Reproductive justice was on display at New York Fashion Week. Popular dating app Tinder joined forces with clothing brand Area to stand up against restrictions on reproductive health access across the country with a t-shirt design and a major donation to Planned Parenthood.
Kicking things off on day one of fashion week, Area presented its Fall / Winter 2024 ready-to-wear collection on Friday, September 6 in honor of the fashion house’s 10th anniversary. Area’s runway was filled with models wearing oversized captain’s hats with an array of dresses, boxy blazers, and pieces adorned with handprints across them. Keeping in line with the collection, Area included the “Bans off our Bodies” shirt, which beheld red hands on the bottom with Tinder’s little flame logo at the top.
Tinder’s Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Hobley sat down with Teen Vogue at the Roxy Hotel in Manhattan immediately after the show to delve into the partnership with Area and Planned Parenthood. Hobley said that working with the brand was “kismet” after the design team revealed that this latest collection surrounded identity.
“The designers were like, ‘This just feels so right,’ and they were so up for it,” Hobley told Teen Vogue. “We’re really passionate about reproductive freedom. We’re being louder about that than we’ve ever been.”
A shirt on a national stage, alongside a $25,000 donation in Area’s name to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and inviting three Planned Parenthood activists to sit front row at the show, was certainly Tinder’s way of being loud. And choosing a brand like Area that aligned with their mission was a strategic move.
“We were thoughtful about who would be the right partner,” Hobley continued. “Area, they have a point of view on identity. They have a point of view on inclusivity. They have a point of view on reducing stigma.”
The three activists — or Planned Parenthood storytellers — joined Hobley and Tinder CEO Faye Iosotaluno at the show. Each have their own experiences with the organization that inspired them to get involved; whether it be for abortion care, birth control, or health check-ups.
“They were always there for me, so I feel a responsibility to be there for the people who come after me,” said storyteller Cassandra Klewicki, who said she accessed abortion care in Arizona before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Arizona currently has a 15-week abortion ban in place, but voters will have a say in November about extending that to fetal viability — about 24 weeks gestation.
Klewicki said that seeing the Tinder x Area shirt on the runway felt “really good” because the topic of reproductive healthcare can often feel “taboo.”
“Just the fact that we have these two big brands behind us in our work was really important for me,” she continued. “It’s sort of validation to know that this is important, that the majority of people are standing behind us and people are okay with saying it out loud.”
Alexis Richer, another advocate who attended the show, echoed Klewicki’s excitement seeing the shirt on the runway and breaking the stigma surrounding abortion. “I talk about it all of the time,” Richer said. “Abortion access is so important. It’s healthcare.”
Richer also joked that she should re-download Tinder after seeing the collaboration come to life. “I want to give them money if this is what they’re using it for,” she continued.
Nancy Davis, who has been a longtime patient of Planned Parenthood, started the Nancy Davis Foundation after she had to travel from her home state of Louisiana to New York in order to receive an abortion when her baby was diagnosed with Acrania — a rare disorder in which the fetus develops without a skull. Her doctors recommended she terminate the pregnancy for her own safety.
“When I was put in this very distressing situation, Planned Parenthood was almost like a no-brainer,” Davis said, who was denied care by her doctor due to Louisiana’s abortion bans that were in place.
“That pretty much forced us to leave our family and our kids behind and travel 1,500 miles away to Planned Parenthood in New York to access the abortion care that I should have received at home,” she continued.
With the conversation surrounding abortion access ramping up as the 2024 presidential election approaches, Tinder has become part of that conversation. The dating app announced in July 2022 that it would give users the option to add “pro-choice” or “pro-life” onto their profiles after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court the month before.
Hobley said that Tinder conducted a study with the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and found that 87% of daters said their attitude and behavior in dating changed after the landmark abortion decision was overturned. She said that daters are being affected by states limiting access to contraceptives and abortion, making the dating experience even more difficult to navigate.
“We see what this does to connection. We are seeing the repercussions of what happens in these states where access to abortion is gone,” she continued. “And we’re pissed, we’re worried, we’re empathetic.”
The Area x Tinder shirt is now available for purchase online.
