Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2022

This article analyses the connections between the worlds of fine art and fashion through the complex interconnections between the Parisian-Eastern European creative exile. It follows the common threads between Ukrainian-Jewish artist and fashion designer Sonia Delaunay (1885–1979) and prominent inter-war Parisian Romanians: namely, Tristan Tzara, Constantin Brâncuși and Lizica Codreanu. I suggest the concept of ‘simultaneous migrations’ to illustrate fashion’s mobility beyond and across cultural differences, identities and aesthetics through Sonia Delaunay’s philosophy of Simultaneity, focusing on her inter-war Romanian connections in Paris. The research bridges across the fields of fashion studies, art history and cultural studies, in order to explicate the synapses that shed light on Sonia Delaunay’s ideas of Simultaneity and colour theories to Paris as an ideological, cultural, artistic and identity hub.

Wearing slogan T-shirts largely began in the United States in the mid-twentieth century with the rise of various social movements. Considering the persistence of slogan T-shirts as a component of commodity activism, we theoretically engage with the ways twenty-first century organizations produce slogan T-shirts within the fashion system, with heightened attention to white progressive politics. We examine two Midwestern organizations in the United States: Raygun, which approaches T-shirt activism as a for-profit business and For Everyone Co., which approaches T-shirt activism as a not-for-profit collective. We conduct a case study to examine the nuance of how and why these collective and for-profit businesses use T-shirt activism, drawing upon multiple theoretical concepts to critically interpret the production and distribution of these products within the fashion system and offering theoretical implications for future study. We conduct a close reading of T-shirt texts and images, the organizations’ biographical information, and their reported philanthropic actions to construct and interpret their public-facing narratives engaging with fashion and activism. Examining T-shirt activism, as both an ‘artivist’ practice and a commodity, requires a critical analysis of how organizations capitalize on consumers’ desire and instances wherein white progressive politics prioritize the appearance of equity and justice or ambiguous fashion activism, over meaningful social-action centred fashion. Our work offers implications for the production, distribution and consumption of these products within the fashion system.