fashion and fascism
Each year, stars and influencers (online and not) join together in what is essentially performance art on the red carpet, showcasing unique takes on a fashion and artistic theme, while supporting the Met’s Costume Institute, the organization’s only fully self funded department. This year’s theme was the highly anticipated “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” and played into the essence of dandyism, a reclaimed form of expression by Black men that represented resistance and refinement. The fashion is heavily critiqued by the public, articles upon articles float around hypothesizing on the inspirations for the more outrageous outfits, and the keyboard warriors make their thoughts clear in the comment sections.
There is a reason that fashion captivates us as a people. A reason that many of us watch the coverage of the Met Gala religiously, hypothesize and dissect Heidi Klum’s Halloween costumes, watch influencers chat about where they got their newest outfit or Hermes bag (although luxury bags are something I’ll never understand). You may think to yourself, “these aren’t things that I do. I have literally no stake in fashion whatsoever.” While I respect your commitment to operating in a vacuum, that’s not entirely true. To quote Miranda Priestly’s unparalleled explanation of fashion’s importance in The Devil Wears Prada:
This… “stuff”? Oh, okay. I see. You think this has nothing to do with you.
You… go to your closet, and you select… I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean.
You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that, in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns, and then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent, wasn’t it?… who showed cerulean military jackets. I think we need a jacket here.
And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin.
However, that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of “stuff.”
While you may believe that your fashion choices (down to the most mundane selection of a white dress shirt in Costco) exist outside of the historical and social context of the fashion industry, this could not be further from the truth. When you dress in a suit for your job and you criticize at an intern who may dare to either purposefully ignore a socially acceptable professional dress code or simply hasn’t learned the nuances of presentation yet, you have perpetuated a fashion ideal that is actually (not shockingly) rooted deeply in racism, sexism, and elitism. When you search on Amazon for peasant tops or midi skirts because your favorite influencer was wearing a million dollar version and you’re looking for a more affordable dupe, you’re in fact playing into a national culture shift towards more conservative styles, trends, and values, reflected through fashion.
The boom of “trad wife” influencers is a microcosm of this societal shift towards a more conservative and traditional lifestyle; these women are often seen in the kitchen, stay at home girlfriends, wives, or mothers, making items from scratch while wearing designer outfits and speaking in low voices. They are always inordinately beautiful, thin, and more than often white. What they don’t say in their videos is that while they tote their stay at home lifestyle as traditional and natural while their husband works, they are in fact more often than not the breadwinner of their household, earning through sales commissions, advertisements, and paid partnerships.
There is nothing new about the “trad wife” aesthetic, but it’s been repackaged and reimagined in the social media era as an aspirational lifestyle trend to which young women can be seen subscribing online as their final destination. The connection to fashion is undeniable - these young women (many as young as in their early twenties) appear on screen in their million dollar homes and their high end clothing that is supposed to be paid for by their partner. Their children are adorable and look like they came out of a Ralph Lauren catalogue. They show their skin care and hair care products (with a commission label at the bottom of the video) and make sourdough in their stunningly naturally lit kitchens. Their comments are full of even younger women saying “goals,” “i was made to be a stay at home girlfriend,” “why did women fight for my right to work.”
This concerning path from fashion content to lifestyle choices to values represents a more feminine version of the alt right pipeline, which is always discussed as a pathway for young men to the ultra conservative via Youtube and incel content. Trad wife content is just as surreptitious and damaging to young women’s psyches as that kind of content is to young men, however it is overlooked as being superficial and entertaining (as most content geared towards young women is).
Fashion more broadly falls into this trap of being categorically dismissed while simultaneously shaping the public’s perception of history. Take Princess Diana for example - a queen of fashion, who knew how to wield her public perception through her presentation with precision and grace - when she wore her revenge dress on the same night that King Charles admitted infidelity in a televised interview. The stunning and timeless off the shoulder dress and her effortless ease with the press surrounding her, she managed to shift the narrative in her favor and capture the love of the public forever. When Queen Camilla showed up wearing a poor copy of the dress in an ill-fitting attempt at a comparable perception, the effort backfired and simply reignited the admiration for Diana’s grace under the unbearable circumstances in which her marriage had placed her. The definitive use of fashion as a revenge and publicity tactic was expert and practiced. Princess Diana remains a fashion icon and paparazzi images of her can be found all over instagram and pinterest as style inspiration to the modern day woman.
This is the power of fashion - not just to shape silhouettes, but to shape stories, personal and political, oftentimes both. Fashion can define history through silhouettes and seams, colors and corsets, heels and hemlines. While you may select a certain outfit for yourself, be aware that your taste is not curated in a vacuum, but with inspiration from history, politics, and the corporations that you buy from. These influences cannot be avoided, but they can be thoughtfully and intentionally used to share the story that you want to tell about yourself and your beliefs.
Further Reading:
https://fashionmagazine.com/style/tradwife-aesthetic/
https://fashinnovation.nyc/fashion-and-politics/
https://artfulliving.com/politics-of-fashion-2022/
https://artfulliving.com/top-political-fashion-moments-of-all-time/
https://qz.com/quartzy/1597688/a-brief-history-of-women-in-pants
https://www.vice.com/en/article/its-time-to-rethink-eurocentric-office-dress-codes/
https://www.complex.com/style/a/complex/a-history-of-racism-in-fashion
