Diversity is very in this year. Let's hope it's not a passing trend.
New York Fashion Week is welcoming participants and models of many backgrounds this season. The runways are seeing more ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, sizes and abilities than ever before.
"You have to focus on the opinions of yourself rather than on the opinions of others on yourself. It helps you lead a very happy life," model Winnie Harlow tells Mashable after she walked the Desigual show last Thursday. Harlow has a skin pigmentation disease called vitiligo, which causes patches of different coloring.
For all its innovation, the fashion industry hasn't traditionally been welcoming to "different" models like Harlow. Fashion models are still overwhelmingly white and extremely thin; major fashion designers tend to be men; and the clothes themselves favor body types the media deems "ideal."
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To be fair, Fashion Week had a heads up that housecleaning was on the agenda. The past year has proved the world craves different backgrounds, especially in media and advertising -- which, let's face it, are what keep fashion afloat. Tess Holliday is the first and largest plus-sized model to score a major contract, and social media demanded to know whether fashion magazine InStyle lightened Kerry Washington's skin for its cover.
The tide certainly seems to be changing. Despite the dour weather, NYFW is bubbling with an undercurrent of joy. We have diversity to thank for it.
1. Jamie Brewer for Carrie Hammer
2. Kanye West, Yeezy for adidas Originals
3. Winnie Harlow for Desigual
4. Androgyny at Adam Selman
A photo posted by Stellar Roar Creative (@stellarroar) on Feb 13, 2015 at 3:26pm PST
5. Laverne Cox at Go Red for Women
6. Models of all sizes for Chromat
7. Disabled models for FTL Moda
