Another September has come and gone, and with it a month crammed with fashion shows.
New York Fashion Week, which ran from Sept. 7 to Sept 13, is a great time for fashion lovers. All of the country’s best clothing designers and the stylish people who follow them come together for showings of the latest fashion trends. This year there was a lot of colorblocking, lots of suits and a lot of the monochromatic looks that typify New York City fashion.
The clothing was also quite loose and unrestricting, with a lot of variety in each show as far as the individual pieces went. A personal favorite was Oscar de la Renta, who debuted a stunning collection that played with color and form in a way that many other designers didn’t. While regular- size fashion had a lot of clothes to gush over, plus-size fashion is is burgeoning as well.
Torrid had its first fashion show, where it debuted fashionable clothing options for women over size 12. Another notable show was Fenty x Puma from designer Rihanna, who clearly never sleeps. Each of these collections brought something different to the table, and used clothes not only as fashion pieces, but as statements in themselves.
One thing still sorely lacking in these shows is diversity. There are still far more white faces walking down the runway, and skinny bodies. The fashion world claims it is working on becoming more representative of the real world, as seen in such shows like Chromat’s, or Christian Siriano’s, but it isn’t enough. Any woman should be able to see a runway piece and not only see the clothes, but herself, in them. Runways are more than fashion statements: they are a statement of what designers consider to be the norm. And so far, even in New York City, the designers consider the norm to be skinny and white.
Rather than include multicultural models, designers choose to include various celebrities instead, like Teyana Taylor, or the daughters of legendary models, such as Cindy Crawford’s daughter Kaia Gerber. The ubiquitousness of white models is a problem, and more must be demanded from the fashion elite. By demanding more from designers, we can see an even more diverse body of work from them, and possibly better pieces.
While diversity may be lacking on the runway, it’s there in abundance on the front row. Whether it was Nicki Minaj, donned in white, grey and black, or Leslie Jones in a stunning pink cape, everyone came in their very best to show their appreciation of the designer’s work. Some of my personal favorites were Selena Gomez at Coach, Jamie Chung at Baja East, and Solange at Maryam Nassir Zadeh, each pictured. All of the celebrities They play tend to play with color while incorporating their own style, accentuating the runway show but not taking away from it.
New York Fashion Week remains a popular fixture in today’s pop culture, and that it isn’t going to end any me soon. Hopefully ,next year’s shows will bring more racial diversity, more body types, and even more innovative fashion pieces!
