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FASHION: AN INSTRUMENT OF REBELLION

 You know what rebellion is? That thing people tend to do when they're exhausted with authority or wish to exact their will over any authority? You know that thing children do to their parents, citizens to their government? Yeah.... Rebellion, by it's dictionary definition, is the act of resisting authority, control or convention. People rebel in many ways, the most popular being by protests.



However, a redundant medium of resistance has been through "Fashion." As evinced by History, Fashion was utilized as an avenue for altering the conventional standards in society. The motive behind this is to create a visual perception of uniformity amongst protesters and ensure the objective of said protest is properly understood. Rebelling through Fashion could be conveyed through colors, piece of clothing or in contemporary period, Shirts containing phrases or expressions significant to said protest. 

Most of these ensembles were rather implied instead of literal in its meaning. An example, would be the Women Suffragettes movement whom adopted the colour of White, Purple and Green (or Gold as in the case of their American Counterparts), with White symbolizing purity, Purple Loyalty and Green Hope. White bore importance because it represented purity and chastity, an adjective quite contradictory to the behavior of this women.

                       Source: Pinterest

The Black Panther Party founded in 1966 is another pivotal example of this concept. The Black Panther Party were uniquely identified with black leather jacket, black berets and pinback buttons which was a visual expression of what they stood for. 


In this day and age, protesters lean towards outfits that conspicuously communicate their needs. In the well-known October 2020 protests in Nigeria, protesters donned shirts stating 'End SARs.' In the USA for the 2020 protest against Police Brutality, Protesters wore Shirts detailing 'Stop Police Brutality' or 'Black Live Matters.'





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