Why Sustainable Fashion Needs a Presence at New York Fashion Week: Insights from Jazmine Rogers
In preparation for New York Fashion Week, the sustainable baddies are deep in thought about the role of sustainability in this massive fashion event. Below, we’re sharing some perspective from Sustainable Baddie Founder and susty fashionista, Jazmine Rogers, on why sustainability should have a Presence at New York Fashion Week.
Jazmine defines New York Fashion Week (NYFW) as “a celebration of people's creativity.” Fashion embodies our cultural moment and how our trends ebb and flow with the passing of time. The week's events showcase how
“trends and designs not only impact our cultural setting but are also a reflection of [that] setting… it becomes a creative celebration.”
Jazmine’s first Fashion Week show as an attendee was Collina Strada’s S/S 2022 show last February, which defined her NYFW experience. If she could be embodied by just one designer, it would be Collina Strada.
“She’s just so playful and colorful… and their perspective on sustainability is really inspiring… and similar to my own values.” It helped illustrate where she sees sustainability going as “not just a separate niche entity but being really engrained,” within the fashion community.
Seeing fashion industry titans like Anna Wintour at Collina Strada’s show cemented sustainability’s undeniable presence in design innovation. Following the show, Jazmine left with a reinforced commitment to reinforce sustainability as the norm in fashion, rather than being a flavor of the Week.
GANNI SS24
Jazmine believes that the sustainability movement can help create the baseline for what fashion is. Fashion Week can be sustainable. She explained that these big cultural events have major ripple effects (think The Devil Wears Prada); if sustainability was central to New York Fashion Week, it would ultimately radiate out beyond the niche of the fashion world. “Fashion is political,” she says, “[it] still takes community and people coming together…in order to move forward.”
Jazmine is especially inspired by Copenhagen Fashion Week as a leader in sustainable fashion.
“They are already implementing certain [ethical and sustainable] requirements for designers to meet in order to participate,”
she shares. Copenhagen sets an example of the “long-term effects and the larger scale change that we want to see.” These transformations motivate her to help effect similar changes at NYFW.
The juxtaposition of being in the same room as both sustainable designers and major fast fashion leaders at the Global Fashion Summit was simultaneously jarring and catalyzing.
“We have to be in the spaces with people who have different values than us in order to have honest conversations with them and be able to change their trajectory,” she says.
By othering ourselves from mainstream fashion spaces, we unintentionally further ourselves from making tangible change. Being a representative for sustainable fashion at Fashion Week allows Jazmine to put sustainability on the radar of up-and-coming designers as well.
With intention, Fashion Week can evolve into a more sustainable event. According to Jazmine, the current iteration of Fashion Week is an evolution of a fashion industry that was once slower and more intentional.
“We are just re-evolving it into something new, where again, the core of it is creativity.”
The creatives who drive fashion forward are, by nature, always willing and ready to adapt.
In Jazmine’s dream world, New York Fashion Week would reflect similar standards as Copenhagen, where designers are pre-required to commit to sustainability and ethical production to be included. The event would be democratized through a hybrid (online and IRL) format, making it as inclusive as possible. She would love to see larger designers showcasing smaller designers, the way musicians have openers at concerts.
Luckily for all of us, sustainability is already making waves at this year's New York Fashion Week. Jazmine is looking forward to the many sustainable designers and shows on display in the coming week. To stay in the loop, read Sustainable Baddie’s full 11 Sustainable Brands To Look Out For at NYFW 2023 .