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In honor of the beginning of New York Fashion Week, more than 1,000 of the fashion industry’s most prominent figures, from models to designers to editors, gathered in the streets of Midtown Manhattan to march for a bigger, more democratic cause.
The “Fashion For Our Future” march took place on the morning of Friday, September 6, organized as a collaboration between the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), Vogue and “I am a voter.”, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting democratic participation. The goal of the march was to encourage eligible voters to vote in the Tuesday, November 5 presidential election and to be more politically active.
“We’ve been very grateful to work with CFDA over the years and with Vogue, and we’re just making sure that everyone here is registered for checking their voter registration,” said Maddy Roth, a founding member of “I am a voter.” at the march.
The march began around 9 a.m. at Herald Square, where attendees registered and picked up their custom “Fashion For Our Future” T-shirts designed by Gap Creative Director Zac Posen. Industry leaders such as Condé Nast Chief Content Officer Anna Wintour and CFDA Chairman Thom Browne led the marchers down Sixth Avenue toward Bryant Park as the crowd waved American flags and signs, and chanted along the way.
“As we stand united, 1,000 plus strong, we are reminded that fashion is not just about what we wear — it’s a powerful voice and platform for what we stand for,” Browne said as he addressed the crowd at Bryant Park. “We are here as the American fashion industry to demonstrate to the world that unity, learning from one another, and supporting democracy and peace, both in America and globally, are vital, and that means we all must vote.”
Danielle Kwateng, executive editor for Teen Vogue, was among the marchers. Kwateng explained that since Teen Vogue has a younger audience, she believes the magazine should use their platform to empower young people to use their voices and to make themselves heard, which includes voting in November.
“I would love to say that I think young people are gonna save the world, and I think they’re our only hope, and so they are the most important people to me to be engaged, and hopefully they actually show up [in November],” she said.
Kwateng said she believes that the fashion industry has a responsibility to be involved in political conversations because of the impact politics has on their work as well.
“I think fashion, more than ever now, is more at the intersection of so many things,” Kwateng said. “Just because you’re interested in fashion doesn’t mean you don’t care about politics, about the economy, about the global perspective, and so I think it’s important for us to come out and highlight the importance of voting, because it also affects fashion as well, right?”
The march ended in Bryant Park, where attendees heard from guest speakers such as Aurora James, Thom Browne and First Lady Jill Biden, who spoke about the importance of the fashion industry’s role in politics.
“The fashion industry always comes together when it matters most,” Biden said to the crowd. “When AIDS engulfed the industry, you raised awareness and money for research, and you did the same for breast cancer … And as Thom reminded us just now, fashion has always been our future. … You walk the walk, and you’ve always done it together, and that’s what we have to do again this fall. Vote.”
Volunteers with “I am a voter.” stood by to help anyone who wanted to check their voter registration status. Tom Bergam, a volunteer, said he believes that no industry or individual is exempt from the outcomes of the elections and policies that are passed because of them.
“… The decisions and policies that are made on federal and state levels greatly impact everything, from the wages that someone is making who’s working in the fashion industry to the types of resources that are available to the livability of the planet that we live on, and all of these things are interconnected,” Bergam said.
As New York Fashion Week continues to roll out in the coming days, Maddy Roth said there are more plans to promote democratic participation, which included the distribution of toolkits created by CFDA and Vogue to their memberships which could be activated during the week, as well as having voter registration volunteers at different stores and runway shows.
“It doesn’t just stop in November; people can make sure they’re registered and ready to vote in all their local elections every day,” Roth said.
Additionally, Kwateng said that the team at Teen Vogue has been continuing their political coverage to inform young voters about what’s going on in the political world and to help them make their own decisions.
“There’s no better way to express your sentiment about the state of the world and what you want as a young person than to vote, and so we’ll be doing more in the next couple months,” Kwateng said. “But we’re really excited about, like, pushing young people to just get out there and be civically engaged.”