New York Fashion Week Joins the “ICE OUT” Movement

As press gathered around designer Rachel Scott backstage following her official runway debut as creative director for Proenza Schouler, it was hard to miss the pin on her oversized white shirt: a small white circle, stamped with "ICE OUT" in bold, black letters. On the biggest day of her career, she chose to make the message as visible as her collection.

"If I have any form of audience, I absolutely need to say something," Scott told Marie Claire. "It's a responsibility."

From the Golden Globes to the Grammys, celebrities including Billie Eilish, Tessa Thompson, and Justin and Hailey Bieber have accessorized their awards season looks with "ICE OUT" and "BE GOOD" pins. They were provided by organizers Nelini Stamp, Director of Strategy of Working Families Power, and Jessica Morales Rocketto, Director of Maremoto, who rallied a coalition alongside organizations like the ACLU. The pins are meant to raise awareness and signal solidarity with people affected by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) violence, including Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Keith Porter Jr., and more, who have died at the hands of immigration law enforcement.

When Congress passed the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” (H.R. 1) in July 2025, it set aside over $170 billion for immigration- and border enforcement-related spending, making ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. In President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, nearly 400,000 immigrants have been arrested—even though fewer than 14 percent have been charged with or convicted of a violent offense, per CBS News. The nonprofit Transaction Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), which publishes federal government data for the public, found that there are over 70,000 people in ICE detention as of January 2026.

The initial "ICE OUT" campaign at the Golden Globes came together days after Good was shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis, according to Stamp. She and Morales Rocketto started reaching out to people they knew who were nominated or expected to attend. After seeing how many celebrities embraced the pins at the Globes, they rallied for the Grammys, and identified other major events that would draw the same attention.

"We didn't want any cultural moment to pass us while ICE was being an occupying force in our communities, responsible for killing more than two people last month," Stamp told Marie Claire. That included New York Fashion Week.

This week, people like artist and organizer Sarah Sophie Flicker and content creator Nicolette Mason came in to facilitate the "ICE OUT—BE GOOD" campaign’s growth and visibility in fashion. Brands, influencers, and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) are coordinating pin distribution efforts, placing them in the most visible corners of fashion, from street-style lapels to the runways themselves. Collina Strada creative director Hillary Taymour, Zankov founder Henry Zankov, and Maria McManus's eponymous founder wore them at their respective shows and presentations. High-profile industry names like Paloma Elsesser and Ella Emhoff have also participated from the front row.

"The fashion community are natural fits for this kind of cultural outreach," said Jessica Herman Weitz, National Director of Artist & Entertainment Engagement at the ACLU. "This industry knows better than anyone that the cultural fabric of our country is built on immigrants."

Several labels on the CFDA's official New York Fashion Week calendar were founded by immigrants or their descendants, from Carolina Herrera to Prabal Gurung. Proenza Schouler's Scott is another: She immigrated to New York City from Jamaica, and frequently weaves references to the Caribbean diaspora into collections for her first brand, Diotima.

Fashion week can feel removed from the day-to-day realities of working class New Yorkers, Stamp said, but it's also an intrinsic part of the city's fabric, from the historically immigrant-led workforce of the Garment District to the global impact its residents have had on trends. New York has also been a target of ICE operations across all five boroughs, so "having people at fashion week wearing 'ICE OUT' pins is both a statement to where we are as a country [and] particularly a statement to people in New York," Stamp said.

McManus—an "off-the-boat Irish" immigrant, as she puts it—told Marie Claire over email that the “ICE OUT” pin she wore to her salon-style presentation “may well have been photographed more than the velvet dress with vintage pearl ribbon, a hit from the fall collection.”

"If more people understood how hard immigrants work to get here, and how deeply we commit to contributing once we arrive,” she continued, “the national conversation might sound very different."

Taymour of Collina Strada has been championing immigration rights in her collections since at least 2020, when she designed an "Abolish ICE" shirt for her Resort collection. "I stand by it," she told Marie Claire after her show. "I casted models for one of my first shows solely from countries that were on Trump's banned list during his first term. It's important to take action every day."

This season, she’s seen more designers step into the conversation. "It’s been powerful seeing others wear the pin in recent days on social media—it shows that this is something that is at the forefront of the conversation," she said.

Fashion consultant Julie Gilhart, a regular at New York Fashion Week, got her new "ICE OUT" pin from the CFDA. "I think it’s important to wear it on a daily basis," she told Marie Claire from her front-row seat at TWP, "to remind us not to forget [or get] caught up in the moment of other things."

When coalitions with cultural capital speak out politically, organizer Morales Rocketto said, they can shape policy, especially the decisions that directly affect ICE operations. In fashion week's home state, "The Senate Majority Leader is Senator Chuck Schumer, and when one of the biggest industries in his state, at one of the biggest moments that they have, is talking about 'ICE OUT,' I don't think that's just ambient noise, actually," she said. "I think that's something that his office is paying attention to."

It also reaches people who might not have a direct connection to the industry, or who don't follow fashion too closely. Stamp offered herself as an example: "I have appreciation for fashion week, but I'm not paying attention to each show—but I will see something like [Taymour and Scott] wearing a pin at the end of the runway," Stamp said. "In my mind, fashion has always been political. Even if people want to deny that. Culture is political, culture shifts politics—not the other way around."

On Feb. 12, the second official day of New York Fashion Week, Democrats in the Senate blocked a DHS funding bill, priming the agency for a temporary shutdown. The same day, border czar Tom Homan announced ICE agents are withdrawing from Minnesota after the agency reached an agreement with local authorities.

These are some of the outcomes activists have hoped for. Still, Morales Rocketto stressed that they shouldn't treated as the end of the conversation, especially while ICE operations are ongoing in other parts of the United States. "We're really hoping that when you hear about this [campaign], it's going to motivate you to support immigrants' rights in your community, to call Congress, to be engaged in mutual aid," she said.

In other words, an “ICE OUT” pin isn’t meant to be a temporary fashion-week trend. "I can imagine the impact of young people who want to be in the industry, write about the industry, or even just are appreciative of it, seeing a designer, a model, or a makeup artist they follow wearing that 'ICE OUT' pin," Stamp said. "I actually fundamentally believe we need that because it changes hearts and minds."

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the full titles of Nelini Stamp and Jessica Morales Rocketto.