Updated 02/09/2010 10:29 PM
Annual Red Dress Show Makes Heart Disease Awareness Fashionable
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The fashion world constantly changes, but during February Fashion Week the Heart Truth's Red Dress Fashion Show remains true to combatting heart disease. NY1's Jessica Abo filed the following report. New York Fashion Week is always about what's in and what's out. Yet in February the red dress never goes out of style, as it's been the Heart Truth Campaign's national symbol for women and heart disease awareness since 2002.
"We don't really have a choice about getting sick, but we do have a choice about what we wear," says Kevin Krier, the producer of the Heart Truth's Red Dress Fashion Show. "So we now make this wonderful connection to women - the connection of the red dress - and its being a fashion statement that you can make - 'I care about myself and my health.'"
The Heart Truth Red Dress Collection first came to the runway in 2003 and will be back for its eighth year this Thursday, the first night of the bi-annual Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. Once again, 20 famous ladies in red dressed to the nines by top designers like Carolina Herrera, Donna Karan and Rachel Roy.
"I was honored to be asked to participate in the Red Dress Fashion Show again, because it is such a good cause and a cause that affects all of us personally," says Roy. "It's the number-one killer of women, but also its a fun show with a different type of vibe."
This year, celebrities like Heidi Klum and Felicity Huffman will strut their stuff down the red runway. Actress Valerie Harper is also taking time off from Broadway to hit the catwalk and play a part in raising awareness.
"I really think it's important. More women die of heart disease than all other causes put together, and we think of it as a men's disease, and I think the Red Dress campaign has been a fabulous assist," says Harper.
"When women, men - that audience - leaves that day, yes, they've had fun, but they know heart disease is the biggest killer of women on the planet and they learn and they listen," says Krier.
If you like the looks you see, some of the dresses will be auctioned off at clothesoffourback.org and profits will benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. For more information, visit www.hearttruth.gov.