MU SE M AGA Z I NE
FASHION IS POLITICAL By Cassandra Littlewood
For a long time, fashion has been associated with personal expression, serving as a means to present one’s personality and interests to the world. However, fashion has not always received full credit for the ways in which it can express one’s political beliefs and intelligence. Protest and fashion have worked together for over a hundred years (at least!). Suffragettes wore hyper-feminine clothing to make the point that one did and should not have to wear typically masculine clothing to be perceived as a strong person. The Black Panther Party for Self Defence in the 60’s created a uniform for themselves—they made the black beret synonymous with their activism. For as long as Pride Month has continued, the LGBTQ+ community has expressed their cause by wearing different variations of the rainbow. More recently, female voters in the 2016 American Presidential Election wore pantsuits when they casted their vote for Hillary Clinton. The above examples illustrate how fashion has been employed to convey identity and political matters. However, using fashion as a form of protest is not always effective. So, when does it miss the mark? 16
FAS H I O N
