Zero Waste Daniel at NYFW

19th September 2025 Richard Jones

New York Fashion Week has seen its share of spectacle, but Monday night Zero Waste Daniel set the stage ablaze with an explosion of color, performance, and joy. For Spring/Summer 2026, the brand shattered runway conventions, trading the catwalk for a one-night-only drag show. Drag icons and ballroom legends brought the collection to life, lip-syncing and performing in upcycled couture as muses, models, and headlining entertainers, transforming the night into a dazzling fusion of fashion and performance art.

Each look is handmade in New York using Zero Waste Daniel’s signature upcycled fabrics. The collection was created in conversation with the performers. Inspiration for the collection traces back to The Harlequin Boy, a childhood story creative director Daniel Silverstein’s parents read to him. In it, a clever Venetian boy dreams of going to Carnival but does not have a costume, so he gathers scraps from others’ outfits and sews them together, creating a patchwork look that outshines them all. That vision of resourcefulness and beauty in fragments became the seed of Zero Waste Daniel, and Monday, it bloomed on the New York stage.

The lineup was nothing short of unmissable: Raja Gemini and Yvie Oddly, both winners of RuPaul’s Drag Race, stepped into Zero Waste Daniel’s upcycled couture. Yvie’s look, sewn from a retired hot air balloon donated by a lifelong friend of Silverstein’s, featured a 20-foot train and covered the stage, billowing as Yvie performed Shirley Bassey’s “Over the Rainbow.”

The show was hosted by Kiki Ball-Change and Selma Nilla and also featured Drag Race alum Plasma and self-proclaimed “theater queen” in a tribute to Bernadette Peters, a set from the legendary House of Xtravaganza, King of Drag winner King Molasses, Julie J, Essa Noche, Dawn, Hanukah Lewinsky, Chelsea Piers, and Kizha Carr, New York’s reigning “Entertainer of the Year,” and a live rendition of Andrea Bocelli’s “Time to Say Goodbye” from Jasmine Rice LaBeija.

Lady Bunny, nightlife pioneer, DJed the opening soundtrack.

Daniel Silverstein aka Zero Waste Daniel

“As a queer person running this business with my husband, I cannot ignore what is happening around us,” Zero Waste Daniel founder and creative director Daniel Silverstein said. “Right now, marriage equality, trans rights, and basic protections for marginalized groups are openly under attack. It is frightening to think that what feels fundamental to my life and my community is in jeopardy. But through that fear, I choose to still create.

Take a look at all the Performance photos by LUIS SUAREZ :

King Mollasses

“Drag has always shown me what joy in the face of adversity looks like. The performers on this stage, Raja, Yvie, Bunny, House of Xtravaganza, Julie J, Plasma, Jasmine, and so many more, are not simply my muses and friends. They are leaders and visionaries who shape culture long before it ever reaches a runway. This collection is about honoring them, about celebrating the brilliance they bring to every room, every stage, every look. Sustainable Fashion is a Drag exists because of their artistry, a reminder that queer art, humor, and beauty are how we endure, how we thrive, and how we keep moving forward.”

Presented with support from Ithaca Hummus, Tony Award winner J. Harrison Ghee; Drag Race’s Nymphia Wind, Laganja Estranja, and Tayce; Oh, Mary!’s Hannah Solow; dancer and content creator Alex Wong; and legendary model Dawn Gallagher, amongst various other key figures from the worlds of media, TV, drag, and theatre, cheered on the entertainers and gagged over the new collection.

Zero Waste Daniel’s signature patchwork, mosaic, and floral designs are shoppable, as always, at www.zerowastedaniel.com. A ready-to-wear line inspired by the SS26 collection will be available shortly.