Heavy Cloud Hangs Over Fashion Week

(My first story for NYU was on Fashion Week and I wrote a few different versions of it before I turned it in. This version I did not turn in, but I think it is still a fun read.)

“Love your body, love your curves!”

This chant was probably something most people did not expect to hear when going to Fashion Week in New York’s Bryant Park on Sunday afternoon.

Outside the heavily guarded white tents, that contained some of the skinniest models on earth, a voice of discontent was rising.

Tiffany Bank, and her peers in Ms. NYC Plus, were protesting the fashion industry’s use of women’s bodies that are unrealistic for the majority of women.

Bank, with her pink “Curves on the Catwalk” t-shirt said, “We are trained models. We can walk the catwalk just like they can.”

The members of Ms. NYC Plus had applied to be models at the event, but were denied, even though most had experience modeling for designers such as Lane Bryant. They felt the fashion industry as a whole was not being fair to plus-size models and wanted to see plus-size designers, like Monif C., at the event.

“The industry’s idea of what plus-size is is warped. A size 8 is not a plus-size,” said Bank.

Bank, who is from Brooklyn, was documenting the protest by handheld video for “The Tyra Banks Show.” She will be filming an episode of the show on Wednesday (airdate TBD) in which she will show the audience Fashion Week from her perspective.

The members of Ms. NYC Plus were ecstatic about the positive feedback they were getting from the crowd and felt “very blessed” to be there.

One fashion week attendee from Washington, D.C. said he was impressed by the diversity of the models inside the event, but when asked if there were any plus-sized models, he said, “No. Come on, this is fashion.”

Fashion Week, which started in 1943, has been held in Bryant Park for the past 14 years.

The women of Ms. NYC Plus are holding an event called “The Art of Curves: The Movement” on September 19^th at Studio 450 located at 450 W.31^st.

The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week will continue in Bryant Park until Friday.