The People’s Runway Brings Brooklyn’s Emerging Designers To The Heart Of New York Fashion Week
PAGE
By PAGE Editor
New York Fashion Week is often defined by exclusivity—private rooms, industry access and invitations that determine who gets to see fashion up close. In Brooklyn, the 2026 People’s Runway offered a different proposition: put the runway in front of the people.
On September 12, Brooklyn Borough Hall Plaza became an outdoor catwalk as Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Brooklyn Arts Ambassador Colm Dillane, the creative force behind KidSuper, presented the second annual People’s Runway as part of the CFDA’s official Spring/Summer 2027 New York Fashion Week calendar. The event brought five emerging Brooklyn designers into the center of fashion’s global conversation while giving thousands of New Yorkers a front-row seat.
The idea feels particularly Brooklyn. Fashion here has rarely existed in isolation from music, art, entrepreneurship or the communities that give those disciplines their meaning. The People’s Runway extends that lineage into a civic space, turning Borough Hall from an administrative building into a platform for creative possibility.
For this year’s cohort, that opportunity came with tangible resources. Each designer received a $5,000 grant, mentorship and industry access—support designed to extend beyond one night on the runway. Reynoso and Dillane selected the designers from hundreds of applications, continuing an initiative built around the premise that emerging talent often needs infrastructure as much as exposure.
The designers represented five distinct interpretations of contemporary Brooklyn fashion.
Kuai Li presented Tender Armor, a sculptural five-look collection that explored protection, vulnerability and quiet strength through engineered volume and softness. Lamin Rey Jaiteh’s iDEK (I Don’t Even Know) examined the uncertainty that precedes transformation, bringing together tailored silhouettes, denim and the tension between refinement and streetwear.
Laurel Tiange Fang approached fashion through technology and the natural world with Forms of Water, translating the movement of the ocean through kinetic systems, digital fabrication and handcrafted textiles. Moses Aina’s LEGACY looked inward, drawing from his great-grandfather, former Togolese president Sylvanus Olympio, to transform family history into colorful expressions of identity, courage and purpose.
Roderick Reyes offered perhaps the most pointed social commentary with Gettin’ Fly, incorporating authentic security tags and anti-theft materials into garments as a critique of consumer pressure, exploitation and survival under capitalism. Together, the collections demonstrated that emerging fashion does not require a singular aesthetic. It requires a point of view.
That philosophy is central to Dillane’s involvement. As Brooklyn’s first-ever Arts Ambassador, appointed by Reynoso in 2025, Dillane has helped connect the borough’s emerging artists with mentorship, cultural institutions and opportunities that can translate creative ambition into sustainable careers.
“I wanted to rethink what a fashion competition could actually do for a young designer,” Dillane said ahead of the event. “Not just give someone a trophy or title, but give them a real platform, funding, mentorship and access.”
The runway itself reflected Brooklyn’s larger cultural ecosystem. Converse returned as a longtime supporter of emerging creatives, providing the fat-laced Chuck Taylor Throwbacks worn throughout the designers’ collections. The evening also brought together fashion, music and entertainment, with a front row that included Wale, Francisco Lindor, Fabolous, Beenie Man, Jim Jones, Lil Mama, Joey Bada$$, Wisdom Kaye, Serge Ibaka, Russ, Fivio Foreign, YG Marley, NLE Choppa and others.
Then came the moment that turned a fashion show into a piece of New York cultural history.
Wyclef Jean, dressed in KidSuper, closed the runway with a performance that paid tribute to Brooklyn before welcoming Ms. Lauryn Hill to the stage for a surprise performance of “Ready or Not.” With the Fugees’ landmark The Score reaching its 30th anniversary, the reunion connected a generation-defining sound with a new generation of designers finding their own voices.
It was an appropriate ending for an event built around continuity.
The People’s Runway is not simply attempting to place Brooklyn designers on a New York Fashion Week calendar. It is creating a pipeline between the borough’s creative communities and the institutions capable of helping them move forward. In doing so, it recognizes something Brooklyn has understood for generations: culture is not merely something to observe. It is something people build together.
For the designers who walked Borough Hall Plaza, the runway was a debut on one of fashion’s most visible stages. For Brooklyn, it was another reminder that some of the industry’s most compelling ideas do not have to travel far to be discovered.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT FASHION?
COMMENT OR TAKE OUR PAGE READER SURVEY
Featured
The 2026 People’s Runway transformed Brooklyn Borough Hall into a public stage for five emerging designers, pairing New York Fashion Week visibility with funding, mentorship, community and a surprise Wyclef Jean and Ms. Lauryn Hill reunion.
Antonio Reynoso, Colm Dillane