November 1, 2006– If it’s high fashion you’re after, you could be forgiven for bypassing the Texas A&M University alumni center. But last month, more than 150 students, professors and community members packed into the hall to watch students model clothes lent by area stores. And then, suddenly, between all the posing and air kissing, the crowd ogled something else on the catwalk. “When we played our 15-minute PowerPoint presentation about how HIV rates have gone up in the last five years in [certain] communities, you could hear a pin drop,” says Tiffany Carrethers, a health educator at the school’s student health center. “Catwalk for AIDS” tucked short presentations about the prevalence of HIV, risk factors and prevention into trendy fashion scenes. Carrethers says the health center wanted to raise campus awareness about HIV and let students know that HIV isn’t just “a problem for those other people.” Attendees left with goody bags full of brochures and condoms.

Texas A&M isn’t the only youth-oriented force sending HIV down the runway. In this Devil Wears Prada moment of fierce style envy—where couture, or at least the knowledge of it, can seem within the reach of anyone who watches E! or reads Us Weekly – the  fashion industry is leveraging its allure to make condoms the latest must-have accessory. Television shows such as supermodel Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model have woven HIV themes into their episodes; Bono’s (Product) RED campaign has crimson merchandise flying off shelves; Brazilian designer Adriana Bertini wowed participants of the 2006 International AIDS Conference when she literally turned fashion into awareness with her elaborate latex condom dresses; and the reigning Miss Universe, now in India promoting awareness among youth with the motto: “Get tested for AIDS; it’s in fashion,” recently rocked an awareness-raising fashion show.

The industry has, of course, helped fight AIDS since the very dawn of the epidemic. “Back in the ’80s, lots of fashion people were affected by AIDS,” says Anneliese Estrada, the creative director at the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA). DIFFA has used the resources of the interior design and fashion communities to raise awareness and funds to fight AIDS for more than 20 years. But today’s efforts sport a younger, hipper outfit. “Fashion has become so important in [recent] years because it appeals to kids; it isn’t some old fogy saying ‘just say no to sex,’” says Estrada.

And on a grassroots level, displays such as the Texas A&M show seek to find a way to reach community members other than billboard ads or pamphlets. “Everybody wants to be in style,” says Lisa Dukes of the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force. “People might think that [HIV] doesn’t apply to them, but everyone wants to keep up with the latest fashion.” Last month, Dukes strutted in Pittsburgh’s Positive Divas and Friends fashion show, sponsored by Love Ministry Outreach Victors, a local HIV/AIDS ministry.  The show’s 22 models, some positive and some negative, showed off the styles of area African-American designers while others wore designs featuring AIDS ribbons and condoms. A local hip-hop group, Xtreme Gutta, performed its HIV/AIDS awareness song, “In the Instance.”

The local fundraisers might add up to good, fashionable, awareness-raising fun, but some activists worry about the bigger-name efforts. Are companies, they ask, simply capitalizing on the epidemic? But prevention advocates are just happy when crucial issues face the flashbulbs: “Fashion marketing is a powerful tool, and if big companies want to piggyback important issues onto that process, then I say ‘yay,’” says relentless tastemaker Michael Musto, a longtime columnist of New York’s Village Voice. “The masses often look to famous, pretty faces for advice on outfits and accessories, so why not let these demi-gods preach something of real value too?”