Fashion During Wartime
With a genocide unfolding before our eyes in Gaza, London Fashion Week’s 40th anniversary celebrations just don’t sit right
Sat on the Piccadilly line to Covent Garden on Saturday morning to immerse myself in the wonders of London Fashion Week, my train of thought was not as jubilant as it perhaps should on a 40-year celebration. Dotted around me on the carriage were protestors yielding placards that read ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Stop Genocide’; a child no older than 4 had even drawn two people shooting at each other with a big red X, captioned ‘Stop shooting each other’. A wave of consciousness flew over me as I wondered how I can be so concerned with clothes as a genocide is taking place.
On the Friday of this fashion week, I went to a viewing of Jonathan Glazer’s latest film ‘The Zone of Interest’, which depicts the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his family as they live next to the death camp. So, human atrocities were on the mind over the weekend. Throughout the film, it is clear that Glazer is trying to grapple with how we as a species live with these atrocities and, in London, it seems to come all too naturally. In the same week Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the aerial bombing of Rafah- the final safe haven on the Gaza Strip- that killed upwards of 67 people, London gleefully shrouded itself in glamour and pomp.
Of course, fashion week was never going to stop. With hundreds of millions of pounds and thousands of jobs on the line, it would be nonsensical. But, when London Fashion Week is one of the premier cultural events in the calendar year, the almost complete ignorance paid to some of the most egregious acts of violence of the 21st century leaves more than a sour taste. In a statement released on October 13th 2023, six days after the Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the current conflict, BFC CEO Caroline Rush took a middling approach. “The BFC opposes terrorism and violence against all civilians. Our hope is that this cycle of violence will end and that there is a way to focus on humanity, to embrace and accept our differences whilst we collectively strive for peace.” Rush states. A once-respectable comment that has grown increasingly redundant as the disproportionality of Israel’s response has become clear.
You can imagine my relief when I stepped in the NewGen space at the Old Selfridges Hotel on the Sunday and saw a grand display of solidarity with the Palestinian people from British-Yemeni designer Kazna Asker. For her latest collection ‘What Are We Fighting For?’, Asker, who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2022, implored us to “stand for something collectively.” The title forces us to consider both the reason for our conflicts and how we as a collective can fight for change. For her presentation, Asker created a lounge by scattering Persian rugs and posthi across the space for guests to sit and chat over tea and biscuits, and even have their hands decorated with henna tattoos. The models moved between a stage in the middle of the patchouli-scented room and the crowd, motivating us to celebrate what can unite us all. As a sea of keffiyeh-adorned family, friends and admirers explored the collection of nylon tracksuits with panels of Islamic textiles, patchwork sneakers and political screen-printed t-shirts, the sense of community was palpable. On one of her t-shirt designs, Asker laments how “hyper-individualism is killing us all collectively,” a pattern of behaviour that’s ever-recognisable in this industry and our society.
Asker’s presentation this season was one of the few truly rooted in reality. It's moments like this that prompt realisations of the superficial nature of fashion week. How can we pay so much attention to clothing when Oxfam reports that 250 Gazans die daily? “Sharing as much good as you can,” as Asker puts it, “has the power to influence, pro-create and inspire.” There was an uncomfortable lack of that in London this week.