History of Counter-Fashion

Markers of sartorial solidarity appear throughout the history of fashion. We, the members of the Rational Dress Society, call this counter-fashion. Throughout history we see individuals coming together in garments that embody a shared belief.

Situating our own work in counter-fashion within this context, we developed a performance lecture we call The Rational Dress Society Presents: a History of Counter Fashion.

This slide-lecture-meets-runway-show pair historical looks we recreated, (from the sans culottes of the French Revolution to the Black Panther Party uniform,) with information about radical and revolutionary dress.

The history of counter-fashion is as long as the history of fashion itself. We believe that by looking back to our historical brothers and sisters in protest, new ways of pursuing reform may be gleaned, and that new, more rational futures will be sown and sewn.