DECEMBER 12, 2018

“Originally I was a makeup artist,” says Daniel Kosinski. “It was something that I just fell in love with. It was always my main form of art you know? I don’t paint. I don’t draw.”

The 38-year-old still doesn’t paint or draw. But he still does makeup and has added a new skill to his repertoire: clothing design. 

Now, you may wonder what’s the big deal about another clothing designer in Manhattan? According to Kosinski, a lot.

But before we uncover the “big deal,” it’s important to get a few things straight. Kosinski grew up in the part of New Jersey that is closer to Philadelphia than New York City and very few people in the city know his first name is Daniel or his last name is Kosinski. Here in the Big Apple he is known as Jimmie Sprinkles. 

When Jimmie first got to the New York City he supported himself during the week by doing makeup at events and parties. On the weekends he worked as a makeup artist at the famous and now defunct Scores Gentlemen’s Club. He still occasionally moonlights at Scores’ replacement, Sapphire 60. 

Jimmie attributes his love for makeup application to his eventual passion for fashion design.

“I love the transformation aspect of makeup and that's kind of what really got me into designing,” says Jimmie. “Taking someone who might feel down that day and making them look their best and making them happy.” 

“Happy” was something that Jimmie found lacking when he first arrived in New York City as a gay man in his early twenties. Coming from a conservative family in suburban New Jersey, Jimmie thought New York City would be his great escape – a descent into a partying abyss filled with other people like him.

But he found the party scene to be unexpectedly dull, the men to be snide and as indifferent as the clothes they wore.  

“This was the 2000s,” says Jimmie. “I opened the door at this one place and everyone is wearing JNCOs from the 90s. Like the pants that if you were cool and your parents really loved you, they bought you. That’s what people were wearing to these raves.”

Jimmie knew he had to change the scene. So he got out his sewing machine. 

“Growing up my mom had this little sewing machine and that’s where I learned how to sew,” says Jimmie. “I never really had a good childhood. We didn’t have a lot of resources. So my mom was creative and kept us clothed by sewing a lot of our outfits.”

He started sewing.

“I wanted to create clothes that were fun, comfortable, and raveable,” says Jimmie.  

It was this desire to create transformation in the wardrobe department of New York City’s gay male party scene that drove Jimmie to found *sstricks – a company that exclusively produces pieces for raves.  

“For the first one to two years it was just me sewing and selling and I had a friend that would come once in a while and help me out,” says Jimmie. “It was rough. It was a lot of work. It's still a lot of work but I'm not on that damn sewing machine anymore.”

Jimmie has expanded from those early days and now has several factories. Some overseas and some in the states, each one for a different product. He regularly sells his designs on cruise ships and at trade shows and parties. 

But his success hasn’t come without sacrifice 

“So I do these events and I give a lot of myself to them,” says Jimmie. “When it's all said and done, and everything is over it's just me. Now where do I go?”

Jimmie has learned that he can’t expect the same level of passion and desire that he puts into his work to be returned to him by his customers or even his friends.

“What I put in I don’t get in return,” says Jimmy. “What I want from people and what I give to them is still two different things. Often times I'll have an intense breakdown after these huge rushes. I’m helping make people feel like they belong. But I don’t feel like I belong.”  

These feelings of inadequacy Jimmie attributes not only to the struggle that was growing up gay in a conservative family, but also to life-long body image issues that were exacerbated once he reached New York City and its intensely competitive aestheticism. 

“Have you ever heard that saying ‘He’s a straight seven but a gay two?” asks Jimmie. “I never really believed it until I got to New York City. The gay men here are all phenomenally attractive.”

There is no denying we live in a world that continually places higher and higher aesthetic standards on the human body. While much has been written and said about how straight women suffer in such a climate, relatively little has been written or said about how gay men cope. Especially gay men in a city like New York, where body competition isn’t just a phenomenon relegated to a specific subset of the culture, it’s a lifestyle. 

Male models keep getting leaner and leaner while promoting excessively healthy lifestyles across their social platforms. This dangerous trend can really be traced back to 2010 when a once hunky male 5-foot, 7-inch model named Jeremy Gillitzer dropped to 80 pounds. He died later that year from complications from anorexia and bulimia. 

It was during this time of darkness that Jimmie was introduced to the world of drag. He was transfixed. Unlike the world of gay male fashion, the drag scene was much more accepting of different bodies. 

“My friends in the scene introduced me to the Divines and the Latrice Royales,” says Jimmie. “I loved how these beings moved. Their confidence. Whatever they wore they WORE.”

Unlike in gay male fashion, in drag, plus-size performers and fashions are hardly unusual. In fact, many of the most well-known and celebrated drag queens have been plus-sized. Divine – arguably the most important and influential drag queens of all time – passed away from an enlarged heart in 1988, a side-effect from her lifelong battle with obesity.  

Drag hasn’t just influenced gay fashion. It’s influenced straight fashion as well. Just ask 21-year-old Saad el Belghiti, a straight University of Denver student and fashion addict.   

“Drag has undeniably influenced mainstream fashion,” says el Belghiti. “Anything from the way pants fit to some of the newer blouse designs look like what you would see in a drag show.”  

The pants trend el Belghiti describes is the popular throwback style to the high-waisted denim of the 1980s. Blouses are currently being cut lower with more fabric on the bottom than top. Essentially, mainstream fashion is in a renaissance interpreted through modern design and the drag industry is responsible for the kickoff. 

Perhaps, even more importantly, drag has opened the door for people of all sexual orientations and identities to fully express themselves.

23-year-old Matt Thoma, a Minneapolis based bartender who identifies as a gay man says drag fundamentally changed the way society interacted with fashion.  

“Drag has helped push the limits of what fashion is and what it can be,” says Thoma. “People now feel like they can dress how they truly want. More unisex or more flamboyant. Push boundaries. Whatever they want.”  

Thoma credits shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race for bringing drag into the mainstream and making it an acceptable form of expression.  

“RuPaul really changed the game,” says Thoma. “The show made pushing gender limits normal and made drag something that was mainstream. It eradicated a lot of taboos and boundaries that were there before.”  

This eradication of taboos and boundaries is becoming increasingly common – especially in nightlife. Fewer and fewer gay bars and nightclubs are in operation as gay people are now welcomed into regular clubs with open arms. 

“I see a lot of promoters for these gay clubs that I used to go to when I was 20 and they are constantly asking me where all the young kids are,” says Jimmie. “I'm like they don't need to go to a gay bar anymore because they were raised by your friends that accepted you.”

Thoma agrees.

 “You don't need to go someplace separate now because that is just not the world anymore,” says Thoma. “I mean there are people who do separate and that's fine. But separation is no longer a necessity.” 

And that – says Jimmie – is the “big deal.” His work as a clothing designer for gay men and his work as a drag designer is mainstream and accepted by the masses. It is no longer a taboo. 

 “People are lucky now because we are far more accepting of each other today than in the past,” says Jimmie. “But that can change in an instant and we can go right back to where we started.”