Love Is in The Legend

‘Chelsea’s SVA Theater was packed to the brim with old friends and ever-youthful energy on Sunday night, as a crowd gathered to hoot, holler, and ‘yassss!’ for the world premiere of film maker Myra Lewis’ first project, Love Is In The Legend. The infectious documentary charts the events and context of an evening in 1988, which brought the underground ballroom scene from Harlem downtown and gave it the added flair of the infamous Paradise Garage resulting in a mashup of music, art, fashion, and dance that would change New York culture forever. The House of Field Ball—”the Ball that changed it all’—in September 1988 is remembered as the meeting of the worlds of Seventh Avenue fashion, the downtown underground club kids, and the Harlem Houses. In other words, forget Madonna’s Vogue—this was truly the night that introduced the influential movers and shakers of the creative world to voguing. ‘

‘Through intimate interviews and electrifying recordings of ball icons like Jose Xtravaganza and Cesar Valentino, the film has won a number of awards, including Best First Time Filmmaker from the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards and an Award of Merit from the IndieFEST Film Awards. All the original downtown NYC kids attended the premiere held at New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. 'This film is a love letter from my heart to the community,' said Myra. ‘

‘Designer Marc Jacobs, 58, opened up about his roots in vogue culture following a screening of a new documentary, “Love is in the Legend,” about the 1980s underground ballroom scene. Jacobs told the crowd that he appeared on the runway in designer Patricia Field’s famed “The House of Field Ball” — which reportedly merged the Harlem ball scene with downtown club culture, and celebrity — in September 1988, helping to bring vogueing into the spotlight. Jacobs said it was one of the most “freeing experiences,” of his life, an attendee of the screening told Page Six. He added that he hadn’t planned on taking the runway at Field’s event, but felt the “spirit” come over him and strutted his stuff in his underwear, a tuxedo jacket and motorcycle boots. Director Myra Lewis told us that the film is about the “story of outsiders finding belonging through fashion, dance, and music in the [gay nightclub] Paradise Garage, the Harlem Ball scene, and the formation of the House of Field.”‘