Abraham David Levy, a longtime artistic drive in New York Metropolis’s ballroom tradition and an imaginative dressmaker, has died.
A standout dancer within the ballroom group and a longtime member of the Home of Xtravaganza, he was also called an creative creator. Levy’s work was featured on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and through New York Style Week. He additionally helped to execute an elaborate customized Zaldy design that Irina Shayk modeled within the 2024 Victoria’s Secret runway present. Paris Hilton, and drag performers like Sweet Darling, Nikkie Exotica, Jimbo the Drag Clown, and Kandy Muse have been among the many followers of Levy’s designs.
Levy’s age and reason behind demise weren’t instantly recognized. Levy was present in his mattress together with his cellphone beside him in his New York Metropolis residence Monday afternoon following a wellness verify, based on his buddy Nikki Exotika. Associates turned involved after Levy didn’t present as much as meet on Sunday and Monday, as that they had deliberate on, and he had not responded to calls or texts.
A media request to the New York Metropolis Police Division was not instantly returned Tuesday evening.
Having met Levy within the Nineteen Eighties membership scene and reconnected 5 years in the past, Susanne Bartsch mentioned, “He was such a superb buddy, and such a form, stunning particular person. He was a really passionate, proud particular person, who gave his all. It didn’t matter who you have been.”
As a tribute to Levy, Bartsch hopes to prepare a runway present of Levy’s designs that his drag performer buddies will mannequin at a later date. The pair had been in touch Saturday about assembly to finalize plans for Bartsch’s upcoming exhibition on the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, which is able to embrace a lot of Levy’s designs. The present will open in mid-June within the design and visible communications museum in Switzerland. Bartsch mentioned that she and Levy had deliberate to “kind out just a few issues, repair some feathers, put some paint on just a few issues, and zhuzh issues up,” Bartsch mentioned. “I cherished his work. It made you are feeling like a ‘Energy Lady, a warrior – don’t mess with me.’ It was very superhero, and comfy as effectively. It made you are feeling like 1,000,000 {dollars}.”
The designer joined the Home of Xtravaganza within the mid-Nineteen Eighties and “shortly turned an asset to the household” and earned a status within the ballroom scene for his “glossy, model-like body and avant-garde trend. A mash-up of couture-inspired designs, unmatchable dancing and runway strutting, members in balls can compete for such classes as designer realness, couture or runway.” Nikki Exotika mentioned Levy additionally thought-about the home to be his household.
Levy was featured within the 1990 landmark documentary “Paris Is Burning” that chronicled the ball tradition in New York Metropolis and the Black, Latino homosexual and transgender communities that thrive inside it. Within the Jennie Livingston-directed movie, Levy competed within the Punk Rock class, which was a precursor to what’s now often known as the Weird class in New York Metropolis drag balls. (The movie is on HBO and the Criterion Channel.) The ballroom scene is an interracial underground LGBTQIA+ subculture that dates again to the drag balls of the mid-19th century within the U.S. similar to these as soon as hosted by William Dorsey Swann in Washington, D.C.
Levy was additionally as soon as omnipresent within the club-kid scene within the high-flying Nineteen Eighties and helped to introduce vogueing and ballroom tradition to a wider viewers. Levy was additionally featured on a slew of nightclub flyers that promoters posted outside or handed out to passers-by to draw patrons. In its put up, the Home of Xtravaganza credited Levy for being among the many first to host vogueing competitions exterior of conventional ballrooms, serving to to broaden the motion’s attain. Levy’s elaborate and infrequently futuristic creations have been showcased on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and at a New York Style Week occasion. For a fall 2023 presentation, Levy confirmed just a few seems to be on the catwalk as a part of the Runway 7 present. together with a metallic gold bodice that was adorned with festooning feathers on the chest and hips.
In latest days, Levy posted movies of different creations like an iridescent teal and holographic silver corset with superhero-worthy wings that he was promoting in “a flash sale.” Levy additionally did work for the 2024 Victoria’s Secret trend present, spending 4 weeks determining find out how to sew a customized Zaldy star-covered cape for the runway mannequin Irina Shayk. Levy as soon as wrote about how “very proud” he was of the piece and that working alongside Shayk, “a real skilled with a real coronary heart of gold,” was “a dream come true.” Levy’s creations have been additionally as soon as featured in an Oil of Olay industrial — one other instance of how his skills have been launched on a wider scale.
The names of Levy’s survivors weren’t instantly recognized.
Editor’s Word: This story is in growth.
