In the last few years, slogan tees and jumpers have become the uniform of our times. They’re eye-catching, thought-provoking; a way of instantly branding yourself as part of a movement. And while the slogan tees that crowd the racks at Topshop and Primark have been dismissed by all sorts as being faddish or simplistic, the ultimate easy virtue signal, the truth is that fashion and politics have always been intertwined.
Throughout history, people have used clothes to make political statements or drive real social change – what better way is there to start a movement than with the clothes on your back? Here are some of the most revolutionary clothes of the last 100 years.
Who wears the trousers?
During World War II, while the men went off to war, thousands of women entered the workforce. While those who worked in public-facing jobs still wore skirts and dresses, other women started working in factories producing ammunitions and contributing to the war effort. And rationing meant that many wore their husband’s civilian clothes to work – namely trousers and dungarees.
When the war ended, many women were reluctant to give up the freedom of movement that trousers allowed – the comfort, the utility, the pockets! Coco Chanel was one of the earliest famous adopters, often dressing in her boyfriend’s suits until she bit the bullet and designed a pair of trousers specifically for women. By 1939, when Vogue first featured women in trousers, they were seen as a statement of women’s freedom from the gender roles that had confined them to their homes for so long. Not to mention looking pretty damned fly.
All hemmed in
The 1960s heralded the beginning of a new era of sexual freedom – women’s lives were changing rapidly; they suddenly had access to birth control, there was a influx of young, single women moving to the cities to build careers, and women who had been confined to unhappy marriages were breaking out of them as divorce rate started to rise. Against this landscape of sexual liberation, the miniskirt was born.
London designer Mary Quant is often cited as the pioneer of the miniskirt, but according to the Telegraph Quant credited her customers, saying: “It was the girls on the King’s Road who invented the mini. We would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, ‘Shorter, shorter.’”
But was the mini a symptom of the sexual revolution, or something deeper? As fashion historian Deirdre Clemente explains to Bustle, “...clothing trends aren't 'reflective' of change, but rather constitutive of change. So women didn't say 'Hey I'm sexually liberated, I need to go get a mini-skirt.' Rather in wearing the mini-skirt they live out the identity that they are. Clothing is not reactive but proactive."
Summer(s) of love
Towards the end of the 60s, a huge counterculture movement was underway. Subscribers to the lifestyle called themselves hippies and were united by their anti-war sentiment, their liberal attitude towards sex and drugs (particularly marijuana and LSD) and a deep connection to folk and rock music. This all culminated in 1969 at Woodstock, where half a million people descended on a rock festival in upstate New York to celebrate love, peace and the music that would become the soundtrack of a revolution.
As hippies rejected mainstream American culture, they favoured clothes that celebrated other cultures. Both men and women often had long, unruly hair and headbands, beads, bell-bottoms and tie-dyed t-shirts were all key parts of the look. Rebelling against corporate culture meant hippies tended to make their own clothes or bought them second-hand, so they were often patched or embroidered – turns out that embellishment trend we’ve all been spending big on started as a thrifty necessity.
Flowers also became an important symbol of the hippie movement. Many people would embroider flowers on their clothes or wear floral arrangements in their hair to emphasise their connection with nature. So we know who to thank for flower crowns.
(Drag) Queens of New York
1969 was a big year – while hippies frolicked upstate, in the city things were kicking off. At the time, same-sex relationships were still illegal, gay establishments were banned and you could be arrested merely for “impersonating a female” (note: this law remained on the books until 2011). As a well known gay hangout New York’s Stonewall Inn was regularly raided by the police – but on 28 June 1969, the gay community decided to fight back. The Stonewall riots, a series of violent demonstrations at the bar followed by several days of protests, became the stuff of legend; a catalyst for activism, a worldwide news story and the birth of the gay liberation movement of the 20th century.
One of the most notable figures at the Stonewall riots, Marsha P. Johnson was a trans woman who fought passionately for LGBTQ rights in America. She used her vibrant and, given attitudes of the time, controversial outfits to make a statement about the laws that impeded on the freedoms of the LGBTQ community.
Over the next few years, drag activists used their prominent community status, clothing and visibility to advance the LGBTQ movement around the world. And the right to a gender-fluid wardrobe is one we’re still fighting for today.
The original slogan tee
Designer Katharine Hamnett was the mother of the slogan t-shirt, bringing them to prominence in the 80s when she famously greeted Margaret Thatcher during London Fashion Week while wearing a t-shirt that read “58% don’t want Pershing” – a clear political statement to the Prime Minister on how people felt about the relocation of US missiles to UK soil.
Talking to The Guardian, Hamnett explained: "Slogans work on so many different levels; they're almost subliminal. They're also a way of people aligning themselves to a cause. They're tribal. Wearing one is like branding yourself."
In 2005, to protest proposed anti-terrorist legislation, Vivienne Westwood produced a similar tee that read: “I AM NOT A TERRORIST, please don’t arrest me”. And last year, Christian Dior and Prabal Gurung released their own slogan tees, emblazoned with feminist slogans, which grew ever more popular off the back of celebrities such as Madonna, Rihanna and Jennifer Lawrence. Exploding into the mainstream via social media and high street copies made their powerful sentiments accessible to pretty much every girl and woman in the UK.
So while your ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ tee might feel innovative, it’s part of a long history of people using what they wear to make statements about how they feel. Clothes are often dismissed as frivolous flights of fancy, but in truth they’ve been an instrumental tool in almost every social justice campaign for the last 100 years. So next time you slip on your slogan tee, do it with pride – you’re joining a long line of people who used the clothes on their backs to show the world what they believed in.
