Screenshotted - This Is What Ouvre La Porte Are Shopping This Week
It was almost two weeks ago that Katy Perry took that infamous flight into space chanting the words “take up space”. It was ironic, and perhaps slightly missed the mark on the kind of support that women in STEM areas are desperately in need of: funding and equality. That being said, I feel as though I am wading through the waters of this concept of “space”.
Recent Spring/Fall collections with Alaïa, Rokh, Duran Latink and, of course, Comme Des Garçons have all featured these tremendous sculptural silhouettes - garments that take up space both in our consciousness and physical ‘spaces’. Beyond this, fashion transmits an important social signal too - one that allows us to convey our dissatisfaction with the status quo. For example, Connor Ive’s “Protect The Dolls” shirt, worn recently by Troye Sivan and Pedro Pascal, is an example of this in its truest form. The shirt, designed by Conner Ives, will donate 100% of the funds to Trans Lifeline - a trans-lead US-based charity that delivers life-saving services to those who need them most. Given the US Federal government's current hostility towards trans people, support like this is needed now more than ever.
Some may argue that fashion advocacy is a form of passive protesting, a point I could not more firmly disagree with. Public figures wearing clothing items like these with such overt political statements sends a profound message - primarily by facilitating the services of Trans Lifeline, but also by bringing the conversation into a space in which it hasn’t inhabited: The Red Carpet. After Britain’s Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a women was one who was “biologically born as a woman” and the US Supreme Court continues to make it increasingly difficult for individuals to get gender-affirming treatment has made the Trans right’s sphere feel like an uphill battle. But this shirt sends an important signal that the debate and anger will continue. Clothes create space for wearers, an empowering concept in and of itself. But space without protection, is just that, an empty vacuum.
This is the thing, garments and fashion can take up physical space, but they can also take up metaphorical space. We can not under estimate the power of what wearing clothes that we feel inspired, and confident in,
