As we know, dress has always been a form of self-expression. Historically, dress has been defined as to wear clothes in a particular way or of a particular type. A key point of fashion is having a distinct style and allowing clothes to portray a message about who people are underneath them.
The sentiments of the 2016 presidential election have, as expected, carried over into 2017 as President Trump took office.
We have seen a big crossover between fashion and politics during this time. The headlines of Vogue read, “Millennial Pink Might Be the Trendiest Color — But Can You Wear It?” “Melania Trump Wears Green to Meet Queen Rania of Jordan,” “Chloe Gosselin Launches Stand Tall With Planned Parenthood, With a Little Help From Her Shoe Designer Friends” and “6937’s Best-Selling Barack Obama Tees Are Back to Cure Your Political Blues.”
As if Twitter and Facebook rants were not enough, the fashion world is giving everyone another outlet to allow their political voice be heard, and it only makes sense. If the true definition of dress and style is self-expression, why should Americans who feel strongly enough one way or the other not express through the clothes they wear?
This crossover between the two worlds is not new, though. In the 1960s, black citizens showed their support for the civil rights movement by wearing imported African jewelry and styling their hair in afros and cornrow braids.
During the gay rights movement and the rise of hippie culture, we saw a distinct defiance from social norms at the time from both of these groups. The hippie culture normalized the T-shirt and blue jeans look and vintage clothing, while the gay rights activists donned the bright colors adorned on their flag.
Today, big names in fashion such as Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, and actress and model Emily Ratajakowski, showed their support during New York Fashion Week by wearing Planned Parenthood pins on their tops and jackets.
Widely popular fashion designers, including Zac Posen, Tom Ford, Christian Siriano and Marc Jacobs, took political stances by refusing to dress Melania or any other members of the first family.
On the other hand, Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana thanked Melania earlier this year for wearing one of his gowns on New Year’s Eve and said he would be happy to dress her in the White House.
It does not stop with designers not wanting to dress the first family though. Ivanka Trump has her own fashion line that some women have been boycotting as a way of protesting her father and his beliefs. Hateful and politically driven comments currently fill the reviews section of her boots on Amazon.comitalicize websites -eg.
Some of the titles of the reviews read, “Too restrictive, not enough room for growth, will only fit the 1 percent” and “You get what you ask for, boots edition.” One reviewer even wrote, “These boots were made for walking your ass right back to the 19th century.”
Ivanka has yet to comment on the reviews.
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