The Showpony Runway Just Turned New York’s Avant-Garde on Its Head

While the fur renaissance is busy reaching its final form on the New York runways, Showpony is opting for a less traditional textile to add a bit of funky texture. Specifically, hair, courtesy of over a decade of excess supplies piled up in the studio of avant-garde hairstylist Evanie Frausto and his newly minted brand. “I’ve always been the kind of person where I even hate throwing my food away, so I was like, ‘I’m gonna use this one day,’” he said. At his debut runway show, a new kind of hair-ography finally came to fruition.

Frausto is no stranger to the subversive side of the hair business. The stylist has made a name for himself working with clients including Rosalía and Sabrina Carpenter, often testing just how much hair one human head can hold. However, he discovered that there is a limit, and to him, that’s a snore. “I’m such an Aquarius. I get so bored,” he said. “I started finding ways of building little garments in order to create these really crazy lengths or shapes, using other parts of the body to give that illusion.”

Instead of designing the hair and the garment as two separate entities, under Showpony, they became one. From top to toe, many of the looks on the runway felt like one continuous piece, including a belted-and-dyed downtown Cousin It. He referred to one matching set as a “human bob” and looking at the pin-straight crop top and mini skirt, it’s easy to see why.

EvotoPhoto: Huy Luong

The hair stylist-turned-designer looked to experimental DJ horsegiirL as a muse. Prior to reaching out, Frausto had already designed the voluminous skirt he wanted her to wear. Thankfully, after working with her on a project once before, she was game to make her New York Fashion Week debut. “I felt so powerful in the dress and it was an exhilarating feeling to walk really slow and lean into the moment,” she said. “I’m in love with the collection and using hair as a material makes so much sense!” (And walk she did: “She’s flirting with me!” said one guest after making eye contact with her prosthetic snout through his iPhone lens.)

Not everything was so conceptual. Latex garters and laced corsets reminded the audience that it was, after all, a runway and not a hair expo, though Frausto admitted that his looks were perhaps “not the most comfortable thing to go to the bodega in.” Creatively, the show felt like an exhale for Frausto who has long itched to expand his repertoire and find a special use for his abundant supplies. For those of us in the audience, it was a welcome reminder that there’s fashion out there beyond politely structured blazers.