From the Golden Globes blacked out dress-code, the Grammy’s white roses to Kim Jong-un’s tailoring and Meghan Markle’s M&S jumper, fashion is the news of the day.
Fashion has never been so important – and yet you can forget all about hemlines, which have never mattered less. Today, statement dressing is more than colour clashing or outlandish accessories. But how much has the importance of dressing evolved from the likes of Margaret to Meghan?
In recent times, it seems fashion is the lens in which we view the world. The home-knitted pink pussy hats adorned by those protesting across the Western world to advocate legislation and policies regarding human rights matter more than colour of the season. White roses grab headlines more than which designer the celebrities are wearing. Politics, ideology and identity are narrated through clothes. Back in 2016 we watched Hillary Clinton accept the nomination as Democratic candidate for the election wearing a white pantsuit as making a feminist statement. We watch Kim Jong-un swap his Mao suit for western-style tailoring, and Meghan Markle ditching the protocol gown by arriving to a black-tie event dressed in a suit. We saw the BAFTA guests follow suit from the Golden Globes attendees who were symbolically dressed in black to show solidarity with victims of sexual harassment for the Times Up initiative. Are we more sensitive than ever before to the messages of clothing? Perhaps. As indicated of the outrage sparked by H&M’s recent controversy over their ad of the ‘Coolest monkey in the jungle’ sweatshirt photographed on a black child model.
(Getty Images: Saoirse Ronan, Tracee Ellis Ross, Margot Robbie, Zoe Kravitz and Alison Brie are among the best dressed at the 75th Annual Golden Globes.)
Though, although it seems to be more overt – it is not the first-time fashion has been an important social marker or how a woman presents herself. Coco Chanel uttered her famous line about fashion reflecting the world in which we live in almost a century ago. Royal protocol has been established for centuries. What people wear has always been a marker of one’s self.
This month, from 3 February 2018 until 28 April 2019 Royal Women opens at the Fashion Museum in Bath, with the intention of interrogating the wardrobes of queens Alexandra, Mary, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret not just for their style and beauty, but for “the role they played within the monarchy and how that was reflected in their choice of dress”. For £9 (£8 for students), we can appreciate the stories behind the dresses and how the choice of colour, cut or style can tell us much about these women, and how they wished to portray themselves as royal women to the world.
The dresses on exhibition worn by the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, show her glamorous side and her patronage of designers such as Christain Dior and Norman Hartnell. A far cry from the tactical dressing of the royal women of today who opt for a balance between high end designers and ready-to-wear or High Street brands in efforts to refute ideas of personal extravagance and create a sense of accessibility to the ordinary woman.
Perhaps what will be most evident from the exhibition will be how that in today’s digitally connected society, the age of Instagram and the selfie, we are more aware of our reflection than ever before and how present ourselves to the world. So, fashion, the most bewitching mirror of them all, finds itself spot lit and in this light no royal member, company or celebrity can afford to be tone death.
- Royal Women, Fashion Museum Bath, 3 February – 28 April 2019