Beyond Retro Presents: Navigating Gender through Style - An Evening celebrating Gender Non-Conforming Fashion.

To commemorate the end of Transgender Awareness Week, Beyond Retro are teaming up with several prominent artists and activists from London's queer community.

Join us at our Dalston store for an electrifying night from 6.30 PM onwards!

The aim is to raise the visibility of trans and non-binary people, through the celebration of of gender non-conforming fashion.

All money raised will be donated to ELOP - LGBT Mental Health and Wellbeing - a grassroots charity based in East London.

The evening will consist of free drinks, make-up master class and makeovers from Emily After (https://www.instagram.com/emilyafter/) and a DJ set by our very own Xoey 5.0 (https://www.instagram.com/xoey5.0/).

As well as this, there will be a host of speakers from different spectrum's of gender identity, sharing with us what style means to them and how they use it as a tool to navigate their identities.

Our hosts for the night will be:

Jamie Windust, is an EVER INSPIRING non-binary activist, writer, model, speaker AND editor-in-chief of Fruitcake magazine (https://www.instagram.com/leopardprintelephant/?hl=en).

Tobias Norman, is a YouTuber and make up artist, breaking down the binary ways in which we view masculinity (https://www.instagram.com/callmeladdie/?hl=en).

William Dill Russell, who is a fashion designer changing the way we think about gender non-conforming fashion (https://www.instagram.com/williamdill_russell/?hl=en).

Erik Pascarelli, is a queer hairstylist working in both fashion and in salon, specialising in colour. Erik mainly works with his fellow queer and trans clients to offer a comfortable salon experience. (https://www.instagram.com/erikpascarelli/?hl=en).

At Beyond Retro, we believe that personal style can act as a tool for expressing ones identity. We aim to provide a safe space for everyone, ALWAYS, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity.

This is not an exclusive event, this is an INCLUSIVE event. All members from the community who show love and respect are welcome to join, no bad vibes ever. ❤️

Tickets are on a sliding scale with all profits going to ELOP. , with a standard donation or low wage donation.

See you there for a night of conversation and fun!

ELOP provides dedicated, high-quality, user-centred, responsive and professional services to local lesbian, gay, bisexual & trans (LGBT+) communities, that aim to preserve, promote & improve mental, emotional, psychological and social health, wellbeing, safety and empowerment, whilst working to challenge and eradicate discrimination and inequalities faced by LGBT+ people, and others questioning &/ or exploring their sexual orientation and/ or gender identity.

This ELOP undertakes through the provision of a range of services & activities including:

• counselling & therapy services

• Head up – mental health action plans

• social & support groups: young adults, asylum seekers, LBT women, GBT men, Rise Above Hate

• advice & information

• signposting & assisted referral

• support & advocacy

• community safety & victim care

• youth group & schools project

• same-sex families service

• consultation, training representation & awareness raising

• community activities, events & workshop; and

• a range of community volunteering opportunities

ELOP started from a group of local people exploring the need for a local service and we started with a volunteer team of 2 counsellors; providing a service to 6 people a week: our counselling service now has a team of 40 counsellors: providing a service to 120 people a week. We provide a range of social and support groups: work with young people, work with families and those becoming families, work with older people, work with asylum seekers, and a range of support, training and consultancy work to support providers of mainstream services to be better equipped and meeting the needs of the LGB&T community and work with 5000 people a year.

The most important achievement has been our support to keep people alive at points of crisis and we regularly work with people at the point of desperation in their lives, whether this be due to their experiences as LGBT asylum seekers, and the horrendous ordeals they have fled from in countries around the world, people in crisis as relationships break up, people in crisis due to ongoing mental health issues, young people facing violence at home when they come out to family, older people facing bereavements and limited social connections with others, the devastation that drugs and alcohol can have on the lives of our community members and much more. We know that many of these issues are compounded and at times caused by growing up in a culture that is not LGBT affirmative, that does not provide enough role models, especially for sections of our community in relation to faith, ethnicity and disability and gender identity.

ELOP has a small staff team and our financial resources are small, so any support received enables us to sustain the work we do, we know that our work saves lives and provides a safe space for those that need it.