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Ashley Graham just opened her first fashion show at NYFW and she looked incredible

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By Nicola Agius

Feb 12, 20185 mins

Ashley Graham just opened her first fashion show at NYFW and she looked incredible

Since winning Project Runway ten years ago, Christian Siriano is still designing clothes – with the goal of championing women while he's at it. All kinds of women. Yesterday at NYFW, he celebrated the 10th anniversary of his self-named brand (a huge milestone, btw) with his Fall 2018 fashion show.

Familiar faces such as Cardi B, Whoopi Goldberg and Meg Ryan sat front row, but all eyes were on the stage from the get-go, with none other than Ashley Graham opening the show.

The plus-sized model is well-known for her bodacious curves, as well as her efforts to get more fashion brands around the world to ditch their old-fashioned and often unrealistic ideals of beauty standards by casting a more diverse range of models.

The 30-year-old Nebraskan – who models clothes, lingerie and swimwear – has called out the likes of Victoria's Secret for not using any plus-sized models. She's graced the covers of Vogue and Sports Illustrated, as well as become the 10th highest paid model last year, according to Forbes. “It is not about who has the highest cheekbones anymore. It is really about how to be a boss, a brand and a businesswoman," she told the business magazine.

And boss she is, as proved by her grand entrance at the Christian Siriano show. She kicked it off with a fierce red faux fur coat cinched at the waist with a belt, and a neckline that just worshipped her assets.

The model wore a black bodysuit and some killer PVC knee-high boots underneath.

It was the very first fashion show Graham opened – an enormous achievement for the model and a big step forward for fashion. She returned with a second look involving a slick red dress with some kind of sparkly silver cage jacket, and rocked it.

Graham took to Instagram to share snaps of the show, and wrote: "Thank you again @csiriano for having me open your show, diversity at its finest last night! PS- this was the first show I ever opened!!!"

The fashion designer didn't just stop at casting Graham as his opening act. Siriano included a whole throng of models of all ages, sizes, and backgrounds in the lineup. Other familiar faces in the show included Danielle Brooks (Taystee from Orange Is The New Black), as well as Selma Blair, the 90's movie icon who was one of the first women to come forward during the #MeToo movement.

"I think after this show today I'm just proud of what we have done," Siriano told Vogue after the show. "I'm proud to celebrate people from all walks of life on the runway and bring the world of glamour back."

"I have a body that the average-size American woman has. And I'm using it to let other women know that you are beautiful," Graham told Forbes in 2016. And now, it looks like more and more fashion brands are starting to embrace that sentiment too. Congratulations everyone, and where can I get my hands on that coat?

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