The Story of the Book
Inventing Style began with a remarkable collection of photographs Jennifer Graylock created in the 1990s, capturing New York’s drag artists beyond the nightclub stage—in the streets, neighborhoods, apartments, and unexpected places where individuality took center stage.
What emerged was more than a photographic record. These artists were experimenting with fashion, beauty, identity, and self-expression years before many of those ideas entered mainstream culture. Their creativity anticipated influences that can now be seen across runways, red carpets, beauty campaigns, and social media.
Through Graylock’s photographs, personal recollections, and perspectives from leading voices in fashion and beauty, Inventing Style looks back at a generation of cultural innovators and the lasting influence of a moment that helped reshape how the world sees style.
The book’s visual story was brought together in collaboration with photographer and designer Meg Kackley, whose thoughtful design gives the photographs room to speak while weaving image, history, and narrative into a cohesive visual experience. Her understanding of photography helped shape a book designed not simply to document this extraordinary period, but to immerse the reader in it.
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Acknowledgments
With Gratitude
Inventing Style was shaped not only by the photographs, but by the remarkable people who inspired, encouraged, supported, and believed in this project along the way.
With heartfelt gratitude to Lisa Spruill, Sandi Rhodes, Lauren Bercik Harris, Meg Kackley, Maria Irizary, Debra Martelli, Lisa Silhanek, Fern Mallis, Patricia Field, Steven Kolb, Amy Fine Collins, Jan Arnold, and The Blonds. Each of you, in your own way, brought friendship, insight, creativity, encouragement, or perspective that helped Inventing Style become what it is today.
And above all, my deepest gratitude to the extraordinary artists who trusted me, my eye, and my camera all those years ago. You are where this story began.
— Jennifer Graylock