A Look At Fashion For A New Generation

Inclusiveness and technology are two defining cornerstones of the fashion industry of the future. We profile two women with very different businesses but a similar vision—to empower women around the world by broadening their choices. Aparna Piramal Raje meets Carrie Hammer and Billie Whitehouse in Goa to talk fashion for a new generation

CARRIE HAMMER,33

9 New York / Shanghai

Best known for: Her eponymous label with the theme ‘Role Models, Not Runway Models’

“We cut-copy-paste men’s fashion into women’s clothing. What that inherently said to me, especially when I was younger, was that being masculine in the workplace meant winning. I think it’s important to say to women that being feminine, being fashionable is also powerful, and that clothing is not frivolous,” says Carrie Hammer, who divides her time between New York and Shanghai, and serves as the creative director of her label. “My label stands for strong fashion for strong women. Powerful fabrics, clean lines and clothing meant to support women in her everyday dynamic life,” she says. While she launched the label in 2012, she is looking at a re-launch that will focus on this set of pillars.

It was while planning her debut show at New York Fashion Week in 2014 that she instinctively decided to feature “Role Models, Not Runway Models,” including the first-ever runway model in a wheelchair and one with Down’s Syndrome. The show went viral and over time Hammer found herself becoming a “fashion designer, social entrepreneur and a creative consultant with large brands, helping them redesign and redefine how they’re putting beauty standards out in the world,” she says.