These boots were made for walking on runways . . . and marching in unprecedented displays of activism [1]. On Monday, the organizers of the historic Women's March hit the runway [2] at NYFW for designer Mara Hoffman and delivered poignant messages of unity.
Linda Sarsour, Tamika D. Mallory, Bob Bland — with her young child in tow — and Carmen Perez opened the show by sharing the Women's March mission statement. The group also read quotes by activists and poets like Angela Davis, Audre Lorde [3], and Maya Angelou. Each closed her reading with the words "hear our voice."
The hosts took over organizing the March after Rebecca Shook, who created the original Facebook event [4], realized she was not prepared for the scale or how many people wanted to attend. And Shook was certainly right to ask seasoned activists for assistance: an estimated 3.3 million people joined Women's Marches [5] across the world in protest of Trump.
In Hoffman's words, inviting the organizers was a way to demonstrate that fashion and politics can converge "in the name of social justice and women's empowerment." Hoffman also added that the show was an "opportunity to amplify a greater message of unity, inclusion, diversity, and feminism in a fashion space."
Bob Bland
Carmen Perez
Tamika Mallory
Linda Sarsour
The organizers speaking together on the runway.
