80
on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s
Instagram for The Row—only serene
clothes sparingly juxtaposed with pic-
tures of art. At the other end of the
spectrum, Beckham—a duck to water
with publicity since her music-industry
beginnings—jumps at the chance to
share her life on Instagram. “In the
past, the only me that people saw was
what the media showed,” she says.
“Now you see me on the school run,
in the studio, as a wife, a businesswom-
an—women relate to that.”
Younger women in particular seem
to take these freedoms, including
freedom from gender bias, largely for
granted—something that has tended
to make all this progress little-noticed.
But while Hillary Clinton may not
have become president, all around
the world the unfettered daughters of
the ’80s and ’90s are rising in politics,
confidently speaking of women’s
truths and women’s values—just as
they are in fashion.
“Women coming together and sup-
porting each other have always been
at the core of everything I’ve done as
a fashion designer,” says Stella Mc-
Cartney. “It’s that connective tissue
between all of us that truly inspires
me.” McCartney’s early advocacy in
sustainability and ethics, meanwhile, is
fast becoming commonplace—surely
the most significant change in values
to have hit fashion in years.
I
n the ’80s, the first wave of fash-
ion environmentalism was also
woman-led, with Eileen Fisher,
Katharine Hamnett, and Maria
Cornejo at the forefront. What that
generation began to commit to is
now a surge lifting rafts of new prac-
titioners, with Emily Bode, Marine
Serre, and Gabriela Hearst among
them. We’re at the point where there’s
no contradiction left between desir-
able, sophisticated clothes and envi-
ronmentally friendly, considerately
crafted ones.
The outspokenness of women
designers is also increasingly being
heard in these days of backsliding
gender politics. When Chiuri, the
first woman creative director in the
history of Christian Dior, famously
put the title of a Chimamanda Ngo-
zi Adichie essay, “We Should All Be
Rihanna
Grace Wales
Bonner
Maryam
Molly Goddard Nassir Zadeh
Marine Serre
Simone
Rocha
Laura and Kate
Mulleavy
Maria Cornejo
Emily Bode
Virginie Viard
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