Sky Cubacub

Sky Cubacub (born 1991) is an American designer, activist, and founder of Rebirth Garments. They were born in Chicago, Illinois and identify as a non-binary Filipinx disabled queer. Cubacub graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Their fashion brand Rebirth Garments was launched in 2014. They also teamed up with the Chicago Public Library in October 2020 to create a fashion program called Radical Fit for the Chicago Public Library. Cubacub has held several performances, exhibitions, and lectures from Chicago, to New York City, and Ottawa. They've won several awards including the most recent Ford Foundation, United States Artist and Andrew W Mellon foundation Disability Futures Fellow in 2021.

Early life Sky Cubacub grew up in Chicago, Illinois in a Filipinx American family. From an early age, they dealt with anxiety, panic disorders, depression, and disabilities such as C-PTSD, PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome), environmental illnesses as well as an undiagnosed stomach disorder. Also, after previously making a garment for a cousin, another family member encouraged Cubacub to make a fashion brand for kids with disabilities. With this suggestion, Cubacub realized they wanted to make inclusive clothing not just for kids but for everyone with queer and disabled identities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cubacub incorporated facial masks to their collection. They have a variety of these workshops and lectures that are based on different topics, including no-sew fashion, performance, symbol-making, pattern-making, entrepreneurship, zines, and the Radical Visibility manifesto.

In the fall of 2020, the Chicago Public Library announced a program offered in partnership with Cubacub called Radical Fit, which ran through October 2020 to August 2021. The program offered online fashion tutorials events in-person and online where interested teens were introduced to a variety of fashion and craft projects, sometimes with the help of other amateur and expert designers.

Awards and recognitions In 2018, Sky Cubacub was named Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune.