FIRE ISLAND FASHION WEEK
IGNITING CREATIVITY
Fire Island Fashion Week is more than a fashion event—it’s a ritual of return. A resurrection of lineage. A gathering where queer designers present intimate capsule collections, bold resortwear, and reimagined swimwear—stories stitched in sun and spirit.
Taking place just outside the rigid timelines of the traditional fashion calendar, FIFW exists in queer time: slower, deeper, more intentional. It invites designers to show work that is unbothered by trend forecasts and commercial pressures. Here, the collections are small by design—focused, expressive, and unforgettable.
Fashion on Fire Island has always been an act of self-making. From the 1960s through the early 2000s, the Pines held fashion shows that were as much about joy and resistance as they were about garments. Poolside runways became sanctuaries. Drag queens and neighbors walked side by side. Legends like Halston, Calvin Klein, and Perry Ellis came not to be idolized but to blend into something bigger—a community that wore its truth on its body.
Fire Island Fashion Week builds on that legacy—not as nostalgia, but as living memory.
Each look that walks our dunes or boardwalks is a continuation of a story written by queer hands before us.
We do not gather for spectacle.
We gather to remember, to reimagine, and to revel in the beauty of what we make together.
A Week Unlike Any Other
Held annually in late August, during the island’s golden haze.
A curated showcase of capsule, resort, and swimwear collections.
Presentations, runways, and performances staged in private homes, on the boardwalk, in the dunes or woods, and by the pool.
Designer Q&As, archival exhibitions, and day-time and late-night parties.
Proceeds benefit the Queer Culture Arts Foundation (QCAF)
Why Fire Island?
Because here, fashion was never just fabric—it was freedom. Fire Island Pines has long been a sanctuary where style wasn’t about trend, but about truth. The island bloomed with creativity in its golden decades: spontaneous runway shows, poolside couture, and resortwear crafted by hand and heart. Designers and muses, drag queens and dreamers—all gathered in a queer utopia that felt timeless.
And then, time stopped.
The AIDS epidemic cut that story short. In just a few years, we lost not only lives but legacies. Designers, dancers, stylists, photographers, lovers, and friends—all gone too soon. A creative renaissance was halted mid-sentence. What might have become an enduring queer fashion capital became a memorial instead.
Fire Island Fashion Week is an act of remembrance and revival.
It honors those we lost by continuing the work they never got to finish. It takes up the thread of queer creativity and stitches it into something new—resortwear, swimwear, and capsule collections that carry both memory and momentum. This is more than a fashion week. It is a tribute. A torch-passing. A promise that our beauty, our bodies, and our stories will never again be erased in silence.
Here, on these same sands, we gather once more. To celebrate. To create. And to continue.
How to Get Involved
Apply to be part of our designer showcase.
Become a sponsor or host a private venue.
Attend, volunteer, or donate to support queer fashion futures.
Want to develop a collection with time and support on the island? Check out our Fashion & Accessories Residency →