Fashion Week Features Mix of Shades and Sizes

By DANIELA HERRERA

Among all the fashion weeks hosted around the world, New York Fashion Week is one that often defines the standard of beauty in the United States. Thicker bodies and darker shades of skin were graced with pieces of the most iconic designers on the runways of New York Fashion Week.

But the pieces these models were wearing was not the talk of this week, instead race, body figure, and sexual orientation were dominating the sidelines of these 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 and if 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.” said Samer Abulebda, a student of Law and Society.

This past fall many designers took charge and hired more diverse models for their Spring 2016 launches. Ranking at 24.4 percent, less than a quarter of the models strutting the runway last fall 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 such as 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 one 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, it was everywhere.  Calvin Klein Collection and Alexander Wang both featured them in their collection. CK Collection with all the 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. M.A.C. Cosmetics, Bobbie Brown and NARS marked spring as a time for intense smokey eyes and bold dark lips instead of the atypical pastel colors was definitely a trend.

New York Fashion Week has come a step closer to breaking those standards of beauty but for now, Spring has become the new Fall.