On Community Fashion Shows and Queer, Texas Design: Hannah Varnell of Bloodbath Studio
Over the last two years, Future Front has proudly supported Bloodbath Studio’s community fashion shows.
Created by and for queer artists in 2022, Bloodbath’s annual fashion shows began as a way to amplify the DIY ecosystem of underground fashion in Central Texas. Each show features a range of rising designers and fashion stars—including voices like DASHE, FLAMER and ALIVE—evolving year over year to reflect an emerging, growing and established fashion community, as well as a spectrum of LGBTQ+ designers, models and producers.
As Bloodbath Studio prepares for their third-annual community fashion show in 2024, we chatted with Bloodbath Studio co-founder Hannah Varnell about the Bloodbath’s origin story, the importance of queer representation in art and cultural gatherings and hopes for a sustainable, vibrant and subversively expressive scene in Central Texas.
Photos by @wne2uu
Hannah Varnell (center in white) at Bloodbath’s Veneration Fashion Show in 2023
Meet Hannah Varnell.
Hannah Varnell is a director, cinematographer, and creative producer.
She enjoys creating worlds that exist in a magical, dreamlike subset of reality and is most inspired by media that creates empathy and provides opportunities for healing. She has produced and shot for BBC, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Bravo, and Travel Channel. Recent directing work premiered at Tribeca as part of “Battleground,” a film about reproductive rights by Cynthia Lowen. When she’s not making films or throwing Bloodbath fashion shows, you can find her at a thrift shop or resetting her nervous system at an electronic show.
Q — What was the catalyst in creating BloodBath?
The first Bloodbath Studio event was in 2022 as part of Lucktoberfest - a fall festival hosted on Willie Nelson’s Range out in Spicewood, Texas. After years of working the festival, I had magically found an invite to attend Luck Reunion as a guest for the first time. I remember wandering down the iconic main dusty road during the festival surrounded by tiny western buildings with the sun setting behind the Luck sign thinking - this would make an insane runway.
When one of Luck’s creative directors, Matt Bizer, asked if I had any ideas for events that would draw LGBT+ Austin’s queer community for Lucktoberfest, I flashed back to that moment, and set my sights on building our first fashion show.
Q — How would you describe the work BloodBath produces?
Our first show was inspired by what I saw designers like DASHE and This is Sloane doing. The models they were collaborating with were not only their muses, but these powerhouse icons of Austin’s queer community - musical artists, nightlife icons, designers themselves.
The process of inviting everyone together for the purpose of art felt like a sort of communion. It felt surreal. I wanted to keep that magic present, and working with Bloodbath now we aim to create art experiences whose structure lends itself to hearing the voices of all of the artists involved.
Q — Describe the collaborative nature of producing each show.
I’d never produced anything of that scale, so Bloodbath had an extremely collaborative nature from the beginning. It was a lot of me inviting people to be a part of it, not only for their artistic skill but for their expertise and this impressive, world-building type approach to executing their art. For our first independent show, the designers and I co-creative directed, and Danielle Shepherd of Dashe and I were able to team up for the producing — which has been honestly a dream. How to create an event with a cohesive throughline while maintaining space for individual expression is an evolving process we are always learning from.
Q — What is a grounding value that is expressed in each collaboration?
F*ck it, let's try.
Q — Elaborate on ways you stay in touch with your creative endeavors when doing collaborative work.
When I'm don't feel in touch with creativity, it's usually because I haven't gifted myself with enough time alone. When I am alone, I can tap into the source — life, energy, God, whatever you want to call it — and that's where all my good ideas come from. I got rid of my car because I love biking and walking for that reason: you are left alone with the world.
Q — How has BloodBath grown as a production and where do you see it going in the future?
Bloodbath went from a psychedelic-fueled idea to a full-blown grassroots production whose production quality was compared to New York Fashion Week. We’re blown away and humbled by what happens when a good idea meets the right community. We’ll keep finding our way with the help of the community that has come along the ride with us, and we will continue to be inspired by our friends from other organizations also building the fashion scene. We have ideas of how we could join forces with other show producers to make shows more attainable for artists, but for now, we’re focused on our next show — which will be this October.
Q — What is your hope for Bloodbath with Austin’s constantly evolving culture and art?
The independent art culture is what drew me to Austin and it’s the reason I’ve stayed here for 9 years. My hope is that even in the midst of the city’s growing pains, our independent art scene evolves to stay alive and we find ways of executing events that attract international attention to the insane fashion and film talent here. Austin has a growing thirst for thoughtfully-curated, artist-centric events, and is positioned to develop a fashion scene that not only pays homage to our artist roots, but also our entrepreneurial spirit to ask how to evolve a historically-wasteful industry towards more ethical and sustainable solutions.
Q — Where do you see BloodBath in the coming years as a movement?
We want to support a thriving art, fashion, and film industry that prioritizes the well-being of queer people, and we want to continue centering queer beauty as not only the inspiration, but the backstage teams, creative decision-makers, and featured talent of our events.
Photo by @brittanynofomo