WHAT IS FASHION X EXPRESSION ?

On January 7^th, 2018, the world’s most esteemed actresses and icons alike stormed the Golden Globes red carpet in all black. An event that typically showcased colorful femininity and provocative silhouettes transformed into a resilient message reflecting the Time’s Up campaign, an enthralling response to the loud #MeToo movement aimed at combatting inequality, sexual harassment, and sexual assault in the workplace. The women of Hollywood, those typically interviewed on the designer they’re representing, their skincare routine, and their eating habits, were now posed with the question “Why are you wearing black?” Disheveling the status quo, prestigious women like Kerry Washington, Meryl Streep, Eva Longoria, and more took a stance against the silencing of victims and encouraged women to tell those around them that time is up. Oprah exclaimed that “for too long, women have not been heard or believed if they dared to speak their truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up.” These women didn’t wear black to create a fashion statement or to augment a symbol of status. They chose to wear black to start the conversation. To push the parameters of where we, as women, stand. They chose to wear black in unison, as one, to symbolize their mobility and strength to fight, to create a world where no woman would have to say #MeToo again. These black gowns were not the highlight or talk of that night, they were the driver in setting the scene for inspiration, coalition, strength, and promise for a better future. It wasn’t about fashion. It was about purpose. It was about expression. And it was about protesting against the masculine, power-hungry abuse that has been reflected in so many females truths. 

            Throughout history, fashion has been shamed as a materialistic, unsustainable, environment-depleting, everchanging trend obsolescent, hyper body-conscious façade, but that’s not my focus here. I don’t intend to argue with you on the intricacies of why you or someone you know has chosen to reject fashion. I intend to show you how fashion liberates, how it defines, and how it holds meaning through its expression. When you take a step back from all the trending ‘anti’ arguments, you can see that the industry often epitomizes representation, that it shapes our relationships with the political and cultural movements of its time. Fashion has not, nor will it ever be, solely about useless vanity. Fashion shapes identities. It shapes meaning. And it holds great influence. 

Whether it was the suffragettes and their three-striped regalia more than 100 years ago, fighting for the right to vote, or the all black uniformed Black Panthers in the early post-Malcom X era, fighting against racism and police brutality, fashion has held itself to be a depiction of cultural and political movement towards change. We see fashion transcend and combat against existing social parameters across decades: the LGBTQ movement adopting the rainbow pattern as a battle for the freedom to love and the freedom to be; the feminist movement embracing the ‘pink pussyhat’ upon Donald Trump’s election as a showcase of discontentment with the Western political system; the sons of the French Revolution wearing red, white, and blue striped cockades in support of liberty, equality, and fraternity; or the women of congress dressing in all white at the 2019 State of the Union Address as an emblem of solidarity and a vocalization for the ongoing fight towards women’s rights and gender equality. 

Whatever we have fought for in the past, whatever we aspire to change in the future, fashion has been and will forever be a mode of individual, communal, and national manifestation. Fashion X Expression will defend this misunderstood art. Fashion X Expression will explore the industry’s everchanging roles – where it defines, where it liberates, where it proves itself to mean more than just the exterior.  

By Bella Sprague