Tracy Reese

Entering the Tracy Reese presentation on Sunday afternoon, you immediately noticed something unusual about the models standing on the stage: They were speaking.

“They’re saying something about themselves, why they’re doing this, what their hopes and dreams are, the women they admire in their lives,” Reese explained. “Often when you come to these, people don’t look at the women, they’re looking at the clothes, and that why we’re doing this. I wanted people to see the woman in the clothing, and hear something about who she is.”

The remarks were unscripted, and very personal. One model was speaking in Spanish, saying that her mother was the person she admired most in the world. Another, in English, was saying: “A woman is strong, a woman is love, a woman is beauty.” Still another was saying, “I am strength, I am grace, I am a woman.”

Attending the show was Whoopi Goldberg, who noted that Reese, who’s known for being one of Michelle Obama’s favorite designers, is “especially good at recognizing that women’s bodies are different. And they’re big and small and wide and thin and that’s who she creates for. So there is something for every person on the planet in Tracy’s collections, and I love that.”

Reese has long offered up a runway that is diverse not only ethnically but in terms of size and shape. She also often combines professional and nonprofessional models in her shows — a rarity.

Diversity on the runway is something other designers have slowly caught up to, Goldberg noted.