Why Fashion Blogger Hannah Stoudemire Is Protesting New York Fashion Week

A group of protesters gave attendees at New York Fashion Week: Men’s something to think about, without saying a word.

More than a dozen protesters planted their feet and raised their hands outside the main venue on day two of the event to call out the fashion industry’s silence on Black Lives Matter, The Cut reports.

They stood silently, wearing T-shirts and holding signs reading “Black Lives Matter” and “Stop Killing Us” as people entered the building, according to the Cut.

The protest was staged by stylist and blogger, Hannah Stoudemire.

Ahead of the protest, she announced on Instagram that she would not be attending the event because, unlike other tragedies like the Paris attacks and the Orlando shootings, major fixtures in the fashion world did not acknowledge the recent police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. 

Another member of the fashion world, designer Jamila Mariama made a similar criticism in the wake of the deaths, and it was later shared by models Torraine Futurum and Hari Nef, Complex reported last week.

Stoudemire told ELLE that she’d been organizing the protest for a year and planned to do it in September during the more popular women’s fashion week, but she decided on the switch after Sterling was shot.

Following the protest, fashion week organizers, Council of Fashion Designers of America, did post a photo of the protest on their Instagram account, along with the caption: “An important reminder no matter how busy the week. #blacklivesmatter.”