This past week has been one of the fashion industry’s biggest of the year: New York Fashion Week. During this semi-annual week of fashion shows and events, the industry is always buzzing with news about the latest styles, models and celebrities.

But this year, a new kind of fashion show dominated the media. Instead of staging a typical show, designer Carrie Hammer took on fashion week with her campaign Role Models Not Runway Models. Hammer’s project showcased professional women’s fashion modeled by strong, influential women. These women are CEOs, actresses and activists at the top of their professions, widely diverse in race and body types.

The Role Models Not Runway Models campaign is an amazing thing to see in the fashion industry, especially in such an important event like New York Fashion Week. But while the campaign did a great job promoting diversity, it needs to push the boundaries even more in the future so it continues to make a difference.

The fashion industry has long been dominated by tall, white and thin models; even models on the 2015 spring/summer runways were 83 percent white according to a Fashion Spot report. There’s not much room for diversity in race and body type in the cookie-cutter perfect modeling world, but only 5 percent of American women naturally possess a “model body.” The National Eating Disorders Association also reported that the typical model weighs 23 percent less than the average woman, putting the models at a BMI considered to be underweight.

This unhealthy ideal has very negative consequences. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 47 percent of girls from 5th–12th grade want to lose weight because of models they see in magazines, among other similarly outrageous statistics.

Designer Carrie Hammer decided to change that with Role Models Not Runway Models. According to a Feb. 13 article by ThinkProgress, Hammer was tired of casting young, overly-skinny models and decided to start casting “role models” instead.

In her New York Fashion Week debut last year, Hammer cast quadruple-amputee Karen Crespo in her show. This year, she made history again with casting “American Horror Story” actress Jamie Brewer in her show, making her the first model with Down syndrome to walk in fashion week.

Hammer took a risk in starting this campaign, and she deserves all the attention she is getting from it. Many media outlets have picked up the story, and publicizing Role Models Not Runway Models has been a great way to spread body positivity, which the campaign promotes.

At its debut in last year’s New York Fashion Week, Role Models Not Runway Models included transgender women. But even though other shows in this year’s fashion week featured transgender models like Hari Nef and Geena Rocero, Hammer didn’t include any. But now is not the time for Hammer to stop casting transgender models. With rising controversy over LGBT rights dominating politics and media, we need activism now more than ever before. By promoting influential transgender women in such a high-profile way, Hammer’s campaign can help to end transphobia.

Role Models Not Runway Models has been effective in promoting body positivity in the fashion world, and including more transgender women will only further Hammer’s message. But unconventional models shouldn’t be limited to a special show. Hammer has started a movement, and now it’s up to the rest of the fashion industry to follow. Role Models Not Runway Models is just the first step toward reshaping fashion and modeling into more ethical industries as a whole.

Kathryn Krawczyk is a freshman magazine major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at kjkrawcz@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @KathrynKrawczyk.

Published on February 19, 2015 at 12:00 am