With less than two months to go until the 2024 presidential election, key members from the American fashion industry weren’t content to simply sit around and wait to see who turned up to the polls in November. Instead, on an overcast Friday morning, designers including Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Thom Browne, Prabal Gurung, Aurora James, Wes Gordon, and Joseph Altuzarra joined forces with models, influencers, students, and garment and retail workers for a rousing march under the banner Fashion For Our Future. Organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) with support from Vogue, the event—which streamed from Herald Square to Bryant Park, and came complete with graphic signs, bullhorns, and waving American flags—was designed to encourage voter registration on both sides of the aisle.
The look for the march was on-message: participants wore custom “Fashion For Our Future” tees and dresses by Zac Posen and his design team at Old Navy, with the nonprofit and nonpartisan group I Am a Voter on hand to get attendees registered to vote. (You can also do that here, by the way.) As members of the fashion community paraded uptown, the chant and message was simple: “V-O-T-E. Vote.”
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At the end of the route, the group of some 1,000 was forced to slow down. A phalanx of metal detectors blocked the entrance to Bryant Park, with black vehicles and Secret Service officers lining the streets. Inside the park was a surprise speaker: one Dr. Jill Biden, who, like many in the crowd, had been in Bridgehampton the evening before (along with her granddaughter Finnegan) to ring in the start of New York Fashion Week with Ralph Lauren.
Before Dr. Biden took the stage, however, marchers were greeted by Browne—the chairman of the CFDA—and James. Both spoke of the energy and power of the fashion industry, and the importance of civic engagement at pivotal moments in our electoral politics.
When Dr. Biden took the stage, she delivered a more intimate reflection on the intersection of public and personal life. She described the first time she first encountered her husband—from a distance, when he was a young and up-and-coming politician making waves in Delaware politics. Fast forward a few years, and she found herself on a date with the young Joe Biden, and grateful that she had overcome her concerns (her parents were Republicans) and had voted for him.
