The current climate has been marked by brave women and men and their revelations about an unacceptable culture in politics, sports, and entertainment, as well as in fashion. To this effect, CFDA has brought out a Health Initiative to the Initiative for Health, Safety, and Diversity, for upcoming fashion month.
Broad inning its initiative, CFDA’s chairwoman Diane Von outlined the following, when you cast your New York Fashion Week shows, and always.
HEALTH
Designers have a responsibility to protect the wellbeing of women and especially young girls in our business, and to send the message that health is always in style.
Members of the fashion industry–modelling agents, designers, magazine editors, stylists, and models themselves–are on the front line about early recognition of eating disorders in our community. Identifying and treating eating disorders early can lead to improved outcomes. Yet early detection of eating disorders can be challenged by the fact that eating disorder symptoms often involve private behaviours or secret thoughts and beliefs that are not apparent from the outside.
SAFETY
We have zero tolerance for unsafe environments and strongly encourage everyone in our industry to report abuse in the workplace.
We ask designers, show producers, and photographers to consider using venues that allow for special areas on shoots and backstage at runway shows where models can change in privacy.
Sexual assault is a crime. Sexual assault is any involuntary sexual act in which a person is threatened, coerced, or forced to engage against their will. If you feel that you were a victim of sexual assault, we urge you to file police report
DIVERSITY
America is a beautifully diverse country, and our industry should champion this on runways, within companies, and in every aspect of fashion.
Encourage the industry to be inclusive of racial diversity when preparing casting of models for their company needs.Be open-minded to models of color. Try to add diversity to your line-up. It affects how we see things globally and how we are as an industry.
Our objective is to make a shift on how the model of color is viewed so it becomes natural to see them participating each season in a greater number than seasons past.
