New Hulu special fuses fashion and science to commemorate World AIDS Day

Fashion designers are known to tell stories with the clothes they create.

For the Hulu special, “HIV Unwrapped,” design students from the Parsons School of Design partnered with the best HIV scientists in the world to change the narrative about the stigma of HIV through fashion.

“We are taking science, really complex science, and fashion, two worlds that you don’t normally think come together, and weirdly, they do,” said Karl Schmid, executive producer of “HIV Unwrapped” and co-founder of +Life Media to On The Red Carpet.

Schmid has brought “HIV Unwrapped” to Australia, England and Rwanda and he was excited to bring the conversation to New York City.

“Just show what collaboration can do. Just show a conversation between two people we might think are opposites that have nothing in common, but they come together and they talk and they create something phenomenal. And that’s a really important message, not just in the world of HIV and what I do in fighting stigma and everything, but I think right now more than ever to show that you can have worlds that are opposite apart, but if they come and have a chat they can create something beautiful. I think it’s a powerful message,” he said.

The special will take viewers behind the scenes of the fashion show to see how the garments were made, how the collaborations between designers and science experts worked and to hear about the importance of telling a story like this.

“Fashion is a portal to creating ideas and telling a unique story. You wear something because you want to feel a certain way, tell a story about yourself. I’m excited to see what the designers and the HIV researchers come up with together because science is beautiful and I’d love to see it expressed. And if fashion can be a portal to reminding people of the importance of ending HIV, then we’ll take it,” said Shreya Jani, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs at Gilead Sciences.

“I think that it’s important to share and highlight the stories of individuals that are living with HIV because we are not all the same. We don’t exist in a monolith and we all have different experiences and I just want to show the world that regardless of what happens to you, we are more than the worst thing that has happened to us and that we can do incredible and be beautiful regardless of our HIV status,” said Bianca Ordoñez, who took part in the event.

“HIV Unwrapped” streams November 30 on Hulu and airs December 1 on the ABC Owned Television Stations’ Localish Network.

The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Hulu and this ABC station.