Social and political protests are part of a history of the body: from bras thrown into “freedom trash cans” by American feminists in the 1960s to the nudity of Femen, from the Gilets jaunes to the Bonnets rouges, via the black k-way of the black blocs, appearance is part of the message. It is itself a slogan. Clothing — between ostentation and discretion — feeds the spectrum of resistance, fuels the staging of protests, and gives them visibility, even if that means, as with the Black Blocs, playing on protective anonymity. As a political language, clothing contributes to the construction of an antagonism that it both reveals and reinforces. It belongs to those forms of non-verbal communication that express both the contestation of power and female empowerment, the rejection of the globalized market economy and the celebration of recycling championed by fashion activists. Beyond clothing itself, this is also a history of the body, an expression of demands and of social and political resistance, between sensations and emotions.
Clothing, fashion and resistance; Credits: DR “Since costume is the most powerful of all symbols, the revolution was also a matter of fashion, a debate between silk and cloth” Balzac, Traité de la vie élégante, François Hourmant; Credits: DR François Hourman t is a professor of political science at the université d’Angers. Director of the Centre Jean Bodin, his research focuses on political imaginaries and representations. Committed to the study of the body in politics, he is also co-director of the Chaire Earth. He has published Pouvoir et Beauté (PUF, 2021) and L'étoffe des contestataires (PUF, 2024) and co-edited Vêtements, modes et résistances (Hermann, 2023). Yvane Jacob; Credits: Copyright-Philippe Leroux Yvane Jacob, author and fashion journalist. She runs the Instagram account Sapé comme jadis, dedicated to the history of fashion. She contributes to specialized magazines and journals, including: L’Étiquette, Harper’s Bazaar and Griffé. For France Culture, she is the producer of the radio series “Les vêtements qui ont changé le monde” (2025).
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Source: paris.fr — photo: Unsplash