In particular, culture and diversity were a point of debate and celebration uptown, where Harlem’s Fashion Row - an organization that highlights minority designers - marked Black History Month with a dinner and public conversation featuring Daniel “Dapper Dan” Day. The question seems to be this: Who gets to tell the fashion story? Which is essentially like asking: Who gets to write the cultural history?

The fall 2018 runway season opened here last Monday evening with a sampling of menswear shows, a multitude of cocktail gatherings and assorted panels mulling topics ranging from diversity in retail to diversity in social media. They will not be dehumanized on his watch. Not today.Ĭhavarria, who is Chicano, infuses his high-end collections with his cultural backstory and a soulful celebration of the humanity of minority men. To some degree, that steely outer shell - along with all the familiar racist tropes - has wrongly and dangerously led to a stubborn perception outside their community that they are to be feared.

And they move through the streets with a scowl and a grimace. In the world as sketched out by designer Willy Chavarria, they are black and brown men. These were the tough guys that one might pass on the street - the working-class guys who return home with their heavy chinos caked with dried mud and paint, the day laborers who do the back-breaking jobs that need to get done and that few others have a willingness to tackle, the paycheck-to-paycheck men. Tattoos marred cheeks and scribbles of ink framed dark eyes. These guys were pierced and tattooed, not artfully but rudely. Life is too short, yeah.New York - As the models ambled out one by one - muscular and tall, hunched over and scrawny, squat and bow-legged - the point was clear: This was not a runway show about idealized men. But after everything Carrie has done for me, I look at life differently. 'I'm proud of myself for doing it, for building up the courage. 'That's one think I can check off my bucket list: walking down the runway in New York Fashion Week,' she said, after hugging her mom and Hammer backstage. When she reached the end she posed and winked at the cameras, then turned to walk back. 'But once I started walking and everyone was cheering me on, smiling, I felt happy and comfortable, I felt like this is what I was supposed to do.'Ĭritics, photographers and onlookers clapped and cheered as she made her way down the runway. It was of course nerve-racking,' Crespo said. Stepping onto the stage, Crespo stumbled slightly, then steadied herself. 'OK, Karen, you're up,' said the stage manager. 'It was falling off completely, so they put it on with duct tape,' she said, laughing.įinally the music swelled, and one by one the models took the stage. She was almost ready, except for a last-minute fashion emergency: Her new prosthetic arm wouldn't stay on. Next, her mother helped her into the bright red, A-line dress that Hammer had designed for her. 'Can you make my lips fuller?' she asked. As she watched the transformation in the mirror, she smiled. 'I would love it if you could try to mask all the scars on my face,' she told the makeup artist. to get hair and makeup along with the other models. On the day of the fashion show, Crespo - accompanied by her mother and aunt - arrived backstage at 6 a.m. 'It was definitely good for my confidence.

'I was in shock, because I thought I wasn't going to have these new arms for the fashion show,' Crespo told ABC News. 'I told her, 'We have your dress fitting, but we have a more important fitting. Last week, just days before the fashion show, Hammer flew to California to surprise Crespo.

Criminal model runway walk