As a young South Asian woman who wants to pursue fashion, I have never seen my culture properly expressed in the fashion industry. 

New York Fashion Week (NYFW) was founded by Eleanor Lambert, an American fashion designer. 

NYFW is an opportunity for designers to show off their upcoming collections.

In 1943, the foundation of ‘press week’ improved the chances for designers to get recognized around the world because of the amount of press coverage that NYFW got. 

The collections are shown to buyers, retailers, and big names in the fashion industry in order to get the stylist recognized in more than just one way. 

However, out of all the different styles from the past NYFWs, there is little to no representation of South Asian culture. 

There is no coverage or representation of South Asian culture specifically in mainstream media, whether it is NYFW or something else. 

Even when there is a brown person in a movie or television show, they’re always stereotyped to be ‘super smart’ and ‘nerdy.’

It’s disappointing for me to see these characters have no personality just because there wasn’t enough research put into how diverse South Asian culture is.  

This is why the first ever South Asian New York Fashion Week (SANYFW) is so important, to me and to the rest of the South Asian community. 

SANYFW was hosted by Shipra Sharma and Hetal Patel. It was hosted in New York from Sept.  8 to Sept. 14. 

They wanted to “uplift South Asian fashion that is inspired by both traditional and modern South Asian culture,” according to Teen Vogue.  

We see a new perspective of the culture when we see designers such as Mayyur Girotra and Nomi Ansari introduce collections that are inspired by traditional South Asian clothes. 

Both of these designers are incredible and well known throughout India. 

I have always wanted to see people of my color on the runway or at least see the clothes of my culture represented in a larger way. 

Now that SANYFW has happened, I’m beyond ecstatic about the fact that South Asian culture and clothes are finally getting the representation they deserve. 

It’s so inspiring for me to see brown models and designers pursuing their dreams and feeling confident in their work.