BET See How Black Girls Single-Handedly Rescued New York Fashion Week

Let’s be completely honest, women of color have been shunned from the world of fashion for as long as we can remember. Whether it was the lack of clothing that fit around our signature brickhouse bodies or the disturbing lack of representation on the runway and in advertisements, it was openly clear that women of color were only invited to be window watchers to the invite-only. The doors of fashion shows, systematically shut against us… until now.

For years, Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan has been winning prestigious awards including the Pulitzer Prize for her timeless pieces about the lack of diversity in the fashion industry, and it looks as though her work (and those before her) is beginning to pay off as New York Fashion Week was forced to rethink and rebuild its structure.

Before the front rows were filled with Kardashians, bloggers and subsequent glitterati, New York Fashion Week was a place for fashion designers, stylists, buyers and press to determine what would be important in fashion for the upcoming season.

If you follow fashion, you know that NYFW was said to be slowly declining in its popularity by fashion professionals due to the many “peacocks”, also known as bloggers and style influencers that were flocking to the shows, more specifically, to the cameras in masses as they flaunted their latest fashions and posed for the photographers.

Suddenly these influencers, often men and women of color, never had a voice until they painstakingly carved out a space for themselves and interestingly the backlash seemed like the industry was trying to keep them shut out as NYFW aimed to be more exclusive than ever.

And it worked. The tickets are hard to come by. Security is tight. You might get your photo snapped, but you’re definitely not getting in. And it’s complicated because it’s a toxic relationship. To stay relevant, both parties need each other but that doesn’t stop …