Clothing with messages, engaged muses, fashion designers at the forefront. Some players in the industry seem to have a desire to bring about political change, as Dame Vivienne Westwood once did. From studies by the Institut Français de la Mode to French luxury label Dior and up-and-coming designer Jeanne Friot – a glimpse into an activist trend that inspires hope.
fashion and politics?
The fashion industry is based on a system of constant consumption. At the latest every six months, the fashion is overtaken. Also, the industry is vertical—luxury for the rich, fast fashion for the masses, and a middle class that settles for what’s left in the multi-brand stores. Fashion is a mirror of illusions sold to the highest bidder on the geopolitical scale. So how can the fashion industry boast of being politically conscious?
And yet fashion – plagued by criticism of its carbon footprint and the exploitation of its factory workers – is about to make a change. Caroline Ardelet and Benjamin Simmenauer, professors at the Institut Français de la Mode, are closely observing this phenomenon. Their study on fashion activism is still in progress and therefore not entirely reliable, but they unveiled a first chapter during the Fashion Reboot conference in Paris.
Fashion with messages, the first archetype of political dress
The experts at the IFM describe a new social pressure that is weighing on brands, especially through social networks. “Companies and their leaders have a responsibility to speak out on social and political issues,” the study says. To be credible, fashion brand activism must be accompanied by genuine commitment, not cynical opportunism. The riskier the choice, the stronger the attraction. Thus, clothing with an “explosive” message can be a decisive factor in customer loyalty.
Feminism at Dior
Looking back, Maria Grazia Chiuri’s success at Dior can be explained by strong customer loyalty. The fashion designer has been campaigning for women’s rights since the beginning of her tenure. A T-shirt with the slogan “We should all be feminists,” inspired by an essay of the same name and TEDx talk, was one of the most talked about pieces from her debut collection for the Parisian fashion house. In 2017, the “Women at Dior” mentoring program for young women was founded, which has been part of the Unesco Global Education Coalition since 2020. With the appointment of Delphine Arnault as head of Christian Dior Couture, the fashion house is now in female hands – a rarity in the industry.
Jeanne Friot: Activism as a starting point for a collection
Activism forms the basis of the collections of the young designer Jeanne Friot. It has significantly fewer resources than the luxury goods companies, but its brand DNA particularly attracts Gen Z consumers. Friot stands for LGBT rights, sustainable fashion, local production and gender neutral casting. Inspired by Sonia Rykiel and Vivienne Westwood, the young woman regrets that so many brands with a female name are now owned by men. It is also striking that she was the only woman to take part in the Sphère showroom of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode in the autumn/winter season.
“It’s no longer possible not to talk about it,” Friot said of politics in an interview with FashionUnited on the eve of the show. “With the help of the book ‘Les Guérillères’ by Monique Wittig, my collection is reminiscent of femicides Text read aloud that expresses a new world in which women regain power. How to deconstruct in order to reconstruct without falling into the same patterns. A fundamental question and an attitude particularly relevant to fashion.
This translated and edited post previously appeared on FashionUnited.fr.