This Runway Show Had 2 Yoga Teachers, 13 Dancers, 1 Drummer, & Only 7 Models

Rachel Comey has no front row. She has no contingent of teen TV-show stars that make up her fanbase. Hell — Comey even pulls off the most anti-Fashion Week move there is and serves food (a whole dinner!) during her shows. And until recently, Rachel Comey always used the standard, five-foot-nine, size 2 models to show off her collections. However, last night she flipped the script and decided to stock her lineup with yoga teachers, artists, dancers, and actresses — 35 women among 42 in total who aren’t models by trade.

Some were older with white hair, and younger with no hair. They were tall and muscular and short and curvy. She used artists, eccentrics, dancers, and businesswomen — in other words the women who wear Rachel Comey’s clothes. It’s a clever move for a designer who challenges women to dress outside of the traditional skinny and flattering box. She presented a real-time retort to the common Fashion Week question: “But what would that look like on someone who’s not a model?”

The clothes are probably the most hippie-commune-by-way-of-Brooklyn collection yet; Comey has always had a tendency to veer toward Earth Mother, but the palette of browns, beiges, greige, and puce really had a polarizing effect. In the press release, the the team "looked to themes around Ecofeminism, taking inspiration from a passage in Judith Plant's essay entitled The Circle is Gathering. [The collection offers] insight into an idea of...women's connection nature's power to create." There were the unconventional denim pieces (that are bound to be as big as the Legion pant), pretty slip dresses, sparkling knits, and structured satin heels. These will surely be the pieces that make the biggest splashes in store windows and magazine editorials. But the meat-and-potatoes of the collection has a tougher audience. Although, it seems the group of fans in the audience, who were already placing personal orders, is indication enough that Comey’s crew is down.

For the full list of models and their professions, check out the lineup below:

Alex Auder, yoga teacher
Alyssa Forte, dance artist
Anna Azrieli, dance artist and yoga teacher
Aretha Aoki, dancer and choreographer
Cleo Cwiel, model
Crystal Noreiga, model
Eleanor Smith, dancer
Eloise Deluca, dancer
Emma Judkins, dancer
Erin Cornell, actress
Iri Kevich, model
Jessica Le Bleis, model
Katie Bergstrom, ballet dancer
Katie Workum, dancer
Kay Ottinger, dancer
KJ Holmes, dance artist, actor, singer and teacher
Kriss Kulyk, model
Lydia Haug, dancer, model, actress
Mariana Valencia, dance, installation, costume, and zine artist; choreographer
Marya Wethers, dancer and choreographer
Mina Nishimura, dance artist and choreographer
Nikima Jagudajev, dancer
Pyeng Threadgill, singer
Ranya Mordanova, model
Regina Rocke, dance
Rita Saunders, model
Sarah White-Ayon, "artist working across the disciplines of performance, dance/choreography, video, sculpture, sound and collage"
Ta'Rajee Omar, dancer, mover, creator, performer
Tara Willis, dancer
Yanira Castro, dancer and choreographer
Ydhelca Perez, salsa and modern dancer
Pamela Racine, dancer and drummer