Body Positive Fashion: Model With Prosthetic Leg Walks NYFW Catwalk

Toxic shock syndrome is something we’ve all heard about, read about and no doubt said ‘ah, it will never happen to me’ before carrying on with our menstrual routines one a month. Unfortunately for one American 28-year-old, the unthinkable became her reality back in 2012, after using tampons and contracting the condition, which resulted in the loss of the lower part of her right leg. As a runway model, this could have cost her career, but Lauren Wasser wasn’t prepared to throw in the towel. In the face of great adversity, Wasser appeared in an activewear campaign for Nordstrom just last year which was her first paying gig since her life-changing amputation, and just this week, she’s inspired countless others who face similar challenges by walking the runway at New York Fashion Week, gold prosthetic limb on display.

#Bionic details of @theimpossiblemuse captured by @serichaitraipoom for @papermagazine at the #Chromat #AW16Lumina runway show. Special thanks to @DrMartensOfficial

A photo posted by CHROMAT (@chromat) on Feb 13, 2016 at 2:05pm PST

This was Wasser’s first time appearing in New York Fashion Week, where she joined rank with a whole host of diverse models for Chromat’s much talked about show. Unfortunately, we weren’t in attendance ourselves, but if Cosmo’s account is anything to go by, it was a show that celebrated diversity in every way, not just in their casting of Lauren Wasser. There were ethnicities of all kinds, shapes and sizes of all kinds and plenty more to break away from the more traditional, carbon copy confinements of the fashion industry. Here’s to designers like Chromat for embracing diversity and holding up a mirror to the beautifully diverse and authentic world we actually live in. Here’s to more body positivity and inclusive casting. And if it’s a lesson in picking yourself up and dusting yourself off, no matter what life throws at you, let Lauren Wasser be your poster girl.

@theimpossiblemuse in Look 24 – the #Chromat Dione Dress from the #AW16Lumina Collection

A photo posted by CHROMAT (@chromat) on Feb 16, 2016 at 6:29am PST

@thesabinakarlsson in Look 27 – the #Chromat Sabina Cage Dress from the #AW16Lumina Collection

A photo posted by CHROMAT (@chromat) on Feb 15, 2016 at 5:59pm PST

Go behind the scenes with @dazed ! #AW16Lumina

A photo posted by CHROMAT (@chromat) on Feb 15, 2016 at 2:11pm PST

@denisebidot in Look 1 – #Chromat Metropolis Corset from the #AW16Lumina Collection

A photo posted by CHROMAT (@chromat) on Feb 17, 2016 at 10:37am PST

@nikaygb in Look 6 – #Chromat High Jump Halter and Lumina Leggings from the #AW16Lumina Collection

A photo posted by CHROMAT (@chromat) on Feb 17, 2016 at 8:11am PST

Via Cosmo