Labour MP Jess Phillips: I Told Diane Abbott To F*ck Off During Feminism Row Labour MP Jess Phillips told Diane Abbott to “fuck off” during a heated row about a lack of women in the top shadow cabinet jobs, The Huffington Post UK can reveal. The Birmingham Yardley MP clashed with Ms Abbott at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday, after it emerged the four top jobs in Mr Corbyn’s team had gone to men. As well as Mr Corbyn as leader, Andy Burnham is Shadow Home Secretary, Hilary Benn in Shadow Foreign Secretary and John McDonnell is Shadow Chancellor. Ms Abbott accused Ms Phillips of asking a “sanctimonious” question, and told her “you’re not the only feminist in the PLP.” Mr Corbyn looked on in silence as the two MPs argued. Talking to The Huffington Post UK, Ms Phillips, who despite being elected in May has already earned a reputation for being one of the most outspoken MPs, said: “I roundly told her to fuck off.” When asked what Ms Abbott did after that suggestion, Ms Phillips replied: “She fucked off.” Labour MP Jess Phillips
Topshop Gets Called Out For Unrealistic Mannequin Body Standards By now, it seems as if most retailers have been involved in some sort of controversy. And while some have been because of tasteless graphics, or hypersexualized advertisements, one thing we continue to see over and over again—and frankly, we're tired of it—is the ridiculous body standards reinforced by the mannequins that model the clothing. Topshop, the popular British brand that boasts collaborations with stars like Gigi Hadid and Cara Delevingne, has come under fire after a shopper noticed that the store's mannequin had extremely thin legs. The mannequin was wearing the retailer's popular "Jamie" jeans, and the shopper, Laura Berry, voiced her concerns that the figure was not an accurate representation of the average female form. "Perhaps it's about time you became responsible for the impression you have on women and young girls and helped them feel good about themselves rather than impose these ridiculous standards," Berry wrote in a post on Topshop's Facebook page.
Oxfam Charity Fashion Live 2015: Why Vintage Clothing Will Make You Feel Good This feature is part of a month-long focus around sustainable fashion across HuffPost UK Style and Lifestyle. Here we aim to champion some of the emerging names in fashion and shine a light on the truth about the impact our appetite for fast fashion has around the world. London Fashion Week isn't exactly known for being sustainable, but Oxfam Charity Fashion Live is hoping to change all that. The annual event, which has run at LFW since 2012, is the brainchild of stylist Emma Slade-Edmondson - who teamed up with charity Oxfam to create their own fashion show. On Saturday 19 September, Emma will be recreating looks from designers, just moments after they emerge on the catwalk, using only the second-hand clothing they find in the Oxfam Dalston Kingsland store. Speaking to HuffPost UK Style, Emma said: "I wanted to prove that you don’t need a massive budget to be on trend and that fashion should be accessible to everyone." Close Oxfam
I Didn't Wear Makeup To New York Fashion Week & This Is What Happened | Bustle Twice a year, sartorial enthusiasts, celebrities, celebrity-seekers, and the press join together on the streets of Manhattan for New York Fashion Week. Despite living in NYC throughout college and again as a now-working-20-something, and despite the fact that my clothes addiction is worse than my Reese's Peanut Butter Cup addiction, I've never really been into it. NYFW has always seemed like a couture-focused, beauty standard-enforcing, elitist bubble of designers, models, and guests whose outfits cost the equivalent of six months rent in Bushwick or aspiring designers, models, and guests lingering outside runway locations in their most OTT outfits waiting to get street styled. This is precisely why I — being a self-proclaimed people watcher and hater of beauty standards — decided to spend my last day of Fashion Week with me, myself, my bare naked face, and my less-than-superb selfie abilities. Personally, I rarely leave the house without makeup on. Images: Marie Southard Ospina
The Politics of Fashion | Leigh McAlea This blog is part of a month-long focus around sustainable fashion across HuffPost UK Style and Lifestyle. Here we aim to champion some of the emerging names in fashion and shine a light on the truth about the impact our appetite for fast fashion has around the world. Despite raised awareness of conditions in the industry through devastating events like the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, consumer desire for fast fashion - currently around £44billion pounds worth in the UK annually - trumps ethics. At the site of the Rana Plaza collapse where Rubi holds a photograph of her children who died in the factory disaster ©Leigh McAlea Why is this? The reasons are complex, but in our hyper-globalised world with extended supply chains, it is extremely difficult to relate to the workers and processes that bring clothes to our high streets and into our wardrobes. One of TRAID’s charity shops, in Dalston, London, our alternative to the high street. What would this look like?
Fashion, politics, and feminism: The women's magazines for a new generation "Women working at Douglas Aircraft" by Alfred T. Palmer (United States Library of Congress) In July, a Vice crew visited Umoja, a Kenyan village where no men are allowed. They were there to document the Samburu women who built Umoja to escape the strict patriarchal ways of their tribe, which include female genital mutilation as a marriage rite. “Do you want to find a husband?” The girl shakes her head no. “Me neither,” says the correspondent, and they high five. Broadly was announced in early 2015 and launched in August, joining several recent media sites for millennial women that are making some interesting moves. Earlier women’s sites like Jezebel, xoJane, and Bustle share a model inspired by the pre-2010 blogosphere: lots of confessional “It happened to me” posts, celebrity gossip, and personal takes on social issues. “It now seems patronizing to say that we’re only interested in shopping and fashion and lipstick,” says Joanna Coles, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan.
Can Feminists Like Fashion? - Forbes Céline 2012 Runway Feminism and fashion have always had a rocky relationship, a point hammered home in an article in Ms. magazine’s January issue, “If The Clothes Fit: A Feminist Take On Fashion.” The piece explores the tumultuous role that fashion has historically played in gender politics—both serving as a medium for the advancement of women, and as a weapon of restraint. It’s hard to deny the key role that fashion has played in the women’s movement. That being said, feminist notions that fashion can be destructive, certainly didn’t come from thin air. Fortunately, fashion in recent years does appear to be moving in a feminist direction. Still that damned if you do, damned if you don’t attitude persists in regards to women and fashion. On the other side of the spectrum, women who choose to ignore fashion trends are deemed slovenly and out of touch.
Finding Feminism in Fashion At the start of my junior year of college, I was elected co-chair of an organization called WomenSpeak, which hosted a series of events on campus each spring. A week of lectures, film, readings, symposia—the usual consciousness-raising whatnot. And to plan it, we organizers would convene every Thursday over dinner, half a dozen underslept young ladies in flannels and baggy jeans, fired up on Faludi and railing against the patriarchy. Aux barricades! Having a sense of style is not selling out the sisterhood. So there I was, Thursday after Thursday, raising verbal hell about reproductive rights and structural misogyny, and meanwhile, in the book bag strung over my chair, there was probably a copy of Allure, dog-eared to an article about mastering frizz. She said something like that, anyway. Really, the condescension some people direct at fashion is just unbearable. Thus do I rise to a ringing endorsement of fashion. I could go on. Feminism is not a matter of appearances. I kid.
Topless protestors in New York and other countries for 'free the nipple' campaign Around 300 bare-chested demonstrators paraded in Manhattan following recent bids to get semi-nude models in Times Square bannedOther protests took place around the United States and in other countriesThe campaigners want women to be given the same rights as men when it comes to being topless in publicRachel Jessee from NYC's GoTopless group said: 'Freeing nipples and bodies frees minds as well, restoring self-image and self-esteem' By Dailymail.com Reporter Published: 22:30 GMT, 23 August 2015 | Updated: 00:41 GMT, 24 August 2015 Bare-chested protesters took to the streets of 60 cities around the world on Sunday as part of a campaign to 'free the nipple'. One of the biggest events for GoTopless Day was a semi-naked parade through New York City - where officials are debating whether topless tip-seekers should be allowed in Times Square. 'Our goal is for equal gender topless rights to be enforced worldwide, freeing women's nipples,' she said. Scroll down for video Bra-vo! Loaded: 0% Progress: 0%
Chanel's Feminist Protest Was Best Thing About Fashion Week Girl power! Chanel had some memorable finales including the time pregnant model Ashleigh Goode closed the haute couture show show wearing a wedding gown. For the finale of their Spring/Summer 2015 at Paris Fashion Week, Karl Lagerfeld accompanied models in a feminism protest. The clothes didn’t feature any feminism messages or obvious themes, but there were a series of bright, bold florals that went well with the show’s bold and empowering finale. It’s great that Chanel closed the show with such a strong feminist message. Click here, for more fashion week coverage. (Photos: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images, Instagram/Cindi_Leive)
Fashion and Politics | Centre for Sustainable Fashion Fashion can champion our identies and communities within an existing culture, photo from pearlysociety.co.uk Fashion and politics have a long and multidimensional relationship, fashion’s political voice taking on a wide variety of guises inside and outside of the pillars of state. The communicative power of fashion’s artistic practices can bring challenge to a political status quo, a brilliant exemplifier of this was drawn together through ICA’s recent offsite exhibition A Journey through London Subcultures showing work from LCF based Mark Lebon amongst others. It can also champion identity and solidarity within an existing culture or society in delightful ways – think Pearly Kings and Queens. Fashion’s business practices also have inextricable links to political ambitions and endeavours, offering a conduit for economic and societal ambitions of a state to be realized in tangible form. The discussion of fashion and durability must go much further however.
Victoria Beckham chats to US Secretary of State John Kerry at LFW party | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV Fresh from unveiling her latest collection at New York Fashion Week, Victoria stepped foot on to home ground yesterday, to kick off her LFW commitments. She looked like she was having a blast as she mingled with fellow celebrities at a prestigious party in the capital, hosted by Vogue UK editor Alexandra Shulman, the US Ambassador Matthew Barzun and his wife Brooke. The brunette looked stunning as ever for the event, wearing a floor-length black gown that came in at the waist to highlight her slim physique. She tied her hair into a chic 'up do and framed her face with a few loose strands at the front. As well as enjoying chats with the creme de la creme of the fashion industry, Victoria also looked incredibly pally with current United States Secretary of State, John. She tweeted a snap of the pair after their meeting, alongside the caption: "Honour to talk to U.S Secretary of State @JohnKerry last night." She tweeted afterwards: "Thank you to all my customers today at #VBDoverSt.
Political Movements in Fashion Can fashion have a political conscience? The question is a recurring one, and the answers are all too often clichéd. Examples of the industry’s insensitivity and lack of sympathy (or knowledge) towards social and political realities surface regularly in the media, and stories about blackface editorials and articles praising the “beauty” and “philanthropy” of the wives of Middle East dictators make the movie Zoolander look like a realistic take on the fashion world. However (and contrary to popular belief) fashion is just as often used as a social commentary. When, in 1906, Paul Poiret freed women from the corset, the couturier was immediately hailed as a pioneer of the Women’s Liberation Movement. "In an ultra-connected world where news goes instantly global thanks to the Internet, it has become impossible for designers to ignore their political conscience" “I’m not politically outspoken but I make statements regularly in my work” — Pam Hogg But do any of these questions have an answer?