Fashion for the Body Politick*
- Sep 8, 2025
- 6 min read
*The Body Politick(TBP)
A metaphor where the state is likened to a human body,
with its various parts (people, institutions, etc)
working together for the common good.
Historically, it's often associated with hierarchical structures
and even autocratic rule, where the sovereign or leader
is seen as the head of the body.
Why am I writing about Fashion & Politics together? What could they possibly have that joins them at the hip, across time, across the planet, across culture and class, as well as ethnicity, education, profession, religion, and lifestyle?
The answer, Dear Reader, is Everything!
If power and money are a seductive cocktail, adding style to the mix is a ravishment which will make you swoon. Power, as well as purpose, is styled into being, into being seen, into being taken seriously.
These photographs show three dresses circa 1915; the one on the right is called a “Suffragette Suit”.
It’s little more than a temporal blip on the Fashion Timeline, but when you see these images, you not only know when in time they belong, but you also have a good sense of who wore them, what mattered to them, and their political leanings
They’re so much more than just a garment, aren’t they? They’re imbued with the wearer’s intents and choices, her very standing as a citizen.
So we can see that in most places, and times, Power, Purpose, and Style go together
like a Queen and a crown.
Chocolate and salt.
Pineapple and pizza. 😎
Power is styled into being; manifested as the physical incarnation of respect demanded and given, deference expected and given, control taken and wielded.
And don’t you just know, from the first time a person was deemed special, someone thought, “That person should wear something special to mark their exceptional position amongst our people”— and Style was born, attached, as if with an umbilical cord, to Power, feeding off it, and in turn, feeding it an enhanced version of itself, manifesting power as something visually recognizable.
Long before the first stylish Egyptian lined an eye, there were markers of who had “It” and who did not.
It matters not what that marker literally was–a special rock, a carved bone, a feather, a bit of fur-nor how they carried it–in their hand, atop their head, woven into hair, or around the neck-it marked the bearer as special, standing out & above all others- meaning those who lacked this special enhancement. The bearer was styled into the power they were thought to hold, whether as a war-leader, or a Shaman.
It’s fascinating how ever since, we’ve been styling ourselves into our ideas, our powers, our passions, our goals, our careers, and our identities. We see a garment and immediately some of us want it, want to wear it, want to be in it and feel what it provides. Others don’t like it on sight.
Power comes, for many, from being seen as powerful
Power clothing has always existed–The images we know of Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, and Queen Elizabeth II are detailed with the contemporary elements of the kind of power and purpose they wanted those whom they ruled over to see, accept, and be in awe of.
The garments of power and purpose which we choose ourselves, now, are as much about how they make us feel and look, as about how it they make others perceive and feel about us, and see our power, or influence, or desirability.
Our wealth, our power, our control over others–all are communicated through what we wear, along with what we love, what we do, our music, our quirks, and so much more.
Throughout history, for women, power clothing has come in many forms, and one of the very first, and most enduring, ways power clothing came to women, was in the form of the apron.
This is not a trifling matter; the apron was the unironic symbol of status and power of The Lady of the House, from the invention of the loom, until well into the 20th century, and for some, even now. I’ll be back with more about aprons in another blog.
Thousands upon thousands of years later we’re still at it, because it plays a major role in how we see ourselves, and how we fit into our Communities, as well as Society, & the World.
Since ancient times, those with “It” - usually money, with or without power, though when have you ever seen it without? - have dictated to those without certain limitations of their self expression through style.
Certain materials, might be reserved for those in power. Certain colors and especially fabrics. Styles even.
Having style means playing within the boundaries set by Society–while slyly putting the perfectly pointed toe of one of your Louboutins, or Chucks, right on the fence gate. Nudging that gate open in a way that only you can, for yourself.
Many professions even now come from a tradition of a certain garment, or uniform, as well as color, signifying who was part of that group. The Ancient World took that literally, for ethnic groups as well, and to this day we have ethnic identity represented in ethnic dress.
For the most part, today we see it as a professional/occupational note, a way to discern those who are part of such groups, including the military, medical, restaurants, and yes, The Body Politick, because they don’t knock on your door to ask for your vote while wearing “I was cleaning out the attic” budget store clothing, do they?
So my query, my “blog thesis” so to speak, is this:
Who has power, what are they wearing, and who influences their fashion choices?
We’ll explore different aspects of how The Body Politick is itself a definer of fashion, style, and power, while at the same time the muse, the influencer, and the target, and how that influence focuses its effects on women (mostly), but also men, separately & differently.
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We’ll take a look in detail at what different classes of women were legally or socially barred from wearing at different times in different places, and why, and contrast them with the items men were legally enhanced for wearing, and why, as well as those items in the grey zone–or as I like to call it, the “It Simply Isn’t Done, Darling” zone, where we stop ourselves from making the kind of mistakes that might get us banned from the Royal Ball.
For example, in Ancient Rome, at some point, prostitutes (at a time they are long removed from the temples) were restricted from certain garments which would make them look like ordinary, “respectable” women. There is nothing equating that for men, of course.
I’ll allow you to recover from the shock.
If it wasn’t one thing, it was another, right up to the present day:
Bare your breasts. Don’t bare your breasts. How dare you bare your breasts.
Cover yourself. Don’t cover yourself. How dare you not cover yourself.
Don’t cover yourself. Cover yourself. What are you hiding by covering yourself?
And so it goes.
In many respects, The Body Politick differs little from the editorial staff of Vogue; decisions based on personal judgement and taste are made by a mysterious, nearly anonymous group on the
50th floor of an impressively sleek glass & modern skyscraper somewhere in Manhatten.
Two years later you’re wearing a cerulean blue sweater you got on clearance.
You go to your closet and you select that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back.
But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue. It's not turquoise. It's not lapis. It's actually cerulean.
And you're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. And then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic Casual Corner…where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin.
However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs.
And it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact…you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room…from a pile of "stuff."
~Miranda Priestly, as played by Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006)
Please join me here, in The Red Tent Fashion Pavillion, over tea & freshly made scones, for a historic & legal perspective on Fashion, Style, the ways we style ourselves into a manifested identity, and how our idea of our own power, or lack thereof, plays into our own fashion and lifestyle choices.
We’ll have such fun!
~Violette 💜
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