The conventional wisdom is that actions speak louder than words. In recent fashion history, however, punchy catchphrases have found their place on tees and sweatshirts, from the runway all the way through the high-street. Late last year, Christian Dior’s first ever female creative director Maria Grazia wowed the industry press and beyond with her now iconic and often-referenced “We Should All Be Feminists” t-shirts. The slogan was typed in a rather passé sans serif font, and skeptics immediately questioned the legitimacy of her $710 creation. While some believed that Grazia’s t-shirt was her way of alluding to her groundbreaking appointment at the fashion house, others had suspicions about the authenticity of her message.
It’s not difficult to see why. Trends have always driven the way we wear clothes, and given the uncertainty of the time we’re living in — Brexit a.m. and Trump o’clock — it seems like now more than ever that standing up for a political cause is vital to gain a seat at the table on any huge cultural conversation. Dior may have been one of the first, but certainly not the last of fashion houses to launch such pieces meant to evoke a sense of social justice pride in the hearts of consumers everywhere, from Ashish’s eponymous label with “love sees no colour,” to Coco Capitán at Gucci’s “common sense is not that common” and Raf Simons at Calvin Klein with “I ♡ New York.”
Some do it better than others, of course, but many seem to get lumped into this very unflattering category of “you’re just doing it to hop onto some pop culture bandwagon and care more about design as emotional triggers than the actual issues surrounding those buzzwords.” With the mega businesses that fashion designers work for behind their ready-to-wear collections, it’s almost impossible to completely decipher if they’re being sincere or facetious.
Instead of second-guessing their intentions, it’s probably better to err on the side of giving them the benefit of the doubt. If anything, the emergence of the modern slogan tees have spurred meaningful conversations around the tumultuous climate we live in and how (if not yet) we can better react and effectively convey our opinions.
Header image: Come Trend
Other images: Refinery29, Farfetch, Matchesfashion.com
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