Please welcome to the stage… Rio. Not Rio Sport, not Rio Uribe, and certainly not Gypsy Sport.
Last we caught up with Uribe, in September, his label was called Gypsy Sport. Backstage he declared that show would be his last. Not for the label, but for the name, which had ceased to serve its purpose. Uribe then put an ask out for suggestions on social media, of which the most popular was Rio Sport. That didn’t work out—copyright issues, the usual—and so Uribe arrived at Rio, his first name.
“I was fighting against it for a long time because I created Gypsy Sport to be a kind of anonymous collective brand,” said Uribe over the phone the night before his show. “It felt cool at the time, but I’m ready to own what I’m working on.”
Uribe has been at it with his label for just over a decade now. But as exciting and directional as Gypsy Sport was, he admitted that business and scaling were not his focus. “I was being creative and doing what I wanted, but this time, with the amount of time and energy”—and resources, surely—“we’ve put into rebranding, I want to get better at having a business.” And so he has been working on strengthening his direct to consumer channel and hopes to get some wholesale accounts out of this show. He’s also launched a line of handbags, and is working on other category expansions.
Making things that are more sellable was a priority here, as was an evident upgrade in materials and fabrications. “A little more grown up,” is how Uribe put it. An A-line maxi skirt with two drawstrings running vertically in the front will surely be a favorite of his customers, as will his fuzzy cropped knits, Bermuda shorts, and wrap skirts. Show-stealers were Uribe’s tailoring concoctions, which he said took him back to his time apprenticing for John Galliano, as were a white skirt with handkerchiefs hanging off its hem and a run of patchworked styles he made out of fabrics he’s been collecting from his visits to India, where his handbags are made. Uribe said he almost made an all-white collection to go with a rebirth theme, but he “got bored.” Good thing he did. Rio, the label, and Rio, the man, are far too interesting and, frankly, queer, to play into such tropes.
This wasn’t a rebirth or a revival, and Uribe was hesitant to call it a level-up over the phone so as to not over-promise. But it was a confident step in the right direction. It was also simply fun, something Fashion Week could generally use more of.
Around halfway through the show, one of the attendees was offered a whiff of poppers from a model: “I didn’t know I needed that,” they said afterwards, “but that was the best fucking thing that has ever happened to me at a fashion show.” As guests walked out, poppers or not, the vibe was definitely upbeat.
