News from the Fields: How Do US Presidential Elections Influence Fashion Trend
Every new season of American elections it becomes more interesting than the previous one: the last time we saw how an African American became president for the first time, this time for the first time this opportunity fell out to a woman - the former first lady and secretary of state. This event has inspired many designers to speak on a topic that concerns every US citizen. At the end of fashion weeks, we reflect on how designers use fashion to loudly declare their choice and encourage people to vote.
Fashion has always been a mirror of what is happening in the world, so political overtones are not new in designer collections. In 1995, Alexander McQueen told us about the eternal struggle of Scotland for independence, Walter van Beirendonck in 2015 called for stopping terrorism, and even Karl Lagerfeld could not resist talking about feminism last year, turning the Chanel show into a street demonstration. These are not all examples of how historical and political events are reflected in fashion collections.
On the eve of the elections, everything is much bigger. In 2008, when Metropolitan Barack Obama was president, many designers — not only Americans — created outfits in his honor. Derek Lam placed his choice on the canvas bag "Obama for President", Jean Charles de Castelbajac produced dresses with the face of the current president, embroidered with sequins, Sonia Rykiel showed dresses-sweaters with the inscription "Obama", and Stella McCartney, though not seasoned with a sharp political undertone his collection, but wrote in the press list for the show "PS Vote for Obama!" - hardly anyone could more clearly express their political preferences.
Designer Nicole Najafi proposes to declare her favorite to the whole world by choosing jeans with one of the inscriptions: #ImWithHer, #MadamePresident, #HillYes
This year the situation has not just not changed, but began to gain momentum. Opening Ceremony designers decided not to limit themselves to the usual shows, but gave a real debate on New York Fashion Week. Under the slogan “Show for the People”, creative directors of the brand Umberto Leon and Carol Lim invited not only models, but also comedians Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstin. They asked the guests of the show sharp questions, raising topics from migration reforms to the problems of the LGBT community. The political component emphasized the place of the show: the action took place in the Javits Center, where the shooting of the presidential candidates usually takes place. “It would be strange not to use fashion as a platform to speak about things that are of concern to us,” said Leon. At the time of the collection’s presentation, before the elections there were less than two months, so the designers decided to urge the audience not to stand aside and be sure to vote.
The very candidate and favorite of the race Hillary Clinton did not wait for the collection to be dedicated to her, and took control of the situation. She invited fifteen American designers to create T-shirts in their honor. The show, Made for History, took place in New York Fashion Week 2016 Autumn-Winter 2016. Marc Jacobs, for example, created a T-shirt with the image of a candidate in the spirit of the famous portraits of Warhol, Da-Ei Chow and Maxwell Osborne from Public School - with a concise, but labeled "Make herstory", Tory Burch - with the feminist slogan "Women's rights are human rights". It was a knight's move, because behind the designer T-shirts, a line of celebrities immediately lined up, who themselves have a serious impact on the minds of voters. Many of them do not hide their position and even spread to instagram. So did Lena Dunham, Demi Lovato, the Kardashian-Jenner-West family and others.
↑ Namilia show at the New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2017
But Nicole Najafi decided to perform solo. She already had a line of six minimalistic jeans, launched in 2014. The designer only carefully added them, embroidering various hashtags. Najafi offers to tell the world about his favorite by choosing jeans with one of the inscriptions: #ImWithHer, #MadamePresident, #HillYes, or any other in this spirit.
For whatever Clinton took, she does everything on a grand scale. So, as a stylist who would advise her and select outfits for the election campaign, she chose not anyone, but Anna Wintour herself. It is difficult to find a more influential figure in this area than the chief editor of Vogue. Wintour is not the first to cast a vote for the candidate from the Democratic Party: in 2008, when Barack Obama ran for president, she also supported him publicly.
If the designers support Hillary Clinton, they openly scoff at her opponent, Donald Trump. And, although his personal support team includes such celebrities as Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan and Tyla Tequila, fashion designers turned out to be less indulgent towards the representative of the Republican Party.
If designers support Hillary Clinton, then over her opponent, Donald Trump, they frankly scoff
Nan Li and Emilia Foul are positioning their Namilia brand as "commercial haute couture." At the New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer 2017, they mixed everything: religion, pop culture and politics. Ambiguous oversize dresses with the words "It's only the beggining", a jacket with silver stars on a blue background (suspiciously reminiscent of the American flag) with the slogan "You're just a toy" leaves an unpleasant aftertaste and evoke thoughts of how little, perhaps, The influence of big politics is influenced by the individual voices of ordinary citizens. The crown of the collection became the dress in the floor with the words "Take down Trump", which means literally "Get out, Trump." But if it seems to you that it cannot be worse, then here are a couple of examples. Some items were decorated with stripes of Donald Trump’s sketches in a parallel universe: here he lies and smiles, but the same smile doesn’t slip from his face when two guys urinate on him.
Designer Ricardo Seco could not calmly take Donald Trump's scandalous sayings about Mexicans (recall that the billionaire spoke many times harshly about migrants) and answered him in his collection autumn-winter 2016. Therefore, along with the use of ethnic Ricardo created a T-shirt with the words “I'm mexico. Who is Trump?”, which depicted a disgruntled presidential candidate wearing a poncho.
↑ Ekhaus Latta created T-shirts with the slogan "Election Reform"
Of course, there were those who, in general, did not like all this pre-election fuss. At the men's fashion week in Paris, Avoc presented a collection, during which some models appeared on the catwalk in masks of famous politicians: cartoon Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and, for some reason, Darth Vader walked the catwalk. This show once again makes you wonder whether the people who offer you to let them lead the country are real, and most importantly, sincere.
The Ekhaus Latta duo also acted cautiously: they only hinted in the spring-summer 2017 collection about their attitude to the elections, without calling for anyone to vote. Together with the artist and musician Brendan Fowler, they created T-shirts on which other T-shirts were embroidered with the slogan "Election Reform". Thus, they advise a sober look at life and a critical approach to events such as the November 8 elections.
Fashion shows, no matter how detached from life may seem, can not ignore what is happening around. Nobody argues that fashion is one of the ways to speak on a hot topic, but nowadays it’s more and more difficult to distinguish false. It is difficult to unambiguously understand whether this or that loud statement is conjunctural. Perhaps that is why many designers try to do it more subtly or are careful not to hear reproach in their address.
Photo: Getty Images (1), KM20
