Photo Courtesy of Event Photos NYC, Flickr Creative Commons
Among all the fashion weeks hosted around the world, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) is one that often defines the standard of beauty in the United States.
But the new pieces designed by iconic fashion houses were not the talk of the event: instead, the issues of race, body figure and sexual orientation dominated the sidelines of the runways. With the #BlackLivesMatter, #BeautyBeyondSize and LGBT rights movements going on all around the country, NYFW audiences focused more on the diversity of the models.
“Fashion week is missing a wide variety of people that have yet to be seen. I believe a number of other types of people should be incorporated in these runways because these runways are seen by millions of people worldwide,” said law and society student Samer Abulebda. “It becomes more diverse and incorporates more people – these absolute standards won’t hold. It’ll become a more diverse standard and a more open society.”
This past fall, many designers took charge and hired more diverse models for their spring 2016 launches. Last fall, less than a quarter of the models strutting the runway were non-white, according to a study conducted by The Fashion Spot UK.
Diversity being the talk of the town, there were still fashion statements being made on the runway by a few unexpected designers. A-list celebrities like Kanye West and Rihanna were the top two most talked about designers of NYFW, according to data provided by Twitter.
Alexander Wang, Hood By Air and Calvin Klein were some of the only designers who took risks with their fall 2016 collections.
Many of these collections had much in common: fur, whether real or faux, was everywhere. The Calvin Klein Collection and Alexander Wang both featured the material in their collection: the CK Collection with black and animal print, and Alexander Wang with exposed long legs and white pieces.
Anne Wintour, the biggest name in selecting fashion trends, was impressed by the diversity and risks taken by a few of these designers – but she was not so impressed by the scheduling of New York Fashion Week.
"I think we've all been a little let down by the collections, maybe because of all the talk of moving the show schedule and where fashion is going. The fashion schedule hasn't moved in a long time and the world has so we have to move with it," Wintour said in a video for Vogue.
Many of these pieces have become available to the public to shop immediately, something that has changed drastically throughout the years.
Beauty companies have also released their new collections for the fall and winter during this time, which makes it difficult to keep up with all the trends even though the season may not be in.
Runway models are usually in their "no makeup" makeup looks but that wasn’t the case this week. MAC Cosmetics, Bobbie Brown and NARS marked spring as a time for intense smoky eyes and bold dark lips instead of pastel colors.
New York Fashion Week has come a step closer to breaking those standards of beauty, but for now, spring has become the new fall.
dherrera@ramapo.edu
