Fashion has a reputation for making news, rather than responding to it, but Kerby Jean-Raymond bucked that trend Thursday night when he showed his collection for the Pyer Moss label at New York Fashion Week.
The 28-year-old designer drew attention to an ongoing upswing of police brutality across America, disproportionately impacting the black community, at his runway show.
According to a report from the Associated Press, Jean-Raymond opened the event at the Altman Building in Chelsea with now familiar, but nonetheless disturbing video clips of police attacking civilians, including that of an NYPD officer choking Eric Garner to death. (The footage elicited murmurs and gasps from the audience.) Among those sitting in the front row, seats typically reserved for fashion editors and celebrities, were some relatives of victims of police violence.
"I was gonna kind of like hold up a mirror to the room," Jean-Raymond said of his presentation. "I'm black. I'm a designer. I'm living in a time when this is happening."
The New York City native told the Huffington Post he had been subject to the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk practices 12 times between the ages of 12 and 18.
During the show, collaborating artist Gregory Siff darted between models and tagged their sleek, sporty clothes with text like "Breathe breathe breathe," likely a reference to Garner's repeated plea to the cops for clemency.
"If one person walks out of here today and ... decides that I'm going to give a black kid a job now because the narrative I've been seeing on TV of him being a thug may or may not be true, I did my job," Jean-Raymond said.
