Say it with Fashion

Maintaining a standard for appearances sake identifies the juncture where politics meets fashion. In an age where an image sells its weight in worth for the value of a thousand words, what we wear can determine not only our fashion kudos but more importantly, our point of view. Issues of state have to be accompanied by a public spectacle and national headline to even nuzzle at our political consciousness. People take notice of a statement. And, if the rapid sell-out of Anya Hindmarch’s ‘I’m not a plastic bag’ in 2007 taught us nothing else, it’s that notoriety breeds awareness.



Fashion has long been an ally to the political arena. Iconic first lady, Jackie Kennedy, used her style know-how and Oleg Cassini’s classic American creations, to create an unprecedented hallmark of presidential success, manipulating the media to promote the image she had so carefully constructed. Every outfit she wore was political apparel, providing her with the perfect photo opportunity to endorse the Kennedy brand and show off the credentials of a land made for dreams. A descendent of this chic statement-dressing, Carla Bruni, wife of the French President, is making steps towards repeating Mrs. JFK’s flair for using her wardrobe to her husband’s diplomatic advantage and for her own passage into the society hall of fame.



Creating a reputation, as a ruse for popularising your personal beliefs and values, distinguishes those who make up the fashion intelligentsia as the ultimate trendsetters. The scepticism that accompanies agenda-trends, relegating them to the confines of a fashion victim’s closet, fails to acknowledge the impact that long-lasting popularity can have in raising not only one’s style, but social sensibility.

Eco-fashion crusader Katherine Hamnett put the voice back into democracy during the early 80s, by wearing her political opinions, quite literally, on her sleeve. The controversial t-shirt Hamnett wore when meeting with then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to highlight the British public’s resistance to basing nuclear weapons in the UK, stating ‘58% DON’T WANT PERSHING’, heralded a powerful freedom of expression. At 2003’s London Fashion Week, Hamnett’s catwalk models stormed the runway with one message ‘NO WAR, BLAIR OUT’ in view of the imminent invasion of Iraq. With the 2008 re-launch, of her infamous, much-copied slogan tees, brandishing such dictums as ‘Choose Life’, directed at drug abuse and suicide, and ‘Clean Up Or Die’, a prophetic adage warning us that how we consume decides the future of the planet; Hamnett is letting fashion do the talking, with the hope of bringing about a much-needed change.



Having been turned into a revolutionary art form, the concept of sloganeering, using the tee as a political debate forum, found its way into the anarchic arms of the punk movement, with anti-authority fashionistas Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren at the helm. Westwood’s 2005 anti-terror campaign, in collaboration with civil rights group, Liberty, again utilised the power of the tee to make a political statement. The provocative, ‘I am not a terrorist’ design caused quite a stir by publicising the undemocratic anti-terror laws being advocated by the so-called democratic British government. Ever one to make a statement, Westwood recognised the unbeatable power of putting the message out there in cotton, black and white.



Fashion is driven by a raw desire to make the world beautiful; whether by adorning it with Swarovski crystals, or by tapping into the human psyche with bold and meaningful words. There are times we feel powerless, adrift and without a voice, and these are the times when even the most resourceful person feels the need to put a message in a bottle, or on a simple cotton tee.