Douglas Says

Douglas Says for Miss Honey

Douglas Says (born Darryl Wayne Rochester, March 1961, Newark, New Jersey) is an American fashion designer, stylist, author, and make-up artist. He is known for using stretch fabrics in eveningwear and has worked with figures in the ballroom scene, including his longtime muse Tracey Africa Norman. In 2024, he was featured in the Newark Museum of Art’s exhibition The Story of Newark Fashion: Atelier to Runway and the short documentary film Miss Honey: The Catsuit, directed by Brandon R. Nicholas and screened at NewFest, which highlights the legacy of drag performer Moi Renee and features a signature catsuit designed by Says.

Career

Douglas Says began designing clothing in the 1970s while attending high school in Newark, New Jersey. After taking a course in men’s tailoring, he began producing garments for classmates and friends. He initially explored modeling but shifted his focus to design and eventually found greater interest in creating clothing for women. By 1983, he had completed formal training in fashion design. In the 1980s and 1990s, Says participated in Newark's fashion and nightlife scenes, including involvement in drag pageants, ballroom events, and local discos. Some of his clients have included has worked as model Iman, singer Celia Cruz, and runway coach Miss J Alexander. H e has also worked with photographers including Gerard Gaskin, Mike Ruiz, Alex Chatelain, Ghillian Lewin, Fadil Berisha, Marc Baptiste, Dah Len, Keith Majors, Anthony Barboza, and Jerry Jack.

In the early 2000s, Says began presenting annual fashion shows in Newark. His work was featured in BET’s Rip the Runway in 2006, where he debuted alongside Steve Harvey’s suit collection, and again in 2009 with his “Plus U” collection, a line designed for plus-size women.His pieces have appeared in independent films including Smooth: The Game Is Dead, Don’t Go to Strangers, and The System Within.

In 2007, his designs were included in the Black Style Now exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. His work was also featured in the Thurgood Marshall College Fund’s annual fashion shows in both 2007 and 2008. Visual records of his collaborations with prominent icons in the ballroom scene like Sinia, Tracey, Octavia, also appear on platforms like Google Arts & Culture's Ballroom in Focus where he is featured alongside ballroom icon in photograph credited to Luna Luis Ortiz, capturing a moment in ballroom history

Alongside his design work, Says self-published two books, Amuse (2009) and The Red Dress (2013), which document his creative process, the women who inspire his clothing, and feature models wearing his garments. His work has appeared in several books and anthologies, including Mainhattanmanhattan, NYC Go-Go by Slava Mogutin, The Way We Wore by Michael McCollom, and Queer Newark:Stories of Resistance, Love, and Community edited by Whitney Strub.

Legacy

Publications focused on Black fashion history and ballroom culture have recorded Douglas Says' visual and material contributions. His work has circulated through both independent and institutional channels. While much of his recognition has come from within the ballroom and Black fashion communities, his design sensibilities and styling practices have influenced how femininity, glamour, and body diversity are performed and represented on and off the runway.

Swerv magazine featured Douglas Says and Tracey "Africa" Norman on the cover of the September–October 2017 issue. The feature article celebrated their decades long friendship and collaborations as designer and muse respectively. Visual records of his collaborations also appear on platforms like Google Arts & Culture's Ballroom in Focus, where he is featured alongside ballroom icons he styled like Octavia St. Laurent and Tracey Africa Norman, captured by the photographer Luna Luis Ortiz. Says also first introduced Gerard Gaskin a prominent photographer of ballroom culture to the ballroom scene in 1993. Gaskin's first series Douglas' Girls was the beginning of his 2013 book Legendary: Inside the House Ballroom Scene which won the Center for Documentary Studies /Honickman First Book Prize.

Douglas Says still residesin Newark, New Jersey, where he remains involved in local fashion and arts communities. His work across design, authorship, and styling has continued to inspire designers. His work has contributed to ongoing discussions about representation, body diversity, and fashion practices within Black and LGBTQ+ communities. The Newark Oral History Project and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) have conducted oral history interviews and initiated archival efforts to document and preserve Douglas Says’s body of work and design materials.