Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Even if you consider this New York Fashion Week the “most boring” in recent memory, it still went on, as scheduled, without a hitch. Sequined corsets, tufted cropped coats, billowing capes and beaded heels all paraded down runways for the eyes and iPhones of primped guests, despite the fact that, all around us, the state of American politics continues to feel as chaotic and rickety as ever under the Trump administration. Bodily autonomy remains under attack, gun violence is rampant (political violence, too), our health care system is riddled with mistrust and misinformation, ICE and border patrol are cracking down indiscriminately on tourists and citizens alike, and U.S. tax dollars are helping fund what the U.N. has declared as a genocide in Gaza.
That stark dichotomy between cruelty and glamour was not lost on many of the editors attending the shows this past week. The desire to support independent designers or fulfill certain work obligations was at odds with the gnawing feeling that perhaps participating in fashion right now, in this country, feels wrong. Taking part took a significant amount of cognitive dissonance for some, and for international editors, those who travel here for the season, that paradox felt even heavier.
We spoke with three international fashion editors, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of retribution from the U.S. government, about opting out (or thinking about it) of this year’s New York Fashion Week.
We were talking about it at dinner last night, and no one wanted to come to the States while this current administration is in power. Everyone loves New York and Los Angeles, but people aren’t feeling it at the moment. For some people, there’s definitely a nervousness about traveling to the U.S., and then for others, there is more of an ideological boycott.
I really considered not going to New York Fashion Week because I was worried and had a friend of a friend who was detained. I’ve heard of people having their phones searched at border patrol. Some people are deleting all their apps or using burner phones when they go across the border and putting their personal phones into their luggage. I’ve traveled to Russia and China for work, and this feels like that. There’s even a bit of nervousness in saying you’re a journalist at border patrol, and the magazine I work for is very outspoken about Palestine and about Trump.
At the end of the day, New York Fashion Week is a legitimate work thing and I did need to go. And I’m aware I’m being a bit paranoid; I know I’m white and British, and that’s going to lend me safety that a lot of other people wouldn’t have. As far as how this will affect American designers, I think travel [to New York Fashion Week] will go down. You can see, from a British point of view, how Brexit has affected our local fashion industry. A lot of business has moved to Paris for tax and trade reasons, and because of that, a lot of international press aren’t going to London Fashion Week anymore. I can see a similar kind of thing happening in New York.
And to bring up Palestine, the American flag is now so synonymous with the Israeli flag, in terms of what the American government has been complicit in, and having that shoved in your face? At this point, the American flag has become a triggering symbol. Even when Beyoncé came to town for Cowboy Carter, even though she was trying to subvert it and show her version of Americana, to the average consumer, they were not feeling awesome about seeing all this American paraphernalia everywhere.
I did not go to New York Fashion Week. This decision was directly related to the current political climate in the U.S. I can’t justify the business need of the trip enough to ignore my disagreement with the way things are being run in the U.S. To be transparent, if I was offered a big job in New York, I would most likely put my business first and take it, but since New York Fashion Week, for me, is mostly about content creation and connecting with other creatives, it doesn’t feel like enough to warrant supporting U.S. tourism. I have also posted content about Palestine and would have been worried about getting refused at the border after such a long and expensive flight. I have posted on my Instagram Stories at least five times, and I have an in-feed post about a for-Palestine vintage sale I led last year, so I’m sure that could have been a problem. It feels completely insane that silence on foreign conflict is now a condition to enter the U.S. Utterly fucking terrifying.
I spent about three days in New York for Fashion Week. I was lucky enough to get invited by a brand, and I guess that made everything a bit easier for me, since it took care of stuff like my ESTA application to waive my visa. At the moment, there’s lots of confusion about the climate in the U.S., and I’ve read and heard a lot of different stories about how severe the country can be with foreign travelers. Like, are they really asking for your social-media account? Of course, the idea of random checks in the middle of the street came to my mind. I’ve seen lots of TikToks about that kind of situation. But maybe New York is a different situation compared to other parts of the country. There’s a comment on TikTok that I think applies well to the situation: “I’m too European for this.” I mean, not that the situation in Europe is perfect, but the one in the United States seems to me to be increasingly veering toward dystopia. I don’t understand how we got to this point without anyone saying anything or intervening. I think the MAGA hats for sale in souvenir shops speak for themselves.
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