NEW YORK − Blink and you might miss it.
Amid the Prada puffer jackets, Celine sunglasses and fluffy Susanna Chow coats keeping people warm on the streets of New York, there was a quieter fashion statement heating up: small white pins with bold, black letters that read “ICE Out” and “Be Good.”
The pins – part of a campaign endorsed by a coalition including the American Civil Liberties Union, Maremoto, National Domestic Workers Alliance and Working Families Power – had already made their way onto red carpets at the Golden Globes and the Grammys. They found a small but powerful cohort of tastemakers during the invitation-only events of New York Fashion Week.
The “ICE Out” and “Be Good” pins, which originated as a response to the fatal shootings of Renee Good, Keith Porter and Alex Pretti by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents in December and January, have become part of anti-ICE demonstrations and a larger push against the Trump administration’s immigration raids.
Patrick Campillo walks the runway, wearing an “ICE Out” pin, after his New York Fashion Week show on Feb. 14, 2026.
Mexican designer Patricio Campillo chose the subtle accessory as the underpinning of his fall/winter 2026 collection.
Like the statement-making “El Golfo de México” T-shirt he wore during his closing salute last February, Campillo took a bow after his Valentine’s Day show wearing an “ICE Out” pin on the front of his tan cropped jacket.
“Identity becomes something sculpted, rehearsed, discovered and reaffirmed through the garments we choose,” Campillo said in his show notes.
In a largely apolitical season, the pins’ statement-making politics cast a spotlight on the missive from a select few designers: to make heard the voices of immigrant and first-generation creatives and fashion workers who uphold the inner workings of the industry.
A model present fashions from Rio, complete with “ICE Out” pins, during the brand’s New York Fashion Week show on Feb. 15, 2026.
Why ‘ICE Out’ pins are popping up on Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and at NYFW 2026
“F— ICE!” Dominican musical artists Planta Industrial yelled into the microphone at the start of the Rio fashion show on Feb. 15.
Models moved through a mosh pit as Planta Industrial performed, a reminder of the beauty amid the world’s chaos. Designer Rio Uribe crafted “wearable armor, resilient enough for protest and expressive enough for celebration,” according to the show notes. Some looks were topped with the pins attached to trapper hats, “subtle symbols of civic presence.”
Pieces “rooted in Mexican culture” became more about community than about clothing, “to step forward boldly, dressed not only for who they are, but for what they refuse to silence,” per the notes.
A model present fashions from Rio, complete with “ICE Out” pins, during the brand’s New York Fashion Week show on Feb. 15, 2026.
Fusing music and fashion during the week of runway shows, organized by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), followed the Grammy Awards, coming 10 days before the start of the CFDA calendar.
In his highly anticipated return, Justin Bieber and wife Hailey Bieber chose the Grammys red carpet to wear matching black outfits and matching “ICE Out” pins. Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas, also rocked the pins, as did Kehlani. Eilish used her song of the year acceptance speech to hammer home her point: “No one is illegal on stolen land.”
A week later, while the fashion shows were underway, multiple stars at the Film Independent Spirit Awards donned the pins, from Natasha Rothwell, Tessa Thompson and Mark Hamill to “The Pitt” stars Taylor Dearden and Supriya Ganesh.
Justin Bieber wears “ICE out” pin as he poses on the red carpet during the 68th Annual Grammy Awards.
Pro-immigrant messages pop up at Prabal Gurung, Private Policy, Leblancstudios
“Home no longer feels certain,” designer Prabal Gurung posited in his show notes. “The ground shifts. Safety feels conditional. In an accelerated and fractured world, I find myself returning to one quiet question: Where is home now?”
Gurung joined some of his peers in using his collection to interrogate the state of the world – and point to the often unseen immigrant labor behind the glossy, multi-billion dollar fashion industry.
The Nepalese-American designer highlighted the creation of the collection: “lace from France,” “wools from Italy,” “textiles from Japan,” “embroidery from India” and “knits from Nepal,” with “each piece assembled in New York by immigrant hands who crossed oceans believing in the possibility.”
Meanwhile at Private Policy, Asian identity was on display, and just in time for Lunar New Year. Created by China-born Parsons School of Design graduate Haoran Li, Private Policy’s collection showcased “the experiences of early Asian immigrants alongside those of Asian Americans and new-generation immigrants today, tracing how labor evolves while remaining ever present,” he wrote in the show notes.
The collection focused in part on “the first generation of Chinese laborers who built America’s transcontinental railroads” in the 19th century, whose “contributions have long been excluded from dominant historical narratives,” with functional workwear silhouettes as the starting point to the next era of power suiting and sharply tailored office workwear of the 1980s.
The show, which also gave attendees Private Policy-branded chopsticks to take home as a symbol of shared culture, chose to zoom in on the “broader trajectory of Asian labor, from physical infrastructure to emotional, intellectual, and cultural work. What emerges is not the disappearance of labor, but its transformation and increasing visibility.”
“Project Runway” alum Veejay Floresca previewed a collection of gowns and suits, where several models wore “ICE Out” pins. “I’m an immigrant,” Floresca told Washington Square News. “I support my fellow immigrants, and I believe that America is a community for everyone.”
And at Leblancstudios, the final show on the CFDA schedule, the inspiration for the collection summed up the sentiment of New York Fashion Week: “wealth, cool, and luxury against uncertainty.” How can fashion keep balancing it?
The Caribbean brand from Santo Domingo, founded in 2014 by Angelo Beato and Yamil Arbaje, makes a bold claim with its collection name: “Nada Es Inocente,” or “Nothing is innocent.”
A model presents a look from the fall/winter 2026 runway show for Leblancstudios during New York Fashion Week Feb. 16, 2026.
“A declaration against conformity and for individuality. A reminder of what we all understand to be true about modern politics,” they wrote in the show notes. The show incorporated pins and pieces with statements like “It’s better in the Caribbean,” and leaned in to memory and time as drivers for the future.
Perhaps one of the most all-encompassing messages of the week came at the very end: “It’s the result of searching for identity and individuality in a political landscape that punishes it.”
Contributing: Anna Kaufman, Alyssa Goldberg, Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ICE pins, immigration comments take runway at fashion week – NYFW 2026