What We Wear When We Resist

Clothing communicates identity and oppression in times of political and cultural tension, making

it one of the most immediate, visible forms of protest we have today.

Clothing has long served as a negotiation between conformity and defiance. Outside of trend cycles and designer shows, fashion has helped express identity and history. Activist fashion today channels that same energy, using clothing to communicate presence, values, belonging, and claim over a space in loud and expressive ways. In doing so, style becomes a form of survival, and sometimes the most effective way to show resistance. 

Activist fashion was built on a legacy of using clothing as a signal of dissent and identity, Suffragettes in the early 20th-century used white dresses and sashes with pins reading “Votes for Women” to make their political demands visible during marches and public appearances. In the 1960s and 1970s, Black Panther members adopted leather jackets, berets, black clothing, and military-style garb to show community solidarity and defiance. More recently, diaspora communities have adapted traditional garments, like kente cloth, embroidered tunics, hijabs, and keffiyahs to assert cultural identity in spaces where assimilation pressures are high. Across decades, these visual cues have been both protection of the marginalized group, and a public statement, expressing belonging and resistance in hostile environments. 

Today, these traditions of resistance and identity have come to function more than as personal style and tangible material. Streetwear, collaborative collections, and small-label designers are embedding political and social meaning into garments through advocacy in prints, slogans, cuts, materials, and more. Streetwear brand Pyer Moss uses the runway as a place of expression for Black culture and empowerment. Moss’ collection included stances against political violence, featuring t-shirts with victims’ names and the slogan “Breathe.” He also critiqued American capitalism through a juxtaposition of Bernie Madoff and Bernie Sanders with a collection titled “Bernie vs Bernie,” among many other slogans that have appeared on his t-shirt collections, like “Stop calling 911 on the culture” and “Vote or Die.”

Diasporic designers use hybridized styles to connect communities across borders, to maintain cultural memory while responding to contemporary challenges. Even mainstream brands are beginning to acknowledge these movements, making collections supporting causes or bringing light to underrepresented voices in response. Patagonia campaigns for environmental causes, while Adidas collaborates with Black Lives Matter-supporting artists. In all these cases, clothing functions as a material of communication, one of history and values that make change immediate and visible. 

Social media amplifies these messages larger than the runway and local communities. Instagram, TikTok, X, and Facebook allow designers and wearers to share activist clothing with global audiences instantly to turn style into public advocacy. The visibility also raises questions about brand authenticity, since when mass market brands advertise activism, it becomes difficult to differentiate meaningful engagement and commodification. For designers and communities, negotiating visibility without compromise has become an essential part of the practice itself, as clothing continues to function simultaneously along fashion and cultural media. 

At the same time, activism fashion exists under constant tension with commercialization. Protest aesthetics begin to circulate online and gain cultural traction, quickly becoming mainstream in trend cycles that often strip them of context. Slogans and symbols become styles and resistance risks being portrayed as a vague, visual component of fashion. For designers invested in fashion as political expression, the issue lies in maintaining authorship and intent alongside systemic issues that support scale and virality. The meaning of activist dress depends on the production and distribution behind the clothing worn. 

Activist fashion persists because it responds to real conditions of exclusion and erasure. Its capability to create change lies in its immediacy. Clothing can assert identity in spaces where speech is limited, and signal alignment when institutions fail to do so. Yet, that visibility coexists with consequences. Protest apparel has been used as evidence in arrests, and cultural dress is still policed in schools and workplaces as certain garments mark bodies as hyper-visible rather than protected.

As activist aesthetics exist on digital platforms and in commercial systems, their meaning becomes influenced by who produces them and why. Fashion’s political role is not peripheral and operates at the level of daily life, carrying risk. Where and how clothing is worn continues to control how bodies are seen, interpreted, treated, and ultimately remembered. 

By: Kailey Sigoda

Photo: The New York Times