Experts sound alarm as cigarettes become a trend on NYFW runways

This is a real drag.

Despite years of campaigning against big tobacco, it seems that cigarettes are reclaiming their chic status à la Kate Moss, appearing as accessories on New York Fashion Week runways in the wake of the “mob wife” aesthetic and an early aughts “indie sleaze” revival.

This week, multiple models meandered down the Christian Cowan catwalk with a cigarette teetering between their fingers in a collection depicting the elevated glamour of the rich housewife. Then, just days later, a model wearing a deep-cut power suit dangled a dart from her hand on LaQuan Smith’s runway, oozing corporate sex appeal with garments that doubled as both boardroom and club wear, an ode to “office sirens,” he said.

The Post reached out to reps for Cowan and Smith for comment as to why they included cigs on the runway but Retrofête’s creative director Ohad Seroya said cigarettes played a “big part” in his designs crafted for the “alpha woman.”

He debuted a collection at The Plaza Hotel last weekend, showcasing red hot power suits, slinky evening gowns and luxurious fur coats reminiscent of a chain-smoking, “Mad Men” persona — with one model in particular in a navy power suit adorned with wisps of smoke.

Seroya told The Post that the powerful woman theme was, in part, inspired by his “strong” mother, who was a smoker. And while the designer said he’s a former smoker, he made it clear that he did not support the habit, but rather, appreciated the human “connection” of a smoke break.

“When you come to somebody and [are] asking for a lighter and creating a conversation with you outside,” said Seroya. “And this is why I miss smoking.”

Noah Greenspan, a cardiopulmonary physical therapist and director of the Pulmonary Wellness & Rehabilitation Complex in NYC, can understand what Seroya is saying — but doesn’t condone the social habit.

While Greenspan can’t say for sure why cigarettes are en vogue, he suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic saw people spending a lot of time alone and isolated “with a markedly diminished social life and sense of connection.”

“Now that people are beginning to get back to business as usual, I think that cigarettes can play a role in reconnecting with each other,” he told The Post.

While he emphasized that he is “definitely not” advocating for smoking as a way to connect with others, he can see that for some it’s just “something to do.”

“Again, after the past few years when many of us legitimately or at least perceptually felt like we were doing nothing, I think many people are happy to be out of their homes, returning to society, and in many cases, making up for lost time,” he added.

Greenspan believes that it’s left people still feeling down and seeking out something that will ease their discomfort and bring fun and excitement to their lives.

“I can see how many people could be using nicotine as a form of self-soothing or self-medicating, and while alcohol tends to be more of a depressant, nicotine is more of a stimulant,” he explained. “Although it is crucial to point out that the effect [of nicotine] is short-lived.”

In fact, Gen Zers, who lost a lot of social time during the pandemic without in-person school, are switching from trendy vapes and e-cigs to old-fashioned cancer sticks as a social activity — despite the wealth of health advisories available.

“If people keep up with the habit over time, we can still expect to see the same health problems that we have seen since the beginning of time, particularly, increased risk of cancer, heart disease and lung diseases like COPD, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer,” Greenspan said.

The generation who was predicted to end smoking has instead made it cool again — and vapes could have just been the “gateway.”

“We might be causing the next smoking epidemic through young people getting addicted to electronic cigarettes early in life,” Dr. Michael Blaha wrote for John Hopkins Medicine.

Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable disease, disability and death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — but that hasn’t stopped people from having a smoke.

NYC Smoke-Free, a program of Public Health Solutions that supports local efforts to end NYC’s tobacco crisis, found that over 28,000 New Yorkers (12,000 in NYC) die from smoking-related illnesses every year — and a majority become addicted before they turn 18 years old.

Additionally, 8,000 public high school students smoke in NYC smoke, according to the program, and as a
result, one-third of them will die prematurely.

In 2023, the CDC reported that half of youth who ever tried e-cigarettes currently use them, which shows that many young people who try e-cigarettes will continue to use them.

“Tobacco companies know and understand that the youth can be enticed through advertisements and
seeing how ‘cool’ it is to use their products,” Vonetta Dudley, the director of NYC Smoke-Free, told The Post in an email, adding that marketing cigarettes as “trendy” could lead young people to think that they are safe to use.

“The more times young people are exposed, the more likely they are to try tobacco products and potentially develop a nicotine addiction.”

Cigarettes’ rebrand as the “It” thing to do harkens back to the heyday of big tobacco when smokers were none the wiser.

In the early 1900s, smoking was akin to a status symbol — “sensual and sophisticated,” according to The Guardian (think: Audrey Hepburn and her long cigarette holder). Smoking was also inextricable from the glitz of the fashion industry, just take the rumored supermodel diet of “coffee, cigarettes, vodka and champagne.”

Now, public figures like mogul Kylie Jenner, former First Daughter Malia Obama and actress Jenna Ortega have been spotted smoking a vogue, while a slew of influencers have flaunted their nicotine habits on social media.

“By making cigarettes taboo and ridiculously censored, they became cool for young people,” New York “It” girl Meg Superstar Princess previously told The Post, calling them “terrible but cool.”

“I know cigarettes are terrible for you. But everybody looks cool with a cigarette … You have to pick your vices in life.”

While someone smoking a cigarette for aesthetics’ sake could start off innocently, it could become a habit or an addiction ingrained in their daily life, making it harder and harder to quit — and the consequences are “anything but glamorous,” Greenspan noted.

“I think the danger of romanticizing any risky behavior is that people only have one side of the issue. The highly curated, highly stylized version that may or may not even be real or authentic,” he said.

“What you see on social media or on television or in movies or on the runway is not necessarily real. It’s a show. It’s entertainment. It’s fake. There’s nothing fake or entertaining about lung cancer or emphysema.”