Abraham David Levy, a longtime artistic drive in New York Metropolis’s ballroom tradition and an imaginative designer, has died.
A standout dancer within the ballroom group and a longtime member of the Home of Xtravaganza, he was often known as an ingenious creator. Levy’s work was featured on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and through New York Trend 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 had been among the many followers of Levy’s designs.
Levy’s age and reason for demise weren’t instantly identified. Levy was present in his mattress along with his cellphone beside him in his New York Metropolis residence Monday afternoon following a wellness examine, in line with his buddy Nikki Exotika. Mates turned involved after Levy didn’t present as much as meet on Sunday and Monday, as they’d 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 night time.
Having met Levy within the Eighties membership scene and reconnected 5 years in the past, Susanne Bartsch stated, “He was such buddy, and such a sort, stunning particular person. He was a really passionate, proud particular person, who gave his all. It didn’t matter who you had 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 involved Saturday about assembly to finalize plans for Bartsch’s upcoming exhibition on the Museum für Gestaltung in Zurich, which is able to embody a lot of Levy’s designs. The present will open in mid-June within the design and visible communications museum in Switzerland. Bartsch stated that she and Levy had deliberate to “kind out a couple of issues, repair some feathers, put some paint on a couple of issues, and zhuzh issues up,” Bartsch stated. “I cherished his work. It made you’re feeling like a ‘Energy Girl, a warrior – don’t mess with me.’ It was very superhero, and comfy as properly. It made you’re feeling like 1,000,000 {dollars}.”
The designer joined the Home of Xtravaganza within the mid-Eighties and “rapidly turned an asset to the household” and earned a repute within the ballroom scene for his “glossy, model-like body and avant-garde vogue. A mash-up of couture-inspired designs, unmatchable dancing and runway strutting, contributors in balls can compete for such classes as designer realness, couture or runway.” Nikki Exotika stated Levy additionally thought of 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 referred to 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. akin 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 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 open air or handed out to passers-by to draw patrons. In its submit, the Home of Xtravaganza credited Levy for being among the many first to host vogueing competitions outdoors of conventional ballrooms, serving to to increase the motion’s attain. Levy’s elaborate and infrequently futuristic creations had been showcased on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and at a New York Trend Week occasion. For a fall 2023 presentation, Levy confirmed a couple of appears to be like 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 vogue present, spending 4 weeks determining easy methods 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 had been additionally as soon as featured in an Oil of Olay business — one other instance of how his abilities had been launched on a wider scale.
The names of Levy’s survivors weren’t instantly identified.
Editor’s Word: This story is in improvement.