Sesame Flyers Goes “Vogue” for New York Carnival 2013

In its 30th anniversary year, Sesame Flyers International unveiled one of its most fashion-driven New York Carnival presentations: “Vogue – The Carnival Edition.”

The official band launch took place on Saturday, June 15, 2013, at the newly renovated PACPLEX, formerly the Paerdegat Athletic Club, in Brooklyn. Contemporary promotion billed the event as a poolside cultural showcase where Carnival and fashion would meet, giving masqueraders their first look at the costumes Sesame Flyers planned to carry onto Eastern Parkway later that summer.

For Sesame Flyers, Vogue was more than a new theme. It arrived as the organization celebrated three decades of community work, Carnival participation and competitive mas in New York.

Watch the Sesame Flyers Vogue Band Launch

The main Julianspromos highlights capture the launch as models introduced the sections and costumes that made up Sesame Flyers’ 2013 presentation.

The Julianspromos coverage was hosted by Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson, with the footage shot and edited by Julian C. Hackett. The video was uploaded on June 17, 2013.

Thirty Years of Sesame Flyers

Sesame Flyers International was founded in Brooklyn in 1983, making 2013 its 30th anniversary year.

By then, the organization had developed a reputation extending well beyond Labor Day Carnival. Its work included youth development, education and community programs while its Carnival division became one of the familiar names on Eastern Parkway. Contemporary Caribbean Life coverage credited Sesame Flyers with 11 Band of the Year titles by 2013.

That history gave Vogue an extra layer of significance.

Sesame Flyers was not simply revealing another collection of costumes. The organization was introducing the Carnival presentation that would carry it into its fourth decade.

When Carnival Met the Runway

The idea behind Vogue deliberately connected Caribbean mas with fashion.

Contemporary Sesame Flyers representatives explained that the theme was created in part to reconnect younger second- and third-generation Caribbean Americans with the pageantry and cultural meaning of Carnival. The presentation used the visual language of a runway to introduce traditional mas in a format familiar to a newer generation.

That made the band launch an important part of the concept itself.

Before thousands of masqueraders and spectators would see Vogue on Eastern Parkway, the costumes could be presented individually — allowing the designers, colors, details and personalities of each section to stand on their own.

Brooklyn effectively became the runway before Labor Day became the road.

Building the Vogue Presentation

A number of designers and section leaders contributed their own interpretations to the wider Vogue concept.

Among them was Akin Ross, who had a long connection with Sesame Flyers both as a masquerader and designer. For the 2013 season, Ross was associated with sections including “Bellissimo Mare” and “Fierce.” He also presented additional sections through his own design brand.

The varied sections helped Vogue work as a complete band.

Each could have its own personality, colors and styling while still fitting underneath the fashion-inspired theme.

For someone deciding where to play mas that year, the launch was where an abstract theme became something much more practical:

Which costume am I wearing on Labor Day?

Basic Classics Presents F.A.M.E.

One section captured separately by Julianspromos was F.A.M.E. by Basic Classics.

The additional footage gives F.A.M.E. its own closer look within the larger Vogue presentation and shows how an individual section contributed to the overall fashion-meets-mas concept.

Like the main launch video, the footage was hosted by Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson, shot and edited by Julian C. Hackett, and uploaded on June 17, 2013.

From the Launch Stage to Eastern Parkway

The band launch was only the beginning of Vogue’s 2013 story.

Over the following weeks, the costumes moved from display pieces into full Carnival production as masqueraders registered, sections filled and Sesame Flyers prepared for the West Indian American Day Carnival on Labor Day.

When Vogue finally reached Eastern Parkway on September 2, 2013, Sesame Flyers finished second in the Adult Large Band competition. The result gave the organization another strong competitive showing during its 30th anniversary season.

That gives the June footage a different feeling today.

At the band launch, there were no results yet.

The costumes were still new. Masqueraders were still choosing sections. Labor Day was months away.

The entire road experience was still being imagined.

From the Julianspromos Archives

Julianspromos documented the Vogue launch with Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson serving as the on-camera host and Julian C. Hackett shooting and editing the coverage.

Both videos were published to YouTube on June 17, 2013, two days after the June 15 launch.

The assignment also continued Julianspromos’ growing documentation of New York mas bands beyond the actual Labor Day parade. Band launches showed another side of Carnival — the designers, models, section leaders and preparation that audiences on Eastern Parkway often only saw in finished form.

But Vogue is especially worth revisiting because of the point Sesame Flyers had reached in 2013.

Thirty years after its founding, the organization was still experimenting with how Carnival could be presented to a changing generation of New Yorkers.

For Vogue, the answer was to bring the runway into the mas camp.

And before those costumes reached Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn saw them first.