First Lady Jill Biden was the surprise keynote speaker Friday morning at the “Fashion for Our Future” march that encouraged voter registration during this election year.
A crowd estimated by the organizers at more than 1,000 industry professionals came out for the 9 a.m. march, including Prabal Gurung, Michael Kors, Cynthia Rowley, Rebecca Moses, Thom Browne, Zac Posen, Tory Burch, Wes Gordon, Stan Herman, Jack McCollough, Lazaro Hernandez and Karlie Kloss, who walked from Herald Square to Bryant Park.
Organized by the CFDA and Vogue, the march was an opportunity for the industry to champion democracy. Wearing white T-shirts created by Old Navy that said “Fashion for Our Future,” on the front and “Vote” on the back, participants, including children in strollers, carried banners and foghorns, encouraging people to get out and vote.
After each member of the crowd was individually checked by security upon entering Bryant Park, Biden, along with Thom Browne, chairman of the CFDA, and fashion designer and activist Aurora James, spoke.
Biden said that, as a young woman, she almost didn’t vote for her future husband, Joe Biden, when he first ran for the Senate. “It was the ’70s, and I was a student at the University of Delaware. And there was a genuine buzz on campus for this young candidate. His name was Joe Biden. Everyone was voting for him,” she said.
“But I wasn’t so sure. You see, my parents were Republicans. Politics wasn’t any part of my life. But we were told that every vote mattered. We believed in making a difference, and so Joe won that election by only about 3,000 votes, and it could have easily gone the other way,” said Biden, who was dressed in the official march T-shirt under a black Zadig & Voltaire blazer that spelled out “Love” on the back in metal studs, skinny leather pants and grey sneakers.
Years later, on a Saturday afternoon, she was asked out on a date out of the blue. “This is a pretty young crowd. I remember that I wore my hair down to the middle of my waist, as did most of the men I dated. But that evening, a handsome senator showed up at my door, but I took one look at his perfect suit and his leather loafers, and I thought, ‘Thank God, it’s only one date.’ But then we went to dinner and you know, I said to myself, ‘Thank God I voted for him.’”
She told the crowd, “So now your day may not start or stop with politics, but elections are about so much more. They’re about the freedom for our children to learn without fear, without hate, without gun violence.”
Pointing to this week’s tragic school shooting, Biden said, “We all stand with Georgia in sorrow and prayer but we also have to act. We cannot accept these school shootings as a fact of life [a reference to a comment made by Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance]. We must ban assault rifles, and I know that you care about the freedom to make your own choices. Be who you are, love who you love, the freedom, your freedom of creative expression. These freedoms are at risk because of court decisions, book bans, shrugs of apathy when people forget the power of the vote,” Biden said.
Further, she noted, “Let’s remember this next president, your next president, will likely appoint new Supreme Court justices, your next senators will confirm them, and our children and grandchildren will have to live with those consequences. But first, you get to decide. Elections matter.”
She encouraged the audience to “vote, vote early, then help others do the same.
Browne noted that this year marks the fourth anniversary of CFDA’s collaboration with “I am a voter.” He said the first lady recognized the importance of having everyone engaged in the whole process.
James said she came to this country almost 20 years ago “because I was chasing a dream too. Each of us here today represents a weave in the fabric that makes this country so special, that makes this country so beautiful, so strange, so magical and so fruitful.” She said that every person, whether they’re a garment worker, a bus driver, a lawyer or a shoe designer, contributes “to our collective success.”
“But this fall, that success is on the ballot. We’ve seen it threatened before, and we absolutely cannot go back. For all of us to prosper, we need to act on the passion and the love for this country. We have to show up and vote because there’s one thing that I also know: Elections are not just about marches. They’re about opportunities to exercise democracy to actually help shape and empower the people, the ideas and the policies that empower all people, not just some people,” James said.
She encouraged people to identify five people in their phone contacts and text them and ask their plan to vote. And then text another five friends.
Along the march, industry executives were chatting and catching up with one another on the first day of New York Fashion Week.
“I’m so proud to be out here and encourage everyone to get out to vote, especially with reproductive rights [on the ballot] in my home state in Missouri. We have to do what we can. This is the least we can do,” Kloss said.
“I think this is a really important message to get out,” said Ken Downing, creative director of Halston. He said he has voted since he got the first opportunity and voted in the election of Ronald Reagan versus Jimmy Carter. “Not necessarily, I voted the right way,” he said. “I’ve voted in every state that I’ve ever lived in.”
Fern Mallis said, “I’m rooting for fashion in our future. I think everything is in jeopardy right now.” She said she was happy to see the industry get together on this. “Maybe this is something we can all agree on — to get out and vote and make a woman president,” she said.
Buxton Midyette, vice president of marketing and promotions for Supima, said, “This is such an important moment. I love that it’s part of the conversation. Fashion is such an important industry in our country and we need to have a voice.”
Julie Gilhart said she plans to get young people on the phone and encourage them to vote.
Ulrich Grimm, former Calvin Klein executive vice president, global design, shoes, bags, accessories and home, who’s a consultant and teacher at Parsons School of Design, said, “I’ve never seen so many fashion people in front of Macy’s at a quarter to eight. It is kind of amazing when the community comes together, it is very strong.”
Tracy Reese flew in from Detroit for the event. Asked what brought her out, she said, “Hope, urgency, advocacy, community and the future. It’s all about policy and community.” She said the CFDA used to do so many community events for other causes such as breast cancer and AIDS. “We miss those moments. This is one of those moments,” Reese said. She said she is helping people in Detroit get registered and then to make sure they get to the polls. “Michigan is a pivotal state and we want to make sure people use their voices,” she said.
Lafayette 148 chief executive officer Deirdre Quinn brought 14 people from her company, as well as Sophie Elgort and Camila Perez. “It’s so exciting. I think there are really important issues. I’m sure it’s the most important election of our time,” she said.
Gary Wassner, chief executive officer of Hilldun Corp., said he came “to support voting.”
“We can’t be political [at this event], but we need to get out the vote. We need to have a voice. We’re a huge industry that has very little common voice,” Wassner said.
Rebecca Moses said she’s obsessed by voting. She started a “Go Go Vote Girls” on Instagram after the Democratic National Convention, where every day she’ll ask women to write a brief letter about why they’re voting for Kamala Harris. “I do a portrait of them to document a monumental election,” she said. “We’re trying to get people registered and understand the difference between lies and truths. There’s so much riding on this election.”