CFDA urges brands to consider diversity for NYFW casting

The CFDA wants to make New York Fashion Week a diverse event. The council's president, Steven Kolb, issued a reminder notice to brands participating in this season's fashion week to keep inclusivity in mind when hiring models.

"As you cast your shows, please remember to promote diversity and inclusion, on and off the runway. American fashion can lead the path," Kolb wrote in his email, which has also been published to the CFDA's website.

The CFDA has an initiative to promote Health, Safety, and Diversity, created in 2017 to address an overwhelming concern with the health of underweight models. As part of this initiative, the CFDA believes that it is the responsibility of fashion designers to protect women and young girls by sending an appropriate message of how health and beauty looks.

Under its initiative for Health, Safety, and Diversity, the CFDA states that this message can be sent through commitments to safe working environments for models, raising awareness for wellness tactics and hiring diverse models and professionals in fashion companies.

Kolb added in his message, "we strongly encourage you to guard the well-being of younger individuals, to take into account the age of the models that you hire, and to create areas backstage for models to change in privacy."