Ahead of a new marathon of fashion shows, the sector met at the foot of the glittering windows of Macy's department store in the heart of Manhattan in an unprecedented demonstration to highlight the importance of a “crucial” vote on November 5.
T-shirts from designer Zac Posen (Old Navy, Gap) with the slogans “VOTE” and “fashion for our future” on the back, the high priestess of American fashion and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, as well as several famous designers such as Thom Browne, Michael Kors and Tory Burch walked a section of Broadway Avenue ahead of around a thousand people, models, influencers, retailers and fashion designers.
The event, organized by the American Fashion Union (CFDA), officially wanted to be “non-partisan”. But the appearance of a surprise star, First Lady Jill Biden, confirmed that the supposedly progressive sector wanted to send a clearer message and influence the campaign, while Anna Wintour has already attended fundraisers for the camp democrat.
Protecting “liberties”
Often present at parades, like the day before at Ralph Lauren's off-calendar one, the wife of incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden launched a call to protect “freedoms” such as “to be who you are” and “to love who do you love.” Freedoms according to her “threatened by court rulings, book bans, apathetic shrugs when people forget the power of the vote.”
She also lamented the umpteenth shooting that left four dead at a Georgia high school on Wednesday, once again calling for an “assault rifle ban” that Joe Biden failed to deliver. pass through a divided Congress.
Ahead of her, designer Aurora James, known for designing the cut-out dress emblazoned with the words “TAX THE RICH” worn by left-wing muse Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during a gala at New York's Metropolitan Museum in 2021, launched a vibrant plea for an America open, “in which each of us contributes to our collective success”.
“But this fall, that success is at stake, it's already been threatened in the past, and we absolutely cannot go back,” she added, in a thinly veiled allusion to Donald Trump's first term (2017-2021).
One hundred marks
While playing on the values of openness, major brands typically seek to stay out of political disputes in the United States for fear of being targeted by one camp or another.
New York Fashion Week in February 2017, in the wake of Donald Trump's election, however, took a much more offensive tone towards the Republican billionaire, with shows denouncing his immigration policy and defending women's right to control their own bodies.
“Here we are in the bubble of the bubble,” “we're in New York,” a Democratic bastion, “and we're fashionable,” jokes Ulrich Grimm, an accessories designer and professor at the renowned Parson School of Design, among the demonstrators.