Fashion and Politics Are Changing

Fashion and resistance once went together like Cinderella and her glass slipper, but lately the two have seemingly separated.

At the 2024 Met Gala celebrating delicate antique garments in its "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion" theme, stars played it straight with florals and darkness, honoring the dress code of "The Garden of Time." Simultaneously, New York's Hunter College students in protest of the war in Gaza chanted "We will not stop, we will not rest" just outside the annual gathering.

Celebrities and designers essentially ignored humanitarian crises of the world — from Israel's war with Palestinians in the Gaza strip to increasing instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo — during an event that isn't usually shy about welcoming sociopolitical disruption.