DOES FASHION IMITATE LIFE? I
Madeline Jankowski
rish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde posed the infamous quandary in 1889: does life imitate art, or does art imitate life? From 1960s feminism to the presentday billionaires’ space race, sociocultural and political movements reveal that the answer to this question is clear. The artful expression of our dress is a derivative of the complex, intricate society in which we inhabit and consequentially embody through clothing. With the introduction of the birth control pill in the early 1960s, enigmatic feminists demanded sexual freedom, questioning their absence in politics, the workplace, and other male-dominated spaces (History. com Editors, 2010). These progressive outcries left a fashion footprint, resulting in a rise in hemlines, increased navel exposure, and the rejection of the bra (The Fashion of the Hippie Culture, 2021). Amidst the backlash of the exponential adoption of liberal values, activist artists like Barbara Kruger illustrated sentiments empowering women and reinforcing their frustration over gender inequality (Roberts, n.d.).
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