--- title: Telfar Runway Show Sends Models Crowd-Surfing Through Crowd description: Telfar teamed up with playwright Jeremy O. Harris to create a performance art piece of a runway show, where models crowd-surfed canonical: https://time.com/5525325/telfar-nyfw-2019/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-08T17:34:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:57:25.191Z og:title: This Runway Show Sent Models Crowd-Surfing Through Audience og:description: Runways are so last-season og:url: https://time.com/5525325/telfar-nyfw-2019/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a4d0a061005c7bd/698944d88fd2ee21bd35dc16/telfar-runway-show-fall-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Telfar - Runway - February 2019 - New York Fashion Week: The Shows og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Runway Show Sent Models Crowd-Surfing Through Audience twitter:description: Runways are so last-season twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a4d0a061005c7bd/698944d88fd2ee21bd35dc16/telfar-runway-show-fall-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Fashion Show Sent Models Crowd-Surfing Through the Audience  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 8, 2019 5:34 PM UTC  NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 07: A model walks the runway at the Telfar Fall/Winter 2019 Collection on February 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 07: A model walks the runway at the Telfar Fall/Winter 2019 Collection on February 8, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images)JP Yim—Getty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Feb 8, 2019 5:34 PM UTC Models did not strut down the runway at the [Telfar fashion show](http://time.com/5396054/nyfw-best-moments/) on Thursday night in New York; instead, the diverse group trust-fell into the crowd before crowd-surfing through the attendees packed on the floor of Irving Plaza, making for a [New York Fashion Week](http://time.com/5524043/laverne-cox-2019-nyfw/) show that won’t soon be forgotten. The show, titled “Country,” was the brainchild of designer Telfar Clemens and “Slave Play” playwright Jeremy O. Harris. Using elements like ragged Americana visuals and music samples of rap, blues and R&B, the fashion show was more of a performance art piece, a meditation on race and its role in American life — perhaps even more poignant in the fashion space, given the [recent spate of racist imagery](http://time.com/5523984/gucci-blackface-sweater/) in high fashion. Harris was the first to fall into the crowd, opening the show in a deep blue corduroy suit; besides Harris, Clemens had many other creative collaborators who participated in the show by lending their talents or their bodies to the spectacle of it all, including musicians Oyinda, Butch Dawson, and Robert Randolph. The show soon devolved into a high-energy after-party, thanks in part to its sponsorship by Budweiser and White Castle, the latter of which Clemens has had a longtime creative collaboration with. See Telfar’s crowd-surfing show below. > [](https://twitter.com/SorayaMcDonald/status/1093697286247534592) > [](https://twitter.com/SorayaMcDonald/status/1093705224399847424) > [](https://twitter.com/Sirsargent/status/1093710221648842753) > [](https://twitter.com/VVFriedman/status/1093678365914075137) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5525325/telfar-nyfw-2019/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5525325/telfar-nyfw-2019/"},"headline":"This Fashion Show Sent Models Crowd-Surfing Through the Audience","datePublished":"2019-02-08T17:34:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:57:25.191Z","description":"Runways are so last-season","url":"https://time.com/5525325/telfar-nyfw-2019/","keywords":["Newsfeed","fashion","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a4d0a061005c7bd/698944d88fd2ee21bd35dc16/telfar-runway-show-fall-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0a4d0a061005c7bd/698944d88fd2ee21bd35dc16/telfar-runway-show-fall-2019.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Telfar - Runway - February 2019 - New York Fashion Week: The Shows","caption":"Telfar - Runway - February 2019 - New York Fashion Week: The Shows","creditText":"JP Yim—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/5525325/telfar-nyfw-2019/","name":"This Fashion Show Sent Models Crowd-Surfing Through the Audience"}}]}] ```