LUMXN PRINT 3 // FIRE
A LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
courtesy of LUMXN magazine
CRAZY HOW EVERY PRINT’S THEME FEELS SO TIMELY, SO ALIGNED WITH THE MOMENT. As many of us come out of months of hibernation,fire feels like such a relevant theme. The energy in the air around the time of releasing this print is one of rebirth! It feels like we’re stepping into such newness and things are being ignited and old ways wiped out, destroyed! When we first decided on this theme last summer, we didn’t even consider this is where people would be a year later.
Mars (L) + Reina (R)
When thinking about the theme of print 3, we wanted to challenge ourselves to create something completely different than print 2 but something that still felt like LUMXN. This meant we had to further ground ourselves in what LUMXN is and clarify our role in the larger media landscape. We know that LUMXN is about illuminating the personal healing journeys of people you don’t often hear about, but what does that cliché really mean and how do we see ourselves doing that?
We decided that it starts by thinking big and small: the people in our contributors’ local communities and the people we and the people we find on social media, the people we’ve personally known for years whose stories need to be heard, and the people we randomly just run into one day with so much wisdom to share. We believe that’s what’s different about LUMXN. Capturing those “with a platform” and those who are a platform, across ages, regions and niches of society while still focusing on marginalized genders and BIPOC.
This print feels like “Wowwww, we made it??” Growing a publication is humbling and we’ve got so much work to do, but also so much to offer. We’re grateful to grow this publication with each other and with you all: our readers, our contributors, our lumxns, our friends, family and chosen families. We are grateful to ya for walking this journey with us and helping to create a publication that aims to uplift, empower and heal.
XOXO,
Reina + Mars
Get a taste of LUMXN Print 3 // FIRE:
LUMXN INTERVIEW: Dante @DantePhantom
Intro:
courtesy of LUMXN Magazine
“She, her and diabla,” are Dante’s pronouns. But even as a diabla, she is still the tarot reading tití, fairy godmother we all need, offering just as much wisdom as she does safe spaces. Dante is the visionary and founder of Phantom, a clothing line for the “mentally elevated” that inspires all of us to take up space and be the elephants in the room. Started from a calling from her spirit, Phantom is the bright and queer affirming clothing line that brings out the fierce in everyone bold enough to wear it. As the fashion world just begins to catch up with the times—embracing individual body types, genders, all skin tones and races—we sit down with Dante, the designer who has always affirmed the uniqueness of her models and community, to tell us more about her personal story and creating a revolutionary clothing line and movement.
Excerpt from Interview:
...
Marlin: So about Phantom. Phantom is the incredibly unique, beautiful clothing line that you have created. It's bright, it's comfy, it's sexy. It's POC and queer affirming. How did you start Phantom? Tell us about birthing this incredibly unique line.
Dante: I always wanted to be a philanthropist. Like when I didn't know what to do, I went to school. I don't know what to do. Like I moved to New York, but I don't know what to do. So then I had seen The Secret on Netflix and, you know, I don't know at that point in my life, I was so young. I didn't really think a lot of things were possible. But then after being illuminated by something like that you're like, ”Wow, you know, I can really desire.” And I'm like, “I want to make clothes.”
I found a notebook in my job and that was the notebook that I started the first four designs. Then from there it just kind of grew. But like, it's always been, honestly, a connection with spirit to be honest, you know? You know, as an artist, it's just like phantom. That phantom feeling, you know? It's like a sixth sense. I have a video from back in the day where I said, “Phantom is an emotion, it’s a feeling…” So that's kind of like Phantom: knowing. Clothing for the mentally elevated. Those who know, you know? But I had already called myself Phantom. And I was like, “I'm gonna call my brand Phantom.”
In my first apartment when I was 19 in the Bronx, I had Phantom written across, but I didn't even knooooow! I didn't even know why it was there! And people used to ask me, “Why do you have that?” and I used to be like, “I don't know!”
M: You just felt it. You knew!
D: Yea! Like 19, 10 years ago, you know what I’m saying? Like crazy.[...]
M: What do you hope Phantom’s impact will be in the fashion industry?
D: I use to hope about what Phantom’s impact would be in the fashion industry, but I don’t even hope for that anymore because Phantom has already made that impact in the fashion industry. In just a few months, a few days, a few weeks, they’re gonna look to see which bitch was the one that was doing all of these designs and the only bitch they gon find is ME! And at that point, that will be the fucking beginning. But I have been the pioneer in this shit, PERIOD, for the past four years.
M: PERIOD! How would you describe Phantom’s impact?
D: I would describe Phantom’s impact as being the elephant in the room because I’m really the first one of myself you know?Just imagine how many, gay, trans designers wish they had a label, wish they had several tones like this. It’s really the first time it’s being done, it’s like the real House of Phantom you know you’ve always seen ballroom culture imitate real life so now you have a LGBTQ designer, you know, finally realized, living in their truth and bringing it out, it's like this is it! This. Is. It. After this, THIS IS IT! Phantom is IT. It means so much more intersectionaly from LGBTQ, to Black, to design, to entrepreneurship, you know?