Manifesto of dress: Political intersections in fashion lecture-performances

Abstract

This article argues for the consideration of the lecture-performance as a genre that offers rich possibilities for critical fashion discourse, one that is uniquely suited to the material, embodied nature of clothing.The article recounts a lecture-performance by Australian-based design group The Stitchery Collective, which explored moments in history that demonstrate fashion’s capacity to resist, rebel and turn the political into the fabulous. From Amelia Bloomer’s bloomers to the sans-culottes of revolutionary France, fashion has acted as a tool and medium for great social protest and momentum for change. In contemporary fashion, local designers in Australia embed counter-fashion ideology into their business practices to offer a counteraction to the more negative effects of capital-F Fashion. The lecture-performance aimed to reframe personal consumption choices in the now, via the political fashion of the past, as politically motivated and most of all, capable of contributing to real change. The Stitchery proposed that in fashion, the personal is political and the political is personal, both throughout history and in the present day. The creative work combined public lecture, historical dress up, contemporary fashion showcase and call to action in an engaging lecture-performance format.