Fashion Editor Alice Keegan explains how fashion reflects the world’s political state - from theories such as the ‘hemline index’ to Pretty Little Things’ rebrand.

By Alice Keegan | Apr 22 2025

Whether you realise it or not, what you wear is reflective and inherently political. Looking at fashion in its current state, this may be for the worse. As the far-right begins to dominate in politics, economics, and society, fashion acts as a window into how political instability, combined with financial and social insecurity, inadvertently affects our choices.

At the most basic level, the ‘Hemline Index’ theory states that in times of political turbulence, civil upheaval and economic downturn, the sales of maxi skirts rise - part of a wider turn towards minimalist fashion. The most potent example of the hemline index is the effects of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Throughout the roaring 1920s, skirt lengths were shorter than ever before, as people rushed to jazz clubs and balls in brightly-coloured, glittering dresses. However, when the market crashed in October 1929, ushering in the Great Depression, clothing became strictly plain and practical. People simply couldn’t afford nice things.

It's no secret that we are in a new, unnerving era of conservatism. A group of billionaires are helping the US become an oligarchy and dictatorship. There’s a war in Ukraine and genocide in Palestine. AI breathes new life as arts and craftsmanship dies. There is mass-rejection of feminism, a diminishing of female reproductive laws, and the LGBTQ community are being stripped of their rights. The cost of living in Ireland and abroad is worse than ever, in addition to record-levels of homelessness, breeding ubiquitous racism, with the anger being redirected from the government to immigrants. Amidst all of this, social media is flooded with pro-Trump millionaires, content creators such as Nara Smith, and Pookie and Jett, and women proudly proclaiming, “I’m just a girl”, “girl-math”, and so-called ‘stay-at-home girlfriends’ speaking of their boyfriend’s working “big boy jobs”. 

On the surface, particularly in the aftermath of 2010s girlboss and hustle culture, this might not seem like blatantly problematic and anti-feminist rhetoric. However, with the election of Trump and his billionaire cronies across the world gaining increasing power, we are forced to look deeper. This celebration of women lacking agency and autonomy is a clear indication of infantilisation brewing among women, in addition to the obsession with the glamourised, beautifully domestic lives of ‘momfluencers’ such as Hannah Nielman of the viral Ballerina Farm. These women, often of the Mormon faith, are young, living a life of domestic labour and traditional motherhood, all while looking effortlessly ethereal. Do you want to know a secret? It’s all far-right propaganda, as these women are submissive, entirely dependent on their rich husbands.

This time round, the ‘quiet luxury’ trend, ‘cottage-core’ and ‘trad-wife’ aesthetic suggests a return to an era when femininity, modesty and restraint were valued to the detriment of equal rights.

Fashion trends reflect all of these cultural shifts, with both influencers and the industry using fashion as a tool for political messaging, responding to key socio-economic moments. In the 1960s, miniskirts, bright colours and fun patterns reflected the free-love feeling as advances toward civil rights and sexual liberation were made. This time round, the ‘quiet luxury’ trend, ‘cottage-core’ and ‘trad-wife’ aesthetic suggests a return to an era when femininity, modesty and restraint were valued to the detriment of equal rights. The ‘Old Money’ and ‘Quiet Luxury’ aesthetics evoke images of generational wealth, private education, expensive tastes and overall power within society. An appreciation of the finer things in life, sophistication, and elegance through exquisite tailoring, expensive leather and suede, neutral colours... they all align distinctly with conservative sensibilities. People have revelled in cosplaying as wealthy and conforming to traditional beauty standards through the ‘Clean Girl’ aesthetic, while the ‘Trad-Wife’ and ‘Cottage Core’ paints a picture of 1950s domesticity with feminine, housewife-esque details.

Here’s the problem: They are willingly dissociating from the inherent issues in such trends. With the old money aesthetic, they are choosing instead to laud the wealthy and powerful, (because there is so little of it in society rife with economic inequality), only achieving to create further divisions and serving far-right ideologies: in its promotion of idealised gender roles, ‘trad wife’ stifles women to the role of homemaker and caretaker. Overall, such fashion trends act as implicit commentary on the conservative tendencies of late. If we have to live with her approach to politics and economics, why not dress like Margaret Thatcher too?

Amidst all of this is the disastrously vapid Pretty Little Thing rebrand. Once a fast fashion empire which specialised in fun, brightly-coloured, paper-thin material items, they launched their rebrand under the title of ‘A Legacy in Progress’, promising to “redefine accessible luxury for a new generation”. Hardly the ambassador for understated luxury, Pretty Little Thing was attempting to tap into an aesthetic that prioritises heritage and refinement, despite being prolific in their poor treatment of workers, lack of care regarding working conditions, and horrific disregard for their environmental impact. Say goodbye to the bubblegum pink and unicorn detailing, their collections are now brimming with beige and brown blazers, white shirts and knee-length skirts. Once notorious for their “99% off” flash sales, where you could buy a neon yellow bodycon dress for 15 cent, by jumping on the ‘quiet-luxury’ bandwagon, the PLT rebrand shows how pervasive politics is in fashion.

We are still recovering from a global pandemic, experiencing the worldwide rise of the far-right, and economic uncertainty remains incessant. No one can afford a house, often even basic luxuries, and even UCD’s cheapest student accommodation will set you back over €900 a month, and with talks of tariffs and taxes, this isn’t going away. The wealthiest in society such as landlords are only getting richer, emigration is as frequent as ever, and the far-right is also profiting off of this, with a convicted criminal who was vocally anti-immigration even spending St Patrick’s Day in the White House. Fashion and fashion trends reflect all of this and more. You could spend a long time searching for something that isn’t plain, pinstripe or polka dot, and good luck if you’d like something that isn’t brown or beige. But where are we supposed to buy our outfits for the club now? Doesn’t matter, not like we could ever afford the drink and taxi prices…