Pubes were the news at the Merkin Dream Fashion Show on October 30, 2025. The third iteration of this biennial event took place in the basement of Maryland Art Place, once home to the 14Karat Cabaret founded by Baltimore artist Laure Drogoul in 1989. The cabaret became a legendary venue for avant-garde performance, bringing together artists, queers, feminists, and political radicals in a spirit of experimentation and subversive humor. Reclaiming that underground energy, Merkin Dream III transformed the space into a charged, immersive runway where fashion, identity, and protest converged.
The event was presented in collaboration with Baltimore-based designer Kenn Hall, with Rich Rocket serving as emcee for the evening, and was staged in dialogue with Volume 10: Dismantled, the current exhibition at MAP exploring queer identity and community. The show expanded on themes of women’s rights, sex work, body image, and dysphoria through bold design, movement, and performance.
This year’s layout and venue created a close connection between artists and audience, with performers weaving through the crowd in moments of intimacy and confrontation. At one point, Rich Rocket joked that he was “in the splash zone,” referencing Orioles fans who sit close enough to get sprayed during the game, a Baltimore wink that underscored the night’s exuberant, anything-can-happen energy.
One standout moment by artist Abby Fitzgibbon featured body paint with the words “No Human Is Illegal on Stolen Land” across the model’s chest and “Chinga La Migra” across her back, a defiant protest against immigration enforcement. “My merkin and body painting were inspired by the Queer women of color who have always been on the frontlines of the fight against fascism,” Fitzgibbon says. The powerful statement captured the night’s spirit: fashion as activism and the body as both canvas and manifesto.
Hall’s label OMRY International anchored the evening with sculptural silhouettes and gender-fluid tailoring, while the audience, performers, and atmosphere together invoked Baltimore’s legacy of underground art and queer liberation. The crowd’s energy, artists, performers, and allies packed shoulder to shoulder, reflected a city still driven by creativity, defiance, and collective joy.
Participating artists included Joan Cox, Julianna Dail, Mary Abigail Fitzgibbon (Abby Fitzgibbon), Sanzi Kermes, Molly Ritchie, Tiffany Lange, Trisha Kyner and David Friedheim, Trisheeah Presley, Kenny Rooster, Caitlin (Caidy Lynn) Gill, Lucy Butterfield, Kenn Hall, Melissa Penley Cormier, Mary Opasik, and Jim Opasik.
