Apparel Online India Magazine February 1st Issue 2019 | Page 12

WORLD WRAP
Retailers bank on
Fashion Activism
for business
Tapping on Socio-
Political Revolutions
for Growth
P
ants and culottes, the most staple
choice of any woman, encapsulate
gravitating importance of signifying
the class of the working woman who
left the bounds of corsets to set her
foot out in the post-World War world.
Not just limited to history, Fashion
and Politics have paved a path to the
present hand-in-hand, shaping the
norms of the other.
The go-to design inspiration for
contemporary designers, Fashion
Activism, was coined by the famous
designer Céline Semaan, Founder
of tech lab Slow Factory. who stated
that, “Fashion Activism simply means
using fashion to implement social and
political change.” She championed
the term by retailing an assortment of
socially conscious fashion garments
and accessories for social causes,
such as the ‘Banned’ scarf to revolt
against American President Donald
Trump’s Muslim Ban or the ‘First
Amendment Jacket’ featuring the First
Amendment written in Arabic to show
disagreement towards crimes against
American Muslims.
Examples are multifold and of
varying magnitudes, from the global
platform where the peace sign symbols
broke the market during the hippie
movements to Trump supporting hats
that said ‘Make America Great Again’
during the 2016 electoral campaign in
America that retailed to show profits
up to 40 per cent for small retailers
which sold them.
Missguided Your Own Skin Campaign 2018
ESSENTIALS
Fashion has been the
sign of acceptance or
rejection, and several
major designers and
retailers have used this
platform to express their
opinions about almost
everything. The trend
continues as a major pull
even today!
A Timeline of Change
Several movements throughout history
were promoted better using the power
of attire. Suffragettes used colour to
communicate and spread the idea
of votes for all: purple for dignity,
white for purity and green for hope.
Recently, high fashion retailers Liberty
and Selfridges put an assortment of
tricolour ribbons, underwear, bags and
soaps on retail to uphold the dignity of
the woman in everything.
Taking a page from the leaflets of
history, several fashion movements
conform to the new fashion strata to
emphasise a point. The Black Panther
spirit of 1960s and 1970s was evoked
by a simple accessory of the era: the
beret. Famously a fashion feminist, the
Creative Director of Dior, Maria Grazia
Chiuri, unveiled the Dior collection of
leather berets by Stephen Jones with
every attire, representing an army of
strong and independent women. For
12 Apparel Online India | FEBRUARY 1-15, 2019 | www.apparelresources.com
her latest Spring 2019 Paris Couture
Week collection, she again showcased
an inclusive circus inspired collection
that opened with troupe of all-female
acrobats of different body shapes
performing around the models that
flaunted feminine silhouettes in crisp
corporate lines.
Social Identity, Inclusivity
and Representation
Amidst diverse consumer groups
influencing social, broadcast and print
media, ‘inclusive fashion’ was born.
This trend caught fire in year 2017,
when the American President called
transgender community a ‘burden’
and started his campaign with ‘Grab
them by the pussy’.
A sudden outburst of rainbow colours
laced over layers of garments was
then triggered. Numerous fashion
retailers introduced collections
supporting the community. The mecca