Chromat’s NYFW film delivered a very powerful message

Shining a light on the struggles faced by transgender athletes, the stories of various legal battles faced by Olympians such as Caster Semenya (who, upon winning the 2009 World Championships, was subject to sex testing and forced to withdraw herself from the competition) have been well-documented. Unfortunately, the problem extends a great deal further. Terry Miller and Andrea Yearwood are also featured, both students who experienced success in track and field only to encounter discrimination from peers and athletic associations in their individual hometowns. ‘To be a part of sports, especially in high-school athletics, is about more than playing a game,’ says Tran. ‘It’s really about leadership, team building, working together, and feeling part of a community.’

But despite these disheartening accounts of unjust struggles, joy does indeed persist, at the core of what the film is advocating for. Similar to the real-life events Chromat has hosted in the past, Joy Run includes appearances from an in impressive roster of guests such as Maya Finoh, a cultural worker known as Savage x Fatty, non-binary trans femme artist Maya Margarita, artist, writer, and dancer with cerebral palsy, Jerron Herman, and Chella Man, a trans and deaf artist who recently starred in Calvin Klein’s Pride campaign.

‘We are in a moment where so much is happening on an international and local level around sports that reproduce a world we don’t need or deserve,’ says Tran. ‘Joy Run models the ways that sport — in its broadest form — can be a force for pleasure, for lifting each other up, for revealing in the deliciousness of our bodies.’ Ultimately, Tran is demanding for transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming athletes to have complete freedom when participating in sports at all levels.

‘This is important to share widely and be loud and proud about this, and to get as much press for this as terf transphobes like J.K. Rowling gets for writing anti-trans propaganda,’ she stresses. ‘It’s not just about rejecting things we don’t need or deserve but creating dreams of what we do.’

This optimism is reflected by Chromat’s SS21 collection, which is teeming with technicolour brights, and wearability suitable for a multitude of ages, sizes, and tastes. Check it out here.