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elsewhere
What have you been wearing on stage? Anything new you've been liking?
elena fortune (@elenafortunes)
I only get a few opportunities to get up on stage, so I always want to do the absolute most with my outfit, but recently I've been trying to toe the line between eclectic, masculine, and comfort. That's meant a lot of trucker caps, button down t-shirts with funny graphics or prints, and unique shorts. It's not always easy to pack as much color and concept into my outfits with just those, so accessories have been crucial, specifically hats. I always try to wear a different hat each time I DJ-- I have so many that I want to show off, it doesn't make sense to repeat them on stage! Add a bunch of kandi singlets, a novelty bag, maybe a cool jacket if it's chilly out, they call me glasses jacket shirt man. Ready to go. I think it was Coco Chanel who said that quote - "take one thing off before leaving the house"? I hate that quote and Coco Chanel, so I try to add one more thing before leaving the house.
"I'm on a personal mission to be the most accessorized bro in the club."
elsewhere
Do you collaborate with anyone? A stylist? A friend?
elena fortune
I love getting the chance to collaborate with my friends! I'm extremely lucky to be passionate about performance gear and also be friends with lots of performers. I made a special pair of pants for Underscores to wear on her Hometown Tour, made from a pattern I developed while I was in school and have been toiling with it to offer for sale.. April's pair has 3M reflective horseshoe cutouts on the back pockets :) I also worked with Alice Longyu Gao to create a custom dress for the stage, dripping in hand beaded pearls-- she looked SO fabulous in it for one night, and then her tour van was robbed the next day-- with the dress inside! So I hope whoever stole her van looks very nice in it.
Underscores in custom pants on the Hometown Tour
Alice Longyu Gao in custom pearl beaded dress
On the hat front, I've been making special hats for my friends for a little over a year now. I have so much fun making special hats, the format lends itself so easily to customization and I have the best time deciding what elements will match the person I'm designing for. Seeing people wearing hats at shows across the world has seriously blown my mind. Our friend group did a little secret santa this year, and I got Fraxiom, so naturally I took the opportunity to make her an extra special hat with her name down the ears. I just saw a video of her wearing it during a Food House performance in Copenhagen, which is just bonkers. And, of course, I got to collaborate with all of my friends on my senior thesis, Avatarsona, back in 2022, where I got to work with Fraxiom, Ryl0, Underscores, Petal Supply, and my other closest friends to create 10 unique looks inspired by the concept of our digital personas being a form of drag -- something I feel has greatly informed all of my work since.
elsewhere
How'd you feel about studying fashion design?
elena fortune
Studying fashion design was... really interesting! I'm really glad I did it. Illustration is one of those things I feel like you can kind of develop yourself with enough practice, but fashion is very much not like that. You really have to pay attention to the tiny details, things you don't think will matter in the end, you can't cut any corners. It was a really sharp learning curve for me at first, coming from a very 'do whatever' mindset with art practices. I had a lot of trouble keeping up in class during the long, detail-heavy demos, and as a result realized I had been dealing with ADHD my entire life, but because I never had trouble in school growing up (I've been drawing in class as long as I can remember to help me pay attention) no one picked up on it. Since then, it's been a slow but steady and rewarding journey developing my skills in sewing and design. There are few things more satisfying and gratifying than being able to wear a piece of clothing you created literally from raw fabric yardage-- even better, seeing someone else wear something you made, and seeing them feel comfortable and confident in it.
elsewhere
How do you approach designing your pieces?
elena fortune
My approach to designing pieces however has not changed much since I started school-- I take a lot of pride and enjoyment out of designing illustration first, garment second-- what feels most natural, coming from an illustration background first and adapting it to physical clothing construction. Designing clothes through illustration primarily allows me to think outside of the realm of what I know to be physically possible, letting myself design in a metaphysical/fantasy/video game type setting, finding I'll end up blending those unreal elements with concrete real life garments to blend virtual eccentricity with the real life people who inhabit these subcultures. When it comes time to physically recreate the look, fantastical looks push me to figure out how I'm gonna make it happen in real life, pushes me to learn new things and borrow techniques from alternative DIY fashion scenes-- my thesis collection would not have been possible without the furries and cosplayers who wrote WordPress tutorials for EVA foam or paw-glove structure. Cosplayers and furries are proof that these 2D designed entities can exist in our physical realm.
When designing special hats, I do the opposite-- I let the hat really take over and tell me what it needs. My office is covered in loose pre cut hat pieces waiting to be grouped and sewn together. When an idea and motivation for a special hat hits me, I'll try to seize it and make it right there and then.
elsewhere
Any favorites?
elena fortune
My favorites... I'm honestly still really proud of a lot of the work I did for Avatarsona. Specifically the looks I made for Edie and Mars- I'm really proud of how I was able to translate illustration to wearable garments as effectively as I did, and I'm still working on perfecting the cut of pants I developed in those looks.
elsewhere
Where do you find stage clothes? Any fav shops?
elena fortune
If I didn't make it, I thrifted it! I am constantly scouring thrift shops for weird finds for not insane prices. You can find some excellent stuff at Other People's Clothes for not the worst price. I just bought a silk button up there with a print of a hockey player with a broken nose on it. Beacon's Closet is usually more pricey than OPC but you can get really lucky there sometimes. Specifically, the Beacon's on W13th and 5th Ave is the place to look, because it's literally right next to The New School Parsons building so it's constantly getting in new/unique/designer items that rich fashion design students wore once before abandoning. There have been a few times I've found something there that they clearly did not know the value of- one time I found a pair of Gatorade AF1's I had really wanted that retailed for like $225 and found them for $35 in my size.
elsewhere
Where does your sense of style come from? Any special sources of inspiration?
elena fortune
I feel like I have so many different directions my inspiration comes from and I just try to average them out somehow. Any fashion subculture is fascinating and fabulous to me, especially ones that have a heavy focus on accessorizing or DIY elements-- there are so many subsects of Japanese street style that do this best. Forever obsessed with Decora-kei and Gyaru specifically. Gyaru style has such a cool, drag-adjacent way of amplifying hyperfemininity and early 2000s style that I adore. I'm a Y2K baby through and through.
On the opposite end, I'm in love with 70's disco chic and kitschy-vintage feeling groovy stuff.. I had a big classic rock phase around 2018-2019 that influenced me a lot, BIG Elton John fan, could not disagree with a single thing he's worn. Sort of stemming off of that, my definition of 'Cool' will forever be Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Auge of Justice in 2008 during their A Cross The Universe tour. They had this greasy, leather rockstar French chain smoking vibe that I will always feel like just drips masculinity and coolness. I don't think anyone else could still make leather skinny jeans, medium band tees, novelty belts and ratty white sneakers look so good. Except maybe Johnny Knoxville. He's another style inspiration for sure weirdly enough, there's a stunt in one of the Jackass movies where he's just wearing a white t-shirt that says 'JOHNNY' in black Helvetica text. So hard.
elsewhere
If you could "Freaky Friday" with somebody else's wardrobe for a day, who would it be?
elena fortune
TOUGH question.... I think it would have to be Elton, maybe. Did you know he only wears custom Gucci? Like, he had the people at Gucci make him an entire custom daily wardrobe of track suits with his name on it and stuff. But I think he's mostly donated or sold his stage gear from the past. I would also die to trade wardrobes with Ecco2k, the fuzzy hats and goggles, I just know they appreciate accessorizing the same way, and I'm so curious what hidden gems lay dormant in their closet... Tisakorean also has a style that I think I would be super comfortable in, it's similarly colorful and stylish, but still comfortable and cool and masculine.
elsewhere
How has your sense of style changed over the years?
elena fortune
Weirdly enough, not a whole ton. I think I may have gone full circle and started dressing like I did when I was first experimenting with conscious gender presentation when I was 14-15. I've always dressed exactly how I liked, even as a child, I remember insisting I wasn't a girl but a tomboy and that I needed to dress accordingly. Turns out I was right about not being a girl! But as I got a little older, 17-18-19, entering college and developing into a Woman (tm), it became very easy for me to lean into hyper-feminizing myself and leaning into those affirmations from others as a form of overcompensating for how little I actually felt like a woman. Looking back, I was absolutely doing drag. Don't get me wrong, I loved being blonde and having big makeup and pink and dresses and boobs and lace, and I still love all of those things, but I understand now that I love all of those things as a performance of femininity, as drag. Now, I'm almost a full year on Testosterone, I wear crop tops over my binders with my basketball shorts, and I'm so happy living as the cute twinky gay femboy I think I've always known I am inside.
LINKS ↓
● ig → @elenafortunes
● twitter → @elenafortunee
● twitch → elenafortune
● website → https://elenafortune.com/
● patreon → https://patreon.com/elenafortune
