“Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life.” —Bill Cunningham
Our city will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Philly Fashion Week Feb. 19-22. Teenagers Kevin Parker and Kerry Scott came up with the idea for Philly Fashion Week back in 2005 and it has grown into one of Philadelphia’s favorite events. Designers from the region and all over the world will showcase the hottest trends in fashion and set the style for the spring and beyond. I put on my best boots and sat down for a talk with the Philly Fashion Week founder about his background and desire to make Philly a fashion hub. Some responses have been edited for length or clarity.
Are you originally from Philadelphia?
I’m originally from Camden, N.J. but I’ve been in Philadelphia since 2005.
That’s the year I started this column! Tell me a little about your family.
I had a really rough upbringing, so my relationship with my family is somewhat segmented. My mother and father broke up before I was born. I didn’t meet my father until I was about 14. He moved on and started another family. With my mother, I think there were some feelings as a result of what happened with him and also a little pushback because I was very feminine. It was not easy to grow up as an African-American gay man with feminine tendencies.
There were a lot of signs for me. What’s something innocent but makes you look back and say, “Oh, that was an early sign!”
I liked playing with Barbies. I wanted to jump rope with the girls. I’d sit with my legs crossed at the knees. I think it was in part because I was raised by women. My mother was always there but she was very young, so my grandmother raised me for the first part of my life. I had a lot of aunts around too, so I was raised by a lot of strong women and I wanted to emulate them. I loved the way they dressed and the way they carried themselves.
What else was little Kevin into?
When I was little, I discovered that I was a really good dancer. I remember I was at a house party and they were playing reggae music. I was in the middle with a circle of people around me and I was killing it! At home, I used to practice dances that I saw on TV and in music videos and mimic what I saw, but the big “aha!” moment was in middle school. We were having a pep rally and one of the people running for student body president asked me to be the mascot for the rally. I got to do a solo dance to the song, “Percolator.”
That’s my song!
Yeah, the entire school stood up — stomping, clapping. It was crazy, and it was the best feeling in the world. One of my teachers said, “I think you have a talent. You need to go to this new school that just opened up — the Creative Performing Arts High School.” So, little Kev was inspired by the arts for sure, and I owe that to the music videos and the choreography of girls like Mýa, Janet, Aaliyah and Lil’ Kim. I started little dance groups here and there and then ended up going to the Performing Arts High School where my world just opened up.
I read that you studied dance and then moved into modeling.
Yes, I had an amazing experience in high school and I was accepted to University of the Arts but didn’t last long. In high school, you dance about two hours a day and the rest is academic studies. As a dance major in college, you’re dancing from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day! At the time, I was 6’3 and my body was in the best shape it had ever been and people were suggesting that I should try modeling, so I did. It opened up the world of fashion for me and caused me to rethink a lot of the dreams that I had. Dancers have a very short shelf life, and then they usually become teachers or choreographers, but the opportunities to become a choreographer for a major artist or dance company are very slim. When I started modeling, I fell in love with the behind-the-scenes operations and started doing research and interning for different fashion production companies. I realized that you can be a designer until you’re 100!
I just saw Dapper Dan on the “Tamron Hall Show.” He’s 80 and still designing!
Yes, so I dropped out of school and just engrossed myself in the fashion world. I took some business courses and shortly after, my business partner Kerry Scott and I started collaborating. We had a dream of how we wanted to conquer the fashion industry. At the time, most people thought they needed to go to New York to work in fashion and we wanted to change that. So in 2005, we put together a little troop of models and started bringing different designers under our umbrella. We started out doing college tours for schools who didn’t have a fashion program. They would pay us to come and do a fashion program. Then we noticed that several other cities were doing Fashion Weeks, and we thought, “OK, we should start one in Philly!” There wasn’t the kind of social media that we have now, but we got the word out and got a venue sponsor, a staging sponsor and a lighting sponsor and realized that this could really be something big.
Before we get to what you’re doing now, let’s go into your past a little. Any extracurricular activities? Sports? Chess club?
I actually did a lot of sports in middle school. I ran track, and I played basketball and baseball. In high school, it was all about the arts. I was on the stage crew and I was in musicals like “Les Misérables,” ‘The Wiz” and “Purlie.” Learning how to improv or to embody a character really helped me with my confidence and taught me a lot about staging, which is useful to this day with putting on Philly Fashion Week and so many aspects of what we do.
What was your best sports moment?
When I caught an outfield fly ball! I was always scared of the ball coming my way. It’s a hard ball and I was always afraid of it hitting me, so on the one occasion where I actually caught it, it was exciting. My whole team went crazy! It was insane. The other best moment was when I won the gold medal for the long jump. That was cool.
How did you meet Kerry?
We were still in high school and we had mutual friends. We had very similar goals in life. He was about to start running his family business and was knowledgeable in the business side of things. We just started talking. Originally, he wanted to be my manager for my modeling work but we just found out that we had a lot in common. [Laughing] More than the mutual friends who we met through! We became best friends and the rest is history. We’re just business partners, but it’s probably the longest relationship I’ve had!
It’s hard to believe that you got all this started when you were only 18 years old.
We worked hard and we volunteered at fashion shows and learned as much as we could about the fashion world and business. It was like a youth program for fashion when we first started out. Kerry’s grandmother gave him a piece of property in her will. It had a huge living room that extended into the dining room with enough room for us to create a mock runway and we invited people that we’d met — designers and make-up artists and hair stylists. We’d come up with different concepts and do photo shoots. It was a real communal effort. Many of the designers who are well known now started off with us.
Where was your first show for Philly Fashion Week?
It was at City Hall. Since then we’ve been at the Kimmel Center, Live! Casino, the Fashion District — all over the place. The Fashion District was the most innovative location. We were in the old Strawbridge’s building. It was super cool. I wish the city would utilize more vacant spaces for pop-up events like that, just to activate the spaces. We were there for a few years but now Giant groceries is there.
And you did something at Geno’s Steaks?
Yes! It was actually in the park across the street, but we partnered with Geno’s for the event. We had Alex Holley from FOX 29 and some other local news people walk the stage. It was a fun event.
And I read you did a show in a parking garage?
That wasn’t on purpose, but it worked! We were supposed to have an outside show in Commerce Square on Market Street and the weather was gorgeous all week until the day of our show. We were scrambling to find a backup venue when we thought, “What about the parking lot? Let’s do the fashion show from the parking lot!” So we contacted management and they helped us figure out the logistics to get electricity and we got the DJ, stages, LED screens, and everything ready. It was fire! People were raving about the vibe and the whole atmosphere of the event.
You have been focused on inclusivity and intersectionality before people knew what the words meant.
Absolutely. I feel like fashion is for everybody and the industry, as a whole, needs to wake up. Once I stopped dancing and wasn’t as active, I started gaining weight. I couldn’t find anything I wanted to wear in your average retail shop. The stuff that did fit just wasn’t interesting.
I want our runways to reflect what the world looks like. We’ve always accepted and showcased nonbinary and trans models. We’ve always featured plus-size models, and we’ve collaborated with groups like Lov’n My Curves to promote plus-size designers as well. They do a lot with body empowerment and fashion for everybody. We want to make it part of our platform, not just sprinkling in a few plus-sized models here or there. We want to reflect the world on our runway and that’s the way we’ve always operated. It’s the reason we created Philly Fashion Week.
The industry has a tendency to be very exclusive and is really hard to penetrate and to get a seat at the table. We want to change that by sourcing designers with different aesthetics and different points of view from around across the globe. A place where designers could feel safe and where we invest in our community. I think that has helped us with longevity. It’s what’s helped us stay relevant for 20 years.
What are some of your initiatives?
We really want to get this city to invest in our designers and help those up-and-coming. So in 2020, we started the Philadelphia Fashion & Garment Industry Task Force, which is an advisory body to the Philadelphia City Council. Our mission is to encourage the creation of manufacturing facilities, support local designers, and promote sustainable fashion here in Philadelphia. We hold free educational programs and create student grants, even though we still aren’t getting any financial support.
I read that you said everyone talks about New York Fashion Week, but even if a designer gets in, it’s so expensive to participate. It’s really prohibitive for most designers.
Yes, the risk on return often isn’t worth it. The goal of showcasing is to get picked up by stylists or retailers. But it costs a lot to put on a show in New York and there’s no guarantee that anything will come of it. It’s one of the reasons so many designers like showing here. We are getting investors and buyers to see their collections.
And we have access to a lot of people they might not have access to in New York, such as the president of the CFDA [Council of Fashion Designers of America]; Fern Mallis, the executive director of NYFW; or Nicole Fischelis, who discovered designers Alexander McQueen and Jeremy Scott and was responsible for helping them blow up. [Fischellis] is on the board at Saks and Macy’s. The list of household names in the fashion world goes on. She did a business in fashion program with our designers. You don’t normally get this kind of access to the top people in the industry, but it’s what designers need to grow. We’ve also had great mentors along the way, like Julie Wilch and Anthony Henderson-Strong.
And some of the people who attend or do the workshops for us are people who could change someone’s career. That’s the foundation we stand on and we’re very proud of it.
One of the things that has come out of it is where we met, at your space in the Fashion District, the Maison Fashion store with the Couture Closet and The Production Atelier.
Yes, it’s a really unique spot. We’ve always done what we call “Shop the Runway” where people can buy the clothes right off the runway during Philly Fashion Week, but this is a step further. It’s a retail store that carries independent designers in our community. But it’s more than just a store. We’ve also included an area with an industrial sewing machine and seamstresses so that designers can create samples and products right there. Shoppers can have their dress customized in the store, and designers have a space where they can shoot their lookbooks or press kits in order to grow their business. It’s the foundation of a true fashion hub. We believe our purpose is to be of service and this is just one more way to accomplish that.
OK, some random questions. Who was the fashionista in your family?
My grandmother, for sure. She was extremely fashionable. She wore these beautiful coats with a broach with her initials on it. She had her hair done every Saturday and would try different styles. She was just a well-dressed, classy woman. She was fly!
Did you ever have any paranormal experiences?
I had an experience with sleep paralysis, where I felt like my eyes were stuck open right before I went to sleep. I saw a woman out of the corner of my eye, right by my dresser. I kept saying “Jesus” over and over to shake myself out of it, and suddenly the woman stuck her middle finger up and disappeared!
Ha! I wasn’t expecting that ending. What Olympic sport would you want to master?
The balance beam. I was always very active as a kid, climbing the jungle gyms and doing flips, and the beam would be a challenge.
What era would you go back to for the fashion?
The ’70s. That disco era where everything was sparkly and the women wore sexy dresses and guys weren’t judged for wearing wide-open shirts and tight pants and everyone wore bell-bottoms. Yeah man, I’m there for all of it!
What’s something dangerous you’d do if you couldn’t get hurt?
Ride on the back of a killer whale. I was a Discovery Channel kid and Orcas were always my favorite animal. “Free Willy” was my movie! So if I could ride one underwater and all that, it would be magical.
Words of wisdom?
I don’t come from money or a place of privilege. I come from struggle. For us to achieve so much has honestly been divine. I believe that consistency breeds success. You can do anything you put your mind to.
Philly Fashion Week runs Feb. 19-22 at various locations. For more information and a full schedule, visit phillyfashionweek.org.