Why Does Fashion Capitalize on Feminism?

Carson Gartner, 19, she/her/hers

Feminism has become a trend. Regardless of whether you call yourself a Feminist or align yourself with the ideology, that statement is a difficult one to challenge. Where does the line between social amelioration and corruption lie?

Simple t-shirts with big, bold text declaring solidarity with the Feminist movement such as the ones shown above have permeated not only the fashion industry, but thousands of closets the world around. Visit any high street apparel website Topshop, H&M, Forever 21 and you’d more than likely find at least one cheaper knock-off of the more expensive blatantly ‘Feminist Fashion’ (though, can you really ‘knock off’ a plain t-shirt with a few simple, common words printed on the front? That’s another discussion entirely) peddled by high fashion houses like Dior. Ambiguous manufacturing practices aside, what are the consequences of this recent popularization of ‘Feminist Fashion,’ and exactly how “Feminist” is this apparel? Fashion is an industry rooted in trend. Sometimes designers create new trends, but often we see age-old concepts “re-introduced,” such as the exploitation of ethnic and cultural practices through the unfortunate and unfortunately common practice of cultural appropriation. This ‘Feminist Fashion’ trend obviously doesn’t fall into that category, but there are striking similarities between the exploitation of Feminism and the exploitation of ethnic culture. Instead of creating new and innovative designs, these designers have capitalized on the resurgence and sudden popular favor of Feminism that has occurred in recent years. On a surface-level, of course, further popularizing the Feminist Movement is a positive thing for the push towards gender equality. But taking a surface-level stance on the issue is ignorant. There happen to be a bevy of issues with this form of ‘Feminist Fashion,’ politically, socially, economically, and…well, the list goes on and on.

LL 2017 (retails for $710) “A portion of the proceeds will go to Rihanna’s nonprofit The Clara Lionel Foundation.”

“White Feminism”

‘Feminist Fashion’ is privileged. Feminism is meant to focus on issues all women around the world face, and it’s just not very likely that someone who has the means to drop over $700 on a white t-shirt declaring “We Should All Be Feminists” really gives much of a shit about anything beyond their own firstworld scope. Dior has said that a portion of the proceeds from the shirt will go towards Rihanna’s nonprofit, The Clara Lionel Foundation…but what exactly does that mean? “A portion”? Anywhere from .01% to 99% of the $700 each shirt retails for could go towards the charity. Knowing fashion and, well, the capitalist system as a whole, it’s far more likely that the “portion” will be miniscule. Anyways, in what world does selling a white t-shirt for over $700 make close to any sense, even if it is Dior?? You’d be much better off just donating that $700 to an organization that benefits women, and Dior would be better off taking whatever the costs of designing, manufacturing, shipping, advertising, etc. add up to and donating that money to a non-profit that benefits the Feminist Movement.

Exploitation

Peddling apparel under the guise that you aim to benefit the movement, while racking up the retail price of that apparel to, at the lowest, about 1000% of what it costs to produce, is textbook exploitation. Not to mention, the companies behind this apparel -- both the high fashion houses and high street labels -- rarely operate under ethical manufacturing practices. You may be wearing an absurdly expensive t-shirt with the word FEMINIST in bold, black letters and patting yourself on the back, thinking ‘Good on me, I get brownie points for openly being a Feminist!’. Meanwhile somewhere in China, thousands of women spend nearly all day, every day locked up in overheated factories, producing that very shirt on your back that you think is so damn Feminist, for meager, unlivable wages. Which, as you can hopefully piece together, is not exactly a Feminist practice. In many cases, ‘Feminist Fashion’ does more direct harm for women than it does good.

The Clientele

This one is pretty simple: what sort of a bona-fide Feminist would spend hundreds of dollars on a ‘Feminist’ shirt when they could donate that money to a pro-woman cause? Who cares if it’s ‘designer’? Nobody but you would know or care. If you really, truly need apparel with the word “Feminist” pasted across the front, just go to Custom Ink or some other design-yourown-t-shirt website and make one for $20. Or better yet, get an old t-shirt you already own and print the words onto it yourself.

Image 1: PRABAL GURUNG FALL 2017 COLLECTION (retails for $195) Photo: Yannis Vlamos / indigital.tv

Image 2: JONATHAN SIMKHAI (retails for $95) “All proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood. To donate to Planned Parenthood, please click here.” Credit: jonathansimkhai.com

4. Feminism is more than you think it is.

Wearing ‘Feminist Fashion’ doesn’t make you a Feminist. If you want to learn more about the history of Feminism and the innumerable positions, views, and facets the movement encompasses, pick up a book and learn about it! For your benefit, I’ve compiled a cursory list of texts I’ve read that have helped me to understand Feminism in a more concrete sense:

The Sexual Contract – Carole Pateman

A Discourse On Inequality – Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Nietzsche, Feminism and Political Theory – Paul Patton

The Human Condition – Hannah Arendt

Feminist Interpretations of Hannah Arendt – Bonnie Honig

History of Sexuality, vol. 1 – Michel Foucault

Gender Trouble – Judith Butler

The Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory – Lisa Disch and Mary Hawkesworth

Gender and the Media – Rosalind Gill

The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change – Angela McRobbie

What A Girl Wants: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism – Diane Negra

Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn: Feminized Popular Culture in the Early Twenty-First Century – Elana Levine

The Economy of Desire: The Commodity Form in/of the Cinema – Mary Ann Doane

And for a more on-brand perspective, here are some readings on femininity as it relates to fashion:

Insecure: Narratives and economies of the branded self in transformation television – Alison Hearn

Between Frivolity and Art: Contemporary Niche Fashion Magazines – Ane Lynge-Jorlen

The Short, Passionate, and Close-Knit History of Personal Style Blogs – Rosie Findlay

-Luxury – Elizabeth Wilson

Fashionable Personae: Self-identity and Enactments of Fashion Narratives in Fashion Blogs - Monica Titton

Luxury, Consumer Culture and Sumptuary Dynamics – Mike Feather stone

Vogue’s New World: American Fashion ability and the Politics of Style – Alison Matthews David

The exposure of Feminism to the general public that ‘Feminist Fashion’ grants can and has been a good way to further mainstream the movement. But the bottom line is that Dior, Prabal Gurung, and the like are exploiting a global movement to capitalize through privileged consumers who likely don’t feel and possibly don’t understand or care much about the true repercussions and oppressive nature of gender inequality that the Feminist Movement aims to amend. Ditch the trendy t-shirt and take action!