Bash the fash?

'Dismiss fashion as trivial and you dismiss the issues of workers rights, globalisation, the environment, cultural representation, identity construction and body image to name but a few.

From anti-Bush t-shirts to £10,000 dresses, the bits of cloth we put on our bodies all have history and meaning. Wear a hijab or the niqab and you’ll be attacked by Jack Straw and outlawed by the French Government. Wear a miniskirt and some courts will say that you are to blame for being raped. Since polyester is made from oil, fashion has even taken us to war.'

So begins an excellent article, the first installment in a wide-ranging 5-part series on the politics and economics of fashion by Tansy Hoskins. The remaining contributions are to be published weekly on Counterfire, concluding in London Fashion Week in late September.

Tansy is one of the organisers of 'Fashion on Trial', a political event in east London on 29 September. It will be a chance to further explore the issues discussed in the Counterfire series.  


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