My Feminist Fashion Icon.

What is a ‘feminist fashion icon’?

Is it a iconic female figure who works in fashion? A feminist who is perpetually stylish? A past designer who has liberated us from restrictive clothing? Or merely a strong celebrity who makes brave fashion choices? Pondering this has seen me leaping from Mary Quant to M.I.A., from Helena Bonham Carter to Coco Chanel. In short – I’ve struggled. Would it not be reductive to admire a feminist for her beauty? Repetitive to praise a female fashion designer? Limiting to applaud a celeb for her ‘man-repelling’ sartorial choices? And to venerate a woman who works hard and looks good – isn’t that a little, well, dated?

’40s Hairstyles’ by Daniela Turudich

Heat magazine would have you believe that feminism and fashion are mutually exclusive; women who are known for their beauty aren’t often discussed in terms of their achievements or viewpoints, and those who perhaps play a more ‘political’ role can often find themselves undermined with a critique (or criticism) of their wardrobe choices. If all else fails, a stylish actress who has a successful career can always be brought down to size with a mention of her failing love life:

‘Reveal’ magazine

Anyway – back to the topic. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realised that developing a love of a fashion icon, like feminism, can be a solitary road. Of course, there are those people that we are all inspired by – I can’t help but drool over Olivia Palermo’s wardrobe along with tons of others – but the forming of actual icon, for me, is the stitching together of a patchwork of references, something of highly individual appeal. Add feminism into the mix, and it gets a whole lot tougher.


In the end, I shifted my focus from feminist fashionistas to fashion-aware feminists, and this led me to a woman who has an incredible awareness of women’s visual role in society. I chose photographer Cindy Sherman.

ponygraph.blogspot.com                                  masters-of-photography.com

Sherman is known for her unnervingly realistic characterisations of various stereotypes, from prostitutes to ingenues, from corpses to the subjects of famous paintings – including women, men… and people who are far more androgynous. 

fundacion.telefonica.com

Her best known photos are of herself in different guises – she is not taking self-portraits, but inhabiting characters, as in the B-movie stills above. The passivity – and in some case, lifelessness – of her characters lends an eerie quality to these vaguely familiar female figures. It is almost as though these figures have lost their identity…or never quite had that sense of who they were. In some way it reminds us that many of us, however strong, are wearing masks or adopting a persona. Sometimes these are well-honed performances that have become second nature, sometimes they are thinly-veiled attempts to hide our true selves.

So what of her link with fashion? 

She has shot four photo series, including ones for Vogue, Interview and Harper’s Bazaar, but Sherman was also commissioned by Comme de Garcons to do a photo spread for a 1994 clothing campaign. The photographs, instead of displaying the beauty of the clothes, drew attention to Sherman’s bizarre characterisation of ‘anti-models’, scarred, in masks, or with make-up overdone. A strange combination, perhaps, until you consider that Comme de Garcons‘ clothes often subvert ideas of fashion and femininity, just as Sherman’s characters do.

slate.com

From fashionartedit.blogspot.com

Perhaps surprisingly, Sherman is a devoted fan of Marni, a label which eschews ‘obvious sexuality’ for innovations in both cut and colour-blocking. I think their clothes are beautiful in their ‘ugliness’, something that I think can be said of much of Sherman’s work. From the Marni website:

http://www.marni-international.com

The fashion house, like Sherman, chooses to leave its clothes open to interpretation – and like her, avoids having one representation of its ‘self’. Interviews with her suggest that she likes the theatricality of fashion, which would explain her love of Balenciaga…

Interview by Betsy Byrne in TATE Magazine, issue 5

Sherman wearing Marni – style.com

Feminist critics are divided in their opinions about Sherman’s work – some feel that depicting women in such a voyeuristic manner only compounds the stereotypes. To me, her photographs highlight the focus on the physicalities of women, and challenge notions of beauty even as she embraces fashion as an art form. In her extreme attempts at ‘dress-up’, Sherman has explored the fashion world photographically, with work that seems to mock fashion’s apparent superficiality while using its transformative potential to striking effect.  

Who would your feminist fashion icon be?

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‘My Feminist Fashion Icon’ is part of a series of blog posts by the Feminist Fashion Bloggers. To learn more, click here. To join the group, click here. And to read submissions by the other members, follow the links below:

Björk – Oranges and Apples

Christine Legarde – Rags Against the Machine
Claude Cahun – Cervixosaurus

Diane von Furstenberg –  For Those About to Shop

Elizabeth Smith Miller – Techie Style

Ellen Page – SK{ru}SH

Frida Kahlo – La Historiadora de Moda from Fashionable Academics

Frida Kahlo – Knitting Up the Ravelled Sleeve of Care

Gloria Steinem – Ef for Effort

Gloria Steinem – What If No-One’s Watching?

Grandmother – The House in the Clouds

Griselda Pollock – Magic Square Foundation

Hedy Lamarr – Adventures in Refashioning

Joan of Arc – Interrobangs Anonymous

Julia de Burgos – Mad Dress Game

Margaret Cho – What Are Years?

Marjane Satrapi – Jean of all Trades

Oroma Elewa – Fishmonkey

P.J.Harvey – Northwest is Best

Rachel Carson – Aly en France

Siouxsie Sioux – Yo Ladies
Sydney Fox – My Illustrative Life 

Vivienne Westwood – Seamstress Stories