Fashion's most diverse runway ever just got ‘hotter’

For decades, New York Fashion Week shows included waif-thin models and editor-filled front rows. While many of those editors and their successors have cried the end of NYFW as they knew it, that’s in part for the better, at the very least to make way for unabashed newcomers.

Chromat isn’t exactly a newbie to the style space, but the swimsuit brand has received positive attention of late for its colorful suits and casting. (Yahoo Lifestyle dubbed Chromat the most diverse runway ever last season, thanks to the inclusion of plus-size and transgender models of myriad races.)

This season is no exception: Transgender and plus-size individuals were again included, along with a model with visible breast scars, an amputee, and a hijabi woman. The real treat, however, was an actual snack: Models munched on bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos as they walked.

One perceptive editor at Garage Magazine noted, food (more specifically, “sprawling banquets”) has been a trend at shows in New York this season, albeit as part of the set rather than as part of the models’ diets. There was Raf Simons’ menswear show, which included a gluttonous serving of everything from wine and chocolate to the entire grocery store produce section, along with a “high tea” at Saks Potts. At Bottega Veneta, models sat down for dinner as the audience watched on.

And junk food and fashion are a pairing which other designers who turn towards kitsch rather than away from it — Alexander Wang, Jeremy Scott for Moschino — are already well acquainted.

Chromat was a stimulating production — in addition to the Cheetos were energy drinks nestled in netted pockets — but an unexpectedly delightful front row addition, Whoopi Goldberg, gave guests an extra jolt.

As for the bathing suits, they were provocative enough. But New York Fashion Week is about so much more than just the clothes nowadays.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

• Angelina Jolie, One of Hollywood’s Highest Paid Stars, Wore an Affordable Everlane Outfit

• Tiffany Trump Quotes Muhammad Ali in Stylish Memorial Day Photo

• Teen Faced Her ‘Biggest Fear’ and Wore a Swimsuit at the Beach

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.

Alexandra Mondalek is a writer for Yahoo Style + Beauty. Follow her on Twitter @amondalek.