Research

I wanted to have a solid beginning to my research. I decided I needed to look at what people were already doing with fashion relating to politics. I looked at the obvious, Chanel s/s15 and Vivienne Westwood s/s15. I admire the way designers choose to project their political statements but as I am not a designer I decided I needed to keep looking and see how different promoters make fashion political. I then started looking at films on show studio. There is a whole project on political fashion films!

Most of the films I watched were very clever. They made their points subtly, beautifully, and also powerfully. I think another interesting way to approach this political fashion would be to make a point but in a very ugly way, something unexpected.

'Believing fashion to be intrinsically political, from December 2007 through summer 2008 Nick Knight staged a multi-level film and essay project, encouraging creatives to use the medium of fashion to convey their political beliefs, agendas and thoughts. '  

Quote from - http://showstudio.com/project/political_fashion/films/


There was one video in particular that I thought was very powerful by Craig McDean. It is not about any particular political issue. Rather it is about the idea of fashion and politics colliding. Seeing what people think of the idea of fashion in politics is fascinating. I think that it is a rather old film, so I would be intrigued to see how those same people would react to that question if they were asked today.

"It's all the same, Fashion Politics, Politics Fashion. Sue Art, Art Sue ."

"Fashion is relevant to politics in a very subtle way."

"Fashion and Politics? They don't go very well together. People who are in fashion should not be in politics."

"Political correctness is bullshit. I will tell you the truth about anything. I for instance love skinny and hate hate fat. I don't like human beings either."

"I like a good terrorist look."