From February 6 to February 11, 2025, New York Fashion Week made waves with dozens of new designers and models. Diversity was a prominent theme throughout the show, with older models, disabled models, models from racial minorities, and female creative designers being introduced.
At the show, there was a wide variety of representation, specifically with the women that were involved in the making of the show. Older models, such as Jane Seymour who walked in the show at 73 years old, were frequently showcased by designers.
“I think that in the beauty world [older beauty] is not shown over the beauty of younger ages. [I think] this is a good representation of beauty and women through all ages instead of idealizing the characteristics of women at a specific era of their life,” sophomore Anjali Mathew said.
42-year-old Batsheva Hay is one of the designers responsible for bringing this representation to NYFW. Leading up to the big week, Hay decided to strictly approach women on the streets who appeared to be over 40 years old. To their surprise, these women with no modeling experience whatsoever were asked if they were interested in walking the runway for one of the biggest fashion events in the industry. When asked why she made this decision, Hay explained that the fashion industry mainly consists of younger faces.
“I find that aging is a big preoccupation for me and my friends. It’s an area of discomfort in fashion,” Hays said in the New York Times.
Living in a society where anti-aging creams are considered standard and aging is a curse can be intimidating to many, especially to those who actively see their occupation brimming with new and much younger talents. But to Hay, someone who has experienced being overlooked by others, she sees this intimidation as a way to appreciate others.
“Here,” she said in the New York Times, “I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re trying to look younger.”
Along with older women getting a spotlight shone on them, other models are getting their opportunities in the industry. The Asian Fashion Collection (AFC) has an annual runway show where designers all around Asia collaborate to highlight Asian creators and their cultures. For example, the PCES collection was “inspired by the Asian cultural link between the number four and death, exploring various aspects of death,” said NYFW.com. To represent the Black, transgender, and disabled community, Aariana Rose Philip made her return to NYFW to close for the Collina Strada runway.
“In an increasingly hateful, ignorant, hypocritically aggressive time for trans & disabled people to be living through – I feel very blessed to be held by the Collina family, and all their friends,” Philip said.
Behind the scenes, there was more inclusivity when it came to the designers and directors behind the show. Calvin Klein had their first ever female creative director, Veronica Leoni, debut at the show, marking their first time being showcased at New York Fashion Week in six years. Minorities also had their chance to shine, such as disabled models being put into the show and the Asian Fashion Collection being a key component of the show.
“I think [the show] did a good job in showing different minority groups that weren’t necessarily represented in New York Fashion Week in previous years,” Mathew said.
As for the future of the show, many are optimistic that diversity will remain a prominent part of the shows in the form of both models and behind the scenes workers. This show was seen as a step forward for diversity in the fashion industry, leaving many viewers hoping that diversity will remain a permanent feature of the shows.
“I think that New York Fashion Week showed a lot of diversity and progress because when I think about models and fashion shows, there’s a lot of unrealistic beauty standards. I feel like this year in the media, there were a lot more realistic beauty standards that were shown, and I think that they’ll continue to progress in future shows because this is a big step forward for the fashion world,” Mathew said.
