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.