The CURVY Side of New York Fashion Week

Part 1 of a 3 Part Series

Ah, the iconic New York Fashion Week. Red carpets, glittering celebrities…and discussions of inclusivity. Who does fashion represent? Who does it leave out? How do we increase visibility?

This year, we found more answers than questions. Thankfully, the fashion world has finally admitted into court the evidence that women‘s bodies vary. Some even occupy a fair amount of space! Larger bodies are gaining representation in all forms of media, even during the notoriously size-restrictive New York Fashion Week. Though the official NYFW still has very few plus-size or size-inclusive events, full-figured fashionistas are grabbing the bull by the horns and creating their own shows. They walk proudly before, during, and after hours, and often outshine the top “straight-size only” gatherings.

As a fashion equality advocate, I was psyched to be invited to many of these game-changing events. I’m excited to share my experience so that more attention is given to some fantastic brands, but also so that we can all join in the applause when fall New York Fashion Week rolls around in September!

My first stop was the BrassyBra Happy Hour Pop-Up Shop at Plus Bklyn (https://plusbklyn.com/), the plus-size thrift store in Brooklyn, owned by Alexis Hope Krase. Their tagline says it all: “Plus-size clothes that don’t suck!” Knowing how crucial the proper undergarments are to plus-size women, Alexis invited Kat Borve, owner of BrassyBra, to help celebrate the plus side of NYFW with “The 1st Luxe Adhesive Tape Bra Offering a Second Skin Feel!” Yes, you read that correctly! BrassyBras (https://brassybra.com/) consist of luxurious, water-resistant, hypoallergenic tape that holds up even my DDD cups, allowing busty women everywhere to wear styles normally forbidden to us because they can’t be worn with a traditional bra. Who would have thunk?

After that “uplifting” start, I headed out the next night, and even the hurricane force wind that was not nice to my hair couldn’t dampen my excitement at being one of the lucky few to gain access to the rapidly sold-out Oxford Fashion Studio (https://oxfordfashionstudio.com/) show at the Pier59 Studios (https://www.pier59studios.com/) in Chelsea, where plus size brand Rene’ Tyler (https://www.renetyler.com/), by designer Angela Rene’, the FIRST plus-size boutique on the Las Vegas Strip, truly stole the show, especially with plus models like Liris Crosse (https://www.instagram.com/lirisc/) slaying the runway!

Thankfully, the wind died down the next day in time for Chubiiline’s (https://www.chubiiline.com/) NYFW fashion show and award ceremony, celebrating not only the youth entrepreneurs of New York, but teenage designer, Egypt Ify Ufele, who launched her brand at age nine. She has since built it up into a massive movement to end the epidemic of bullying experienced by all ages, races, and sizes. She is even a Junior Ambassador for the United Nations and a Junior Ambassador of Peace at Guns Down Life Up (http://www.gunsdownlifeup.org/). Anyone else feel like an underachiever?

Photos with the “crews” at Brassy Bra and Chubiline

But, wait. There’s more! Check out The CURVY Side of New York Fashion Week, Part 2. (Include the link here)

About the Author:

Emma Medeiros is the president and founder of Medeiros Fashion PR (https://www.medeirosfashionpr.com/), the FIRST public relations firm in the US to specialize in the plus size fashion industry. Based in NYC, Emma received her degree in Integrated Marketing Communications from Boston’s Emerson College and started Medeiros Fashion Public Relations in 2015 after realizing that, out of the thousands of fashion public relations firms in the US, not ONE of them specialized in this exploding industry. With a mixture of class and sass, the goal of Medeiros Fashion Public Relations is to place plus size fashion on an equal footing with straight size fashion. Emma declares, “There’s absolutely NO reason for them to be separate and, once I accomplish that, I can die a happy woman!”