably strong Rosaluna mezcal palomas, which became a talking point of the event. Tiny red cups in hand, guests smoked cigarettes indoors on the bleachers of the venue and delved deeply into conversations about the state of fashion. Executive producer of the show, Maddy Crawford, commented, “Anna Bolina and her team pair remarkable talent with kindness and generosity in an industry where that can be hard to find; they deserve to be here, and I love being that bridge for artists.” Friends talked each other up proudly, with not a single clout card pulled, while strangers fawned over each others’ looks and shared congratulations for their respective contributions as fashion disruptors. “Out of every event I’ve worked this week, this one is the first where I’ve been treated like a human,” said Avi Hernandez, a videographer for the event. 

The show and collection itself reflected the anti-fashion universe in New York, which is defined by organic imperfection, and kicking people off their pedestals in good meritocratic form to demand new contributions, as well as a philosophical backbone, to support being put back on it. It’s the embodiment of true contemporary artistry, which ignores the standards of a hyper-regimented society; from the hierarchy-less line to prioritizing the styling over promptness, and bringing the same ‘I’m wearing an extremely constricting outfit that stands out’ walk that girls do at Basement to the runway. It goes against everything the industry has boxed itself into, but if fashion is a reflection of real life and the expression of what’s aspirationally attainable, then Anna Bolina is fashion in its most humane form.