Activists on the New York catwalks, the return of slogan T-shirts and a wave of feelgood campaigns - with global politics in turmoil the fashion industry has come out fighting, says Phoebe Luckhurst

This season, Mara Hoffman’s New York Fashion Week show opened unusually. Instead of the pulse of a zeitgeist soundtrack — the lights poised to illuminate models trussed up in considered costumes — there was a pause for calm, followed by an impassioned address.

Hoffman, a womenswear designer who showed her collection on Tuesday, had invited the activists behind the Women’s March on Washington to speak before her show, as an acknowledgement of the global movement they kickstarted.

“There is no true peace until there is justice and equity for all,” Tamika D Mallory said. “Hear our voice.” The crowd — usually inscrutable and contemplative — cheered and stood to applaud.

“These women just pulled off the biggest human rights protest in the history of the country,” Hoffman observed afterwards. “Now’s the time to talk about it.”

This season, designers have taken protest as a trend. Their collections have functioned as a call to arms against the new White House administration which, at only three weeks old, has already moved to imperil the rights of many groups and minorities.

The slogan tees of the outspoken 1980s and 1990s are resurgent: sylph-like runners wore ones reading “Our voice is the only thing that will protect us” backstage at Jeremy Scott, and others put them on the catwalk. For his finale, Prabal Gurung sent every model out in a T-shirt marked with a declaration, including “I am an immigrant”, “My girlfriend is an immigrant” and “Revolution has no borders”. Gurung took his bow wearing one which said “This is what a feminist looks like”. Designer Christian Siriano observed “People are people” and Creatures of Comfort argued “We are all humans”.

Designers also used other media. Public School co-opted Trump’s slogan, sending models into the flashbulbs wearing cheeky baseball caps that read “Make America New York”, and The Row inscribed the word “hope” on to starchy cuffs. Mexican designer LRS’s white knickers were etched with two unsubtle messages: “f*** your wall” and “no ban, no wall”. Designer Adam Lippes hung banners and handed out Planned Parenthood badges.

Soundtracks served as protest songs: Cushnie et Ochs’ took lyrics from The Future Is Female, and Chromat thrashed home its point by choreographing its show to “F*** Donald Trump” on repeat.

It is important to be objective. Fashion is populated with liberal creatives, but while their protest messages are likely to be sincere it’s relevant to note that designers are also operating businesses. Most will be sensitive to the contemporary reality that such messages perform extraordinarily well on Instagram. Social media is a metric that interests investors.

Furthermore, protests are a fashion crowd-pleaser: especially, in a female industry, those which champion women. In turn, those women — many of them the staff of magazines and buyers at department stores — will promote the relevant products. The fashion industry is not especially interested in the concerns of the Rust Belt heartland to whom Trump’s victory is ascribed: liberal New York is its own echo chamber.

But revolutions are rarely won by cynics. And fashion has a credible history of insurrection: punk was born in Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s King’s Road shop Sex; in the 1980s Katharine Hamnett invented the slogan T-shirt to raise awareness for causes including environmentalism and peace in the Middle East. In the mid-1990s David LaChapelle presented two kissing (male) sailors as part of a risque campaign for Diesel and, more recently, many in the fashion industry signalled their support for the EU.

While badges can be issued swiftly to piggyback on a moment, many of the garments will have been in production for a while, suggesting designers have been sensitive to the darkening mood. Last season Dior created a T-shirt urging that “We should all be feminists”. Other brands have made politics central to their campaigns this season — which will also have been a while in the making.

For example, Diesel’s new campaign is entitled #makelovenotwalls. The imagery is emphatic: one picture features male models barricading a wall with an inflatable tank. Another shows two men kissing while a black woman tosses confetti at them, and in another, models crawl through a heart-shaped hole in the grey wall.

“The wall” has become the unpleasant leitmotif for Trump’s whole philosophy since the early stages of his candidacy. “We started working on this campaign last summer,” explains Diesel’s creative director Nicola Formichetti. “We took a look at the world and thought: ‘It doesn’t look very good right now’. More than ever, love and togetherness is crucial in creating a society we all want to live in.”

Diesel’s founder, Renzo Rosso, asserts that fashion has a responsibility. “We need to have the balls to break down barriers,” he says, “in a moment where fear is making the world divided with more walls.”

And as the fashion circus moves to London on Friday, capital-based brands will also be priming for revolution. Industry publication The Business of Fashion has launched #TiedTogether: founder Imran Amed suggests those in the industry “wear a white bandana as a sign that you believe in the common bonds of humankind — regardless of race, sexuality, gender or religion.” Models Gigi Hadid and Joan Smalls wore them at the Tommy Hilfiger show. Expect white flags on catwalks here, too.

Yesterday London fashion emporium Browns launched its #cooltobekind initiative: an installation set in the shopfronts of its its South Molton Street and Sloane Street stores. For its inaugural week London street artist Andy Leek will scrawl “big, bold notes of positivity” across the windows.

“I believe that fashion should be fun,” says Browns CEO Holli Rogers. “And endorphins produced when you smile can change your whole demeanour.” Leek will “refresh his messages every couple of days. We wanted to bring as many messages of kindness as we could to our customers.” He will also annotate changing room mirrors, and the store will give out stickers.

“It’s another way to spread the message,” says Rogers. “The fashion community has an opportunity to make a difference.” The idea has reportedly captivated the Mayor: Sadiq Khan believes Browns’ message chimes with his own that “London is open”.

Again, it is important not to be too credulous about such sentiments — brands pay executives handsomely to interpret, predict and feed off moods. But as Formichetti observes, fashion’s influence is estimable. “It stands at the crossing of culture, society, arts and culture,” he says, “and should be first to reflect what the world is going through.”

Ultimately, making money does not preclude effecting change. As fashion month continues the world will be watching London, Milan and Paris to see if each can match New York for stylish fury.

Source: http://www.standard.co.uk