Local Designer Teams Up with Factory Fashion for Drag Youth Program

Factory Fashion, a company that provides opportunities for kids to explore and refine their fashion skills, has launched a slew of new classes this month. One program has students learning to care for wigs, put on a full face of makeup, perform for an audience, and sew their “perfect stage lewk.”

Drag Tween-Teen Fashion features single sessions and a multi-week course, and the series will culminate with a final performance at Aurora’s Stanley Marketplace on January 30. The teachers and staff involved hope that it offers youth an opportunity to express themselves freely and wholeheartedly.

Local designer Darlene C. Ritz of DCR Studios is one of the program’s instructors, and she is excited for the opportunity to work with young designers in a playful and exploratory fashion.

“As a fashion designer, I have always promoted body positivity,” she says. “Back in the day when I got into the fashion industry, there wasn’t a lot of focus on diversity. I grew up feeling like my body wasn’t the ideal type. As a cisgendered, white female, I can’t imagine how much more difficult it has been for those who come from diverse backgrounds. It has always been my goal as a fashion industry professional to change, challenge, and push those ideals from the perspective that all bodies are beautiful. I hope these students can truly showcase their authentic selves, and I hope they know they can present in whatever way is most true to who they are without judgement, concern, or fear.”

Ritz regularly works on fashion projects with Denver’s drag and LGBTQ community and has been designing for DeMarcio Slaughter, the emcee of Denver’s PrideFest mainstage, since 2016.

“I met DeMarcio at an OUT FRONT Power Gala,” she recalls. “We were at another event a few months later, and I was like, why do I recognize him? We figured out that it was the OUT FRONT Power Gala, but he started talking about PrideFest and how he would love to work with students. I was teaching at the time, so we started to develop this relationship where I was sort of mentoring students through the process of designing for him, and then I started doing the designing myself.”

Through that work with Slaughter, Ritz not only understood how important PrideFest is and the kind of difference it makes, but how crucial it is for people to have an opportunity to celebrate their true and authentic selves.

“I remember very clearly standing in the galley between the stage and the audience, and DeMarcio was performing “The Greatest Show,”” she says. “There’s that break where it goes from the Hugh Jackman character to the Zac Efron character, and DeMarcio did a costume change. They came out, hit center stage, did a power pose, and the crowd just went crazy. It was this roar. That sound rushed through me, and it was pure celebration of the human spirit in all its glory.”

Working in several different fashion realms, Ritz discovered her passion for designing clothes when she realized the industry was not doing a good enough job of dressing everybody. She believes clothes should fit the body and that people should not have to change their bodies to fit clothes.

Ritz clearly remembers her first-ever fashion creation and says her mother was her first fashion icon.

“I thought she was gorgeous,” she says. “It wasn’t until much later that I realized that she did not fit the fashion ideal. We were on our way home one day when I was around 6 years old. I was mad at something, and my mom was trying to cheer me up. It was wintertime, and you know how light has a different quality when the air is cold? We came over this hill in Colorado, and the lights were all sparkling. She said, ‘Oh, that looks so beautiful! It looks like diamonds on velvet. I wish I had a dress made of that.’ Instantly, I got an image of my mom wrapped in velvet with diamonds all over. It was beautiful.”

Factory Fashion sprouted from an arts collective called Factory Five Five that offers programs in fashion, film, theatre, and photography. Opening at Stanley Marketplace in September 2021, it was founded by Skye Barker Maa, owner of Neighborhood Music, Neighborhood Music Lounge & Bar, and Sky Bar.

She quickly discovered an opportunity to further empower, encourage, and embolden aspiring artists, designers, and creators by bringing their imaginative visions to life.

“We have several students in our fashion and theater programs who are already dressing in drag or doing their own make-up tutorials,” Barker Maa says. “We want to help them hone their craft while also celebrating self-expression.”

“We all deserve to feel good in our bodies,” Ritz adds. “We all deserve to feel beautiful in our fashions.”

In addition to the Drag Tween-Teen offerings, Factory Fashion is also launching several other programs for youth-adults this January, including a three-week millinery (hat-making) course and 10-week classes in corset-making, upcycling, and more. Its Mini Design Incubator space is also newly open for alteration specialists, tailors, or designers to conduct fittings or perform other specialty services.

For more information and to register for sessions, as well as the company’s upcoming theatre and fashion summer camps, visit FactoryFiveFive.com. Also engage on Facebook and Instagram @FactoryFiveFive. Connect and stay up-to-date with Ritz by visiting DCRStudios.com.

Photos Courtesy of Evan Jensen and The Hip Photo