Underground fashion bimbos OPIA have set their sights on runway domination

Joining this list just a few weeks ago was OPIA: the raucous, fashion-focused queer rave that’s taken London by storm. Founded by self-proclaimed bimbos Bambi Dyboski and Bautista Botto-Barilli – AKA the Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie of East London – OPIA’s Easter edition crammed the crowd into the sweatbox that is Dalston Superstore and put on a catwalk show that clashed established designers with up-and-coming names from the underground.

It was an attempt to reposition OPIA as a fully-fledged fashion event in its own right, and celebrate the creatives at the heart of the London queer scene. “OPIA is disregarded in professional fashion spheres for its unadulterated ‘everything goes’ point of view, and left to be used for fashion week afterparties,” Dyboski and Botto-Barilli explain. “But we see our events as more than just fashion afterparties. It’s not an ‘after’ to fashion, but a precursor. It’s where trends emerge, where people feel most confident to try something different.”

Out the window went the silver trays of champagne, fancy canapés, and inoffensive but dry soundtrack and in came something a lot more exciting, as OPIA sent a cast of queer – and largely trans – models down the runway in a mad, inventive mish-mash of looks. Behind the decks – and roving around backstage exclusively for Dazed – was nightlife legend and fashion plate Princess Julia, while Hasznat also put on a live performance.

The inaugural runway was in no way a one-off, though, with the OPIA girlies already planning future outings and fashion domination. “Fashion is twisted to fit into capitalist structures which are designed to keep us underground and others overground,” they say. “There’s a whole metropolis of creatives, artists, musicians, the next Julia Foxes, all looked over or hidden away in the underground scene – disregarded because these points of view are considered too alternative to be ‘profitable’, even if considered fashionable. We hope to change that.”

Click through the gallery above for a closer look at the night, scroll on for more from OPIA about the party, and head to our social channels to see Princess Julia go backstage to speak to the designers involved.

Tell us how the idea for a runway show came together?

OPIA: During a vape break! Our main goal with every OPIA is to show how queer raves are one of the biggest spaces for fashion, artistic, and cultural innovation. It’s oftentimes disregarded in professional fashion spheres for its unadulterated ‘everything goes’ point of view. Left to be used for fashion week afterparties. But we see our events as more than just fashion afterparties. It’s not an ‘after’ to fashion, but a precursor. It’s where trends emerge, where people feel most confident to try something different.

The runway show comes from us wanting to prove that. To prove that we can deliver the content, the stunts, the event; in hopes of collaborating with more brands in the future. We’ll organise our own fashion stunts, such as this runway, spotlighting the fashion creatives, and models we love in the process and we’re willing to take the leap of faith in our vision. Our events have always been runway shows; our crowd is always in the fiercest outfits. This time we just gave it a name, and made sure to photograph/video accordingly.

What was the brief? How would you sum it up in a short sentence? 

OPIA: 90s McQueen meets Big Brother meets Easter Bunnies. To show how the theatrics of 90s runways hasn’t been lost; it’s just been rehoused in the form of queer raves. 

How did you pick the clothes, what were you aiming for? 

OPIA: Our crowd organises styling pulls for OPIA already. DJs, hosts, our dolls and divas: they all get dressed by brands within our scene. We deliberately chose to curate a line-up of looks that fit Alexander McQueen’s Fall 1998 show, using it as an example of how mainstream fashion is not far from that worn to OPIA, and we didn’t have to look far to do so. These brands were already circulating in our spaces. Our aim is just to spotlight what’s already there. Spotlight designers we adore, with models we adore. 

Tell me about the casting? 

OPIA: We love to celebrate our trans and non-binary angels, many of which are already walking for the biggest runway shows right now and have been a huge part of OPIA from the start. We really are a collective in that sense; everyone we showcase is an ‘OPIA regular’ of some kind and is working towards something in fashion or art. This way we really become an event for the scene, by the scene. They spotlight us and we’re devoted to returning the favour with every event. Giving our girls the chance to feel celebrated, to feel like they’re on top of the world (because they are). Our casting choices follow our collective’s objective to turn every person in our scene into household names. Musicians, brands, models, art directors, stylists; everything. To produce tomorrow’s pop culture.

“What needs to change is how fashion is twisted to fit into capitalist structures which are designed to keep us underground and others overground” – OPIA

What do you like about fashion? What needs to change?

OPIA: We love platform heels. We like that it belongs to no one, not even to us. No one holds the keys to fashion (except for Lisa Rinna). We all engage in it by dressing ourselves everyday. It levels out the playing field in that way and becomes one of the only languages that is fully democratised, one of the only languages we can speak and use to write tomorrow’s history with the same authority and penmanship as industry giants like Anna Wintour. All fashion is fashion. Obviously this is a bit idealistic of us, but we need some level of delusion to be crazy enough to try and make a name for ourselves as an underground event and POV. 

What needs to change is how fashion is then twisted to fit into capitalist structures which are designed to keep us underground and others overground. There’s a whole metropolis of creatives, artists, musicians, the next Julia Foxes, all looked over or hidden away in the underground scene – disregarded because these points of view are considered too alternative to be ‘profitable’, even if considered fashionable. And we hope to change that.

How do you feel you can change it? 

OPIA: By no means do we think we’ve cracked the code or always get it right (we’re learning as we go), but we always joke about how OPIA is almost like a unionising of the scene. We’re here to give a platform, employ, celebrate, and listen to those around us. We’re a mirror of the talent that comes to OPIA and if someone in our circle releases a track, wants to do a contemporary dance piece, wants to model or anything at all; we hope they can come to us and we’ll help make it happen.

What happened on the night? Any fun anecdotes or stories? 

OPIA: Princess Julia, period. Doesn’t get more fun than Julia – we actually met in a pub while filming Instagram reels outside the Dilara Findikoglu show! Having Julia DJ for us followed by Hasznat’s performance right after was our favourite part of the night. It was such a beautiful mesh of British artistry and punk intertwining. We think they should release an EP.

“It’s been really amazing seeing what can come to fruition when we disregard limitations and let ourselves be a little delusional. Queer delusion is powerful!” – OPIA

What did you take away from it, and what do you hope the crowd took away from it? 

OPIA: We were super ambitious with this rave, and it’s been really amazing seeing what can come to fruition when we disregard limitations and let ourselves be a little delusional. Queer delusion is powerful! What was most heartwarming was how generous the crowd was. We’re an event that started as a queer rave, doing this on our own with no backing.

Of course it’s going to be rough around the edges, of course it’s going to be a bit gritty. But the audience looked past all that, and gave our models and designers the same treatment they would front row for a real McQueen show. The willingness to get-into-the-delusion, get into the fantasy, has felt really important. That’s been really amazing & our main take away.

Will there be another OPIA runway show? 

OPIA: Yes, and we hope to get bigger and better each time. This is only our first step, next we want to be pulling from Diesel, Dilara, DiPetsa (we call them OPIA’s triple D’s) and more. We hope in the future we can give our scene the chance to don the iconic Miu Miu skirt, the Rick Owens inflatable shoes, the JW Anderson pigeon clutch. Taking these big mainstream trends we see on our phone screens and letting them exist in our physical space. Showing how our girls would style these pieces, embody these pieces. Letting these big mainstream trends, which often feel quite inaccessible to us, be rehomed and yassified. Being the bridge between high fashion and London’s up-and-coming creative scene.