Words by Uni Love
Photos by Jaedyn Taylor
On August 7, 2026, our Philadelphia flagship store transformed into something more than a shop for a night — it became a gathering space fashion, art, film, and creative expression. We teamed up with artist-designer DJ Chappel and creative director/filmmaker Ryan Cordoso of Dauan Jacari for an evening that brought together a pop-up, an intimate conversation, and a screening of “A Different Type of Church”during the iconic Blackstar Film Festival in Philadelphia.
What the Film Showed Us
"A Different Type of Church" is a meditation on black dance and creativity as sacred practice. It’s a film that explores black and queer expression through many mediums — from fashion, movement, music, poetry, and even significant pop media moments that left us giggling throughout the film.
Watching the film, it asks a simple but powerful question: what if church isn’t a building? What if it’s the act of dancing, of loving yourself, of getting lost in your essence? The film suggests that praise doesn’t require four walls — it can live in the art we make, the clothes we wear, the ancestors we carry with us, and the future we’re building toward.
As one attendee put it during the post-screening discussion:
“This film displayed in such a beautiful way how we praise outside the physical space of a church. The beautiful ways that we worship, when we dance, when we listen to our favorite songs that invoke a spirit within us, when we’re communing amongst each other, when we’re in the time and space we make for ourselves — whether we’re still or in movement.”
What We Felt in the Room
If you were there, you know the energy is hard to put into words — but we’ll try. And it wasn’t just the screening. It was the whole night, from the moment the doors opened.
The whole event felt joyful — almost like something had been conquered, like an accomplishment being celebrated in real time. It brought to mind one of the opening scenes of the film, where a figure dances in a beautiful dress singing a rendition of "I Feel Pretty" from Westside Store. That’s another way to describe how the room felt. It felt pretty. And everyone watching the screen, everyone standing around it, seemed to feel that too, all night long.
Inside the shop, people tried on clothes. Outside, people congregated, caught up in conversation. Black joy. Freedom. A room full of people unapologetically existing, from the hair to the jewelry to the music to the way people moved through the space. Honestly — last night was a church in itself.
We also opened the floor to a broader conversation about representation in film and media, including where audiences want to see more black stories told — and how much of that storytelling now lives online, in the pockets of our phones, in the spaces between scrolls.
The Conversation
Following the screening, Moore Vintage Archive owner Keesean Moore sat down with Ryan Cordoso and DJ Chappell for a conversation about the collaboration, their creative practice, and take on fashion.
When asked what designing for themselves looks like, their answer felt almost like describing conception — or a kind of play on timelines. Taking something old and turning it into something fresh. Giving it a new form, a new meaning.
They were also asked how their ideas come about, and the answer was refreshingly simple: doing nothing. Most of their time is spent in the studio, watching YouTube videos, or just existing in the space. But it’s in that stillness that the reshuffling happens — moving things around the room, which brings a new energy in, and from that energy, ideas start to flow through and eventually get acted on.
On where the brand is headed next, the response was simple and stuck with everyone in the room:
“Into the future.”
That was it. Said in a beautiful way — the idea of just continuing to move, to keep exploring different mediums and different forms to express fashion.
One of the most memorable moments of the night came from an answer to one of Keesean's questions about how the pair maintain artistic integrity with so many voices trying to dictate the direction of their brand.
“Everything and everyone is wrong. We’re all just trying. Seeing what fits in a way that aligns.”
It’s a line worth sitting with. No one truly has the answers, but that seems to be our quest for life. Seeking answers in any and everything. Philosophically, in a way, we’re all wrong — we’re just doing what works, what sticks, what feels right to us. Hearing it put so plainly felt freeing.
Keesean shared that the collaboration itself wasn’t what he expected going in. After seeing the previews, he was floored — curious about the ideas behind the clothes, and moved by how something archival can be given new meaning, could feel like nothing he’d seen before.
DJ and Ryan spoke about how this collaboration reminded them of their love for taking things out of context — pulling pieces from their original setting, adjusting them, moving them around, changing them. It’s through that process that something stagnant turns limitless.
On the question of how gender is expressed in the clothing, the answer embraced ambiguity as intentional:
“I always attempt to allow things to be vague — even though that can be dangerous.”
And on holding space for multiple creative practices at once:
“We’re always finding ways to bring it into our work. If an opportunity comes about, we try to blend it with our current medium we’re focused on. If I run into a mishap in one medium, I channel it into another.”
Thank you to everyone who came through, who danced, who listened, and who reminded us that church can look like whatever we need it to look like.
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