As New York Fashion Week comes and goes, it never fails to bring out our best and most creative fits, no matter where you are. Fashion Week has shined a serious spotlight on street style and the impact that it’s had on the industry is incredible.
For fashionistas, indulging in some serious Instagram #NYFW inspo is nearly inevitable but year after year, we find ourselves seeing the same models, influencers and bloggers being photographed — this was a narrative that Kellie Brown wanted to shift.
Kellie Brown is the brains, beauty and fashion behind @itsmekellieb and she’s also the brains behind And I Get Dressed. Most recently, she started the hashtag: #FatatFashionWeek. According to Glamour, Brown came up with the hashtag while she attended a New York Fashion Week event that was hosted by 11 Honoré — a plus-sized luxury retailer — and found herself surrounded by stunning and stylish bigger women.
"(I was at) an event filled with boss bigger women: Influencers, supermodels, fashion directors of major publications, and while writing my caption, I thought, 'How can (the industry) pretend no stylish fat women exist?'" Brown shared with Glamour.
While recognizing the issue and coming up with her hashtag took just a few seconds, it’s made changes in what’s visible during New York’s greatest week in fashion and she has a goal to continue growing the hashtag.
"I created the tag as a way to kind of show receipts that there are many bigger women working in the industry, influencing the industry and consumers alike, and looking great while doing it," Brown stated.
Brown’s hashtag has the ability to change the way the fashion industry is represented by showing many different shapes and sizes than what we’re currently used to seeing on the runways.
On a deeper scale, she’s also fighting the stigma that comes with being a bigger person in the world. As this year’s fashion week soon comes to a close, we hope to see it make a huge impact on next year’s New York Fashion Week… And, with any hope, in the rest of the world.
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