“You might say it was kind of the official meet-and-greet between the fashion world and those who were inspired by the fashion world,” says Archie Burnett, Grandfather of the House of Ninja, when I meet him at Love Ball III last night. The evening spawned innumerable collaborations between members of the ballroom community, the fashion world, and the art world. And according to legend, it was at the initial Love Ball where Madonna first saw voguing.
The Love Ball III arrived this week in time to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the 30th anniversary of the first event, and New York’s role as the host city for World Pride. Partnering this time with the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), proceeds from the event went to the CFDA-Vogue Initiative/New York City AIDS Fund of The New York Community Trust. The event featured six categories — Head to Toe, featuring ferocious, self-designed, full-body looks; Move to the Groove’s dance performances; Hair Spectacular, which recognized creativity in wigs; Beauty and Face, celebrating illusion through makeup; Show Stoppers, featuring performance artists; and Legendary Houses, in which famed houses highlight the categories for which they’re best known. Participants in each ran the gamut from celebrities to nightlife personas to ballroom community members, each competing for one-of-a-kind trophies designed by artists like KAWS, Tony Oursler, and Kenny Scharf, among others. The phenomenal Billy Porter emceed, with judges like Marc Jacobs, Dita Von Teese, Jack Mizrahi, Indya Moore, Aquaria, Amanda Lepore, Kevin Aviance, Teyana Taylor, Patrick Starrr, and more.
In Gotham Hall, a former bank, a giant disco ball spun overhead, catching and throwing light that made the entire room look like it’s spilling glitter. DJ Amber Martin’s beats press against the wine glasses, wigs, and appetizers moving through the room. A pair of women twinning in head-to-toe pearls sipped white wine, photographers snapped flashbulbs, feather headdresses seemed to move independently of bodies, and countless pairs of towering shoes cast their wearers many feet above my own five-two. There was glitter everywhere, and my eyes began to pass over the more anonymous suit-wearers in the crowd. Not a seat was empty; standing room around the event was packed.
Soon the evening’s bedazzled guests make their way to tables also sparkling with all manner of trophies as centerpieces. Bartsch takes the stage attired in a giant blonde wig and a bodysuit that looks like it’s constructed from a giant swirl of purple taffy (she will change costumes at least four more times throughout the night), sharing “how far we’ve come and how far we have to go to eradicate this fucking disease.” She introduces Porter, resplendent in a yellow reminiscent of Willi Ninja’s at the first Love Ball, though Porter’s is a tuxedo in the front and a ballgown in the back. He puts on a sparkling pair of spectacles and begins to introduce each category. Roger Superstar wins Head-to-Toe with sequinned Wonder Woman and Superman bodysuits; pop and lock contortionist Invertebrate wins for Move and Groove; Orlando takes Hair Spectacular with a human-sized hair tube (phallus?) covered in blonde and rainbow wigs; model and actress Yasmine Petty captures the Beauty and Face category; the room explodes after the incomparable Charlene lip syncs Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” wearing little more than a cape and some well-placed jewelry, winning Show Stoppers.
