Fashion and Feminism

Abstract

Feminism and fashion are intimately connected in a myriad of ways: through their ethics and aesthetics (or their lack thereof); their urge to affect the status quo; their preformativity; and their “obsession” with gender. They also share a mutual history, with women’s demands for economic, social, and political equality emerging alongside fashion becoming “democratized.” This chapter offers first a historical account of the relationship between the two, starting with a discussion of the critique of fashion which was articulated by the suffragette movement and how, at the same time, fashion came to play an important role for creating acceptance of that same movement. The chapter then discusses fashion’s role for women’s emancipation in the twentieth century, all while including a discussion of how fashion was critiqued by second and third wave feminists as embodied imprisonment and how fashion came to be “defended” by feminst fashion scholars at the end of that century. Finally, the chapter tries to offer an analysis of what fashion and feminism can “do for each other” at a point in time when the fashion industry is under severe pressure, and also, at a time when identity and feminist politics are being attacked from anti-democratic and extreme right-wing corners.