It’s the first day of New York Fashion Week, and just 50 days until the November 3 presidential election. At a time when most designers would be stressing out over seating charts, sponsorships, and VIP attendees, many are taking a step back and recalibrating their usual strategies. Runway shows are still happening in small numbers, but this is a moment for many brands to hit pause and focus their energies on the important issues at hand.
Designer Rachel Comey, for one, has opted out of the fashion week schedule. In lieu of a show, presentation, or event, Comey is spending this week and the weeks that follow encouraging others to vote. The designer has partnered with Vote Forward and Swing Left for a non-partisan get-out-the-vote project called The Big Send at Work. Beginning today and lasting through the month of October, the initiative encourages volunteers to handwrite letters to potential voters either in-person at Comey’s Soho store on Crosby Street (with social distancing and masks) or at home via online registration. Volunteers will be given a letter writing template along with envelopes and stamps.
“Because NYFW is so ingrained in our fall landscape, it seems like an important opportunity to shift attention to what matters most right now,” Comey says. “Participating in the act of letter writing to encourage a stranger to vote, sending them a personal message on why it’s meaningful just feels really good to me and it’s something that we can do with our team, friends, customers, and families.”
Community and human connection are concepts that Comey has always emphasized through her work, but she notes that this year has changed everything. “It’s really important that we stay connected and work together. Our industry and our city have been hit really hard, but I’m already seeing the creativity and resourcefulness that defines New York coming back,” she says. “I think stripping things back down to basics can be really inspiring.” Comey also believes strongly that this is a moment for the fashion industry to be a “powerful lobby for change.” Fashion month may look and feel different for those who are lucky enough to participate in it, but this year it’s much more important to use the platform to promote real, systemic change for a better future. In Comey’s view, that change can be as simple as writing a letter or as big as getting people to the polls to cast their vote come November.