Ashley Judd returned to the fashion runway during New York Fashion Week, joining survivors and advocates at the RISE Survivor Fashion Show, an event dedicated to challenging victim-blaming and raising awareness of sexual violence.
Judd appeared at the RISE show in New York on Monday, 14 September. Her appearance was featured in People's New York Fashion Week coverage, while the event also prompted discussion on Reddit's r/Fauxmoi.
Organised by RISE
The annual event is organised by RISE, the organisation founded by Amanda Nguyen to advocate for the rights of sexual-assault survivors. The fashion show uses clothing and the runway as a platform to challenge the stigma surrounding sexual violence and the harmful idea that a survivor's clothing can somehow contribute to an assault.
The initiative has a particularly significant connection to Nguyen's own experience. RISE explains that after Nguyen was raped, she was asked by police what she had been wearing. That experience helped inspire the concept behind the Survivor Fashion Show, transforming a question associated with victim-blaming into an opportunity to put survivors at the centre of the conversation.
Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence
For Judd, the appearance also reflects a long history of speaking publicly about sexual violence. In a 2015 essay discussed by E! Online, the actress disclosed experiences of incest and rape while writing about violence against women. Her advocacy later became closely associated with the Hollywood reckoning over sexual misconduct.
Judd was also among the first high-profile actresses to publicly speak on the record about allegations involving former film producer Harvey Weinstein in 2017. She was the only named interviewee in the original New York Times investigation published that October.
That interview detailed allegations of sexual misconduct against Weinstein. Her decision to speak publicly helped bring the issue into the mainstream and was followed by numerous other women coming forward.
Judd later filed a lawsuit against Weinstein, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation after she rejected his sexual advances. Weinstein denied interfering with her career and disputed her allegations.
Her role in the 2017 revelations has become an important part of the wider history of the #MeToo movement. The allegations against Weinstein became a catalyst for a much broader public discussion about sexual harassment, assault and the abuse of power in the entertainment industry.
Connecting With Advocacy
That history gave Judd's appearance at the RISE event an added layer of significance. Rather than simply being another celebrity appearance during fashion week, her participation connected her own advocacy with an organisation specifically focused on survivors' rights.
The RISE runway also deliberately reframes fashion itself. Survivors are not being asked to justify what they wore; instead, clothing becomes a means of self-expression and visibility. The event's message is that responsibility for sexual violence lies with perpetrators, not with what a survivor chose to wear.
Judd's appearance placed a familiar face from Hollywood's #MeToo history alongside survivors whose stories remain central to the movement. At a week normally dominated by designers, models and celebrity spectacle, the RISE runway offered a different purpose: using fashion to centre survivors, challenge harmful assumptions and keep conversations about sexual violence visible.
