--- title: Jamie Brewer on the Runway at Carrie Hammer New York Fashion Week description: Jamie Brewer also stars in FX's American Horror Story canonical: https://time.com/3708150/carrie-hammer-jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week/ author: Laura Stampler article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-12T23:01:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:01.998Z og:title: See NY Fashion Week's First-Ever Model With Down Syndrome Own the Runway og:description: Jamie Brewer also stars in 'American Horror Story' og:url: https://time.com/3708150/carrie-hammer-jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8c89a35aae4ebc6/69877f1455a859e2a0a85cd5/463269442.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: 463269442 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See NY Fashion Week's First-Ever Model With Down Syndrome Own the Runway twitter:description: Jamie Brewer also stars in 'American Horror Story' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8c89a35aae4ebc6/69877f1455a859e2a0a85cd5/463269442.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New York Fashion Week's First-Ever Model With Down Syndrome Owned the Runway > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Feb 12, 2015 11:01 PM UTC  A model walks the runway during the Role Models Not Runway Models A model walks the runway during the Role Models Not Runway ModelsBrian Ach—2015 Getty Images by [Laura Stampler](https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/) ## Laura Stampler Feb 12, 2015 11:01 PM UTC New York Fashion Week is all about aspiration. Onlookers imagine themselves as stick-thin runway models, wearing thousands of dollars worth of intricately tailored couture. But designer Carrie Hammer wants the audience at her show to aspire to something different, which is why she’s made it her mission to feature [role models](http://carriehammer.tumblr.com/) over actual runway models. Thursday morning, actress Jamie Brewer, known for her work on _American Horror Story_, became the first model with Down syndrome to ever walk at New York Fashion Week. “It exceeded all of my expectations,” Hammer said to TIME. “What I love about our shows everyone is smiling, everyone is having a good time.” When Hammer was invited to show her three-year-old line at Fashion Week last year, she decided to use clients rather than traditional models on the runway. This included women of various heights, weights and ethnicities. One of the models included [Danielle Sheypuk](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/fashion-week-model-wheelchair%5Fn%5F4775327.html), who became the first-ever model in a wheelchair to appear at New York Fashion Week. > [](https://twitter.com/AdmirableWomen/status/435140949153304576) “We were never trying to make a statement,” Hammer says. “We don’t think of \[Sheypuk\] as being in a wheelchair. We don’t define her that way … but it went really viral. We got hundreds of emails for girls and their moms thanking us.” One of the emails came from Katie Driscoll, co-founder of [Changing the Face of Beauty](http://www.changingthefaceofbeauty.org/), which advocates for the inclusion of people with disabilities in the media. Driscoll, whose daughter Grace has Down syndrome, suggested Hammer reach out to Brewer. “I thought she would provide a great role model for Grace,” Hammer says. “Jamie is amazing … she has a light and enthusiasm that is incredible.”  Actress Jamie Brewer walks the runway during the Role Models Not Runway Models Brian Ach—Getty Images Hammer hopes to expand her role-model-themed runway show to different fashion weeks around the world. “I think this blows everything away,” she says. “This is, I think, what people have been wanting to see, and everyone’s positive reaction is overwhelming.” _Read next:_ [_Watch Derek Zoolander Walk the Runway at Paris Fashion Week_](http://time.com/3738854/zoolander-hansel-valentino-runway-paris-fashion-week/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3708150/carrie-hammer-jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3708150/carrie-hammer-jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week/"},"headline":"New York Fashion Week's First-Ever Model With Down Syndrome Owned the Runway","datePublished":"2015-02-12T23:01:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:48:01.998Z","description":"Jamie Brewer also stars in FX's American Horror Story","url":"https://time.com/3708150/carrie-hammer-jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Living","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8c89a35aae4ebc6/69877f1455a859e2a0a85cd5/463269442.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Stampler","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-stampler/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf8c89a35aae4ebc6/69877f1455a859e2a0a85cd5/463269442.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"463269442","caption":"A model walks the runway during the Role Models Not Runway Models - Carrie Hammer Runway - Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Fall 2015 at Lightbox on February 12, 2015 in New York City.","creditText":"Brian Ach—2015 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3708150/carrie-hammer-jamie-brewer-new-york-fashion-week/","name":"New York Fashion Week's First-Ever Model With Down Syndrome Owned the Runway"}}]}] ```