This Was the Most Diverse NYFW in Recent History

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Getting the fashion industry to embrace diversity has been a long time coming, and while there's still plenty of room for improvement, at least the numbers are trending in the right direction. The Fashion Spot reports that New York Fashion Week just had its most diverse collection of shows in recent memory.

The survey looked at 120 fashion shows and found that 68.1% of the model castings were white while 31.9% were nonwhite. That bests the three previous seasons in which nonwhite models represented only 28.4%, 22.6%, and 20.9% of the castings, respectively.

The numbers were bolstered by labels that made big statements by casting nonwhite models exclusively, or close to it. Zac Posen was lauded for the diversity in his runway show and The Fashion Spot found that 87% of the models in his show were nonwhite.

Kanye West cast only black models, making his Madison Square Garden show 100% nonwhite. Other very diverse shows included Chromat, Sophie Theallet, and Brandon Maxwell which casts models of color 85%, 54%, and 53% of the time, respectively.

Then there were the designers who were lagging behind. APC and Monse cast only one model of color while Rachel Zoe only featured two.

You can find a full breakdown of the diversity numbers below.

Photo: The Fashion Spot