How women reclaimed their place in fashion
THE year in fashion was one in which women made news, for better and for worse, for what they designed, what they wore and what it all said about the role of attire in the broader culture.
It was a year of pantsuits and pussybows, of sheath dresses and sundresses, of feminism writ large – or spelled out, even, in pointed messages on expensive T-shirts.
Within the fashion industry, women took on leadership roles at design houses at the upper echelons of the business.
Bouchra Jarrar stepped in at Lanvin, for example, and brought boudoirinspired beauty to a brand that had been roiled by the firing of longtime designer Alber Elbaz. Laura Kim took the reigns at Oscar de la Renta along with fellow creative director Fernando Garcia. Rihanna proved that she – not the voluble Kanye West – was the celebrity who has the sneaker deal, and the real eye for fashion rather than just self-promotion.
And the storied Christian Dior appointed its first female creative director in the label’s 70-year history. In her September debut, Maria Grazia Chiuri, formerly of Valentino, presented fencing-inspired jackets and tulle-embroidered evening gowns – but she also declared the importance of women exerting their power, with the words of feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on her show’s soundtrack: “We say to girls: You can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful, otherwise you will threaten the man.”
Her models wore T-shirts declaring: “We should all be feminists.”
Adichie, meanwhile, signed on as the face of British makeup brand No 7, making it clear that fashion and feminism are not mutually exclusive. Marc Jacobs sparked an uproar over his use of dreadlocks on the runway when some took offence at what they called cultural appropriation. And then Jacobs made the mistake of trying to mansplain black hair to his black female critics. He stood down.
Women and their connection to pow- er was a topic on the mind of New Yorkbased designers in particular. Much of the musing was connected to the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, which drew tremendous support from Seventh Avenue, including a fundraising fashion show and a formal endorsement from Vogue magazine. Jacobs declared his support for her with, among other things, a bedazzled T-shirt emblazoned with her image. At the Michael Kors show, singer Rufus Wainwright interrupted his performance to declare: “I’m with her.”
The fascination with female strength was a subtext for many designers as they considered what ultimate power would look like draped around the shoulders of a woman.
Pantsuits took on new meaning, too. They became symbolic of Clinton’s quest to make history as the first female president and on Election Day, they turned into a proclamation of solidarity. If those suits were white, folks connected them to suffragists. If they were designed by Ralph Lauren, they were met with a nod of aesthetic approval and a sigh of relief from her supporters that maybe, just maybe, she was getting her fashion act together.
All the considered attention paid to assuring that Clinton’s clothes, hair and makeup were just right, stood in contrast to the disheveled man on the other side of the partisan divide. Donald Trump wore his ill-fitting suits like a declaration of his angry populism.
President-elect Trump’s most potent surrogate may well have been his daughter Ivanka, who regularly wore sheath dresses from her own fashion company and expressed her concern for the travails of working mothers. Her clothing style was refined professionalism – affordable polyester and discreet darts. Still, her company became a point of contention for its outsourced production and its licensing deal with a firm that fails to live up to her own standards for family leave.
And while an onslaught of publications ably assessed the aftermath of the presidential election, the most surprising was Teen Vogue. Under the leadership of its new editor, Elaine Welteroth, the magazine recently published an essay about the “gaslighting” of America: the demise of fact, the effect of misdirection, the negotiability of truth. It was a reminder that just because a girl cares about glitter Gucci loafers and floral handbags doesn’t mean she isn’t interested in the fate of the democracy as well.