Political Engagement by Brands - Topic of the day 5/30/25
How do you feel about political messaging by brands - is it important in shaping where/whose work you shop? When do you feel that a brand’s political expression is genuine versus a PR strategy? How does it inform your relationship with a brand (for better or worse) to know its politics? What reaction does seeing political imagery or motifs adapted into a fashion space have for you and how does it transform those motifs?
188 Replies
it's pretty important to me. lots of the brands i follow nowadays are because i align with the views of their creative designers or overall ethos
as a queer individual it really matters to me that my values are supported and affirmed! because it's literally my existence lol
Just like with alot of different art forms i think its important that designers have the right and the tools to explore themes and ideas that affect them and their consumers.
I think its important to ask why specific designers are making a statement and seeing how their backgrounds play heavily into their views.
For me its incredibly important that the people i give money to and the people i represent on myself are not hateful, bigoted or do not rep what i personally believe in.
i mean, fashion is art, art is political, i want my art to have good politics, you do the math
also seeing people wearing clothes by designers or brands which have bad politics signals to me that i'm not safe around them tbqh
at what point does the concern for aligning with your politics end tho? like we all know the fashion industry is rife with human exploitation, so where do yall draw the line ig?
There is nothing that turns me off from something quicker than bad politics, I would never spend my money at a place I know has bad politics
Jerry lorenzo is a really good example of someone you’ve definitely heard. Fear of god is one of the biggest brands in terms of recognition but im not sure how many people who wear his clothes are aware of the very open opinions he has regarding the LGBTQ+ community and abortion. Those being very negative btw
This is what I was thinking about, like obviously fashion is a business and inherently includes exploitation in the system we live under. I feel like the brand itself having bad politics just adds an extra layer to the bad.
Whereas if I know the brand has good politics, or maybe not even good politics but like is sustainable or tries to be, I am much more likely to spend my money there.
the brand is fear of god and we're surprised he has stupid ideas?
i just thought he was afraid of the Abrahamic God (which, fair)
he is
Feel it’s in bad faith to perceive fashion this way because every creative industry is rife with exploitation.
You can definitely find designers and brands out there that care about the things they are making, but you need to actively put in the effort to find those.
in a very god fearing christian way
I think sadly with how wide spread stuff like that is, at this point in time its kinda a try to do better but its almost impossible to avoid. where as supporting designers that straight up have openly bad politics is a pretty easily avoidable thing.
that's very true! its just a good convo IMO to see where lines are drawn
This is definitely me being optimistic but I just thought that, even though he was Christian doesn’t necessarily mean that he was that right leaning but i shouldve known better
carrion you dont get it, the kids WANT to make the clothes
they could leave at any time
no listen ok im the last person to be advocating for human rights
i think to me it's largely about signals - obviously even with how "good politics" brands do that same capitalist exploitation it becomes like if you're wearing FOG you probably don't want me around ya feel?
yes i'm drawing the line at like what makes me feel good but
we're v much aligned with the 'fashion as a conversation' mindset i feel u
If any of you make fun of me for not having a BoF membership you’re banned btw
No, 100% you bring up a good point. I just think the question can be reframed in the sense if people view fashion as a way of self-expression or just a commodity. In the same sense that high art can either enable artists to make a living, or just gives people power more money to toss around.
bof of these nuts
modderator where... i see none
The article is very good and I encourage you to read it
I received certain assurances as part of the making of this totd
Especially with local brands, it’s easier to connect to the idea of a community but with how globalized we are, how exactly are we supposed to know how our money is redistributed
ok so question for chat based on an experience i had
One of the owners of a brand i was following p heavily was following & liking posts by j peterson. The brand does not engage in any overt political messaging. Would this affect your feelings for that brand?
I know Seth is memeing, but I want to kind of jump off of this. The reason I want to make clothing is because I have a lot of frustration and pessimism about the state of things as they are now and I can openly express these ideas and use the funding to support charities and parties that will benifit the people around me
100%, at the end of the day my money is going into his pockets.
It’s very indirect, but just me, knowing that changes my feelings on wearing his clothing a lot
10000 percent. I would be worried about what they do with my money.
Does that mindset shift at all when buying from like Nike or adidas tho?
This isn't a gotcha im just genuinely curious
I mean I have been trying to buy less from American brands overall
If I buy from them at all
It would definitely change my perception but idk to what extent
If I know that a corpo donates to conservative charities and stuff, I will probably not buy from them
(Unless they make really really cool gats and I just need to buy them)
Agreed
I am actually doing the most praxis by stealing money directly from the American economy
i think the bigger the company, and how connected the owners names are too that company would probably play a big part. like if its a brand like JW anderson and he himself does something bad(i dont think he has he seems chill af) thats going to swing my opion more than if the ceo whos name i didnt know of nike is a bit evil.
JWA new CD of Lockheed Martin 2026
I personally do not touch the work of Israeli designers (even people like Hed Mayner) but I’m willing (although it’s obviously not a plus for me) to buy LVMH brands even though Bernard Arnault has personal investments in Israeli cyberweapons firms
I personally wouldnt buy anything from any LVMH brand (or only second hand) because of Arnault and his role in the political state of France, same way I boycott Bolloré's medias
Might be a bit hypocritical to draw the line there while I don't take ethics into account nearly as much as I probably should in my purchases, but his personal values and what he's done to my country is enough.
I know he's not personally invested in any of those brands (and even less so in eg Birkenstock and all of the brands he has bits of) but at the end of the day money still goes to his pocket and help fund the far right
There is probably a contradiction in there
duality
Actually a lot of respect for this. Dodging LVMH is a lot harder than dodging some story mfg size brand
Do yall just kinda take for granted that US corpos are gonna be donating to republican campaigns & lobbying efforts, or does that play a role in your decision making too?
Actually a good question I have. Would you buy something unbranded from a problematic company (say LVMH) if it was secondhand?
To be clear we are both willing to buy it secondhand and god knows I’m not buying retail Dior
being broke helps :xd: although yeah he owns so many other things (sephora, a bunch of french media etc)
So it’s functionally not that different but really funny
I kinda assume it ngl but I’ll try to avoid shopping those places if I can help it
yeh
easily
gernealy i try my best to avoid as many of the larger US corporations as i can
Fuck I guess I better leave the louis vuitton store rn
Yes except for certain brands who I avoid due to my opinions on the designer (Coco/Lagerfeld, ERD, etc)
Yea that makes sense
Would you buy something branded?
I guess the answer is also yes
I don’t have a problem w the brand owners (I also do in these cases) I don’t want that artists work on my body
Personally I would buy secondhand balenci but when I went to the balenci store I saw the satanic rituals Demna was doing and left right away
Actually, really soured me when I found out that new balance donated heavily to Trump’s political party and definitely tainted my perception of them in general
Yeah but if the brand is like evil evil I wouldn’t want to because I wouldn’t want to wear it
I do not know mujis politics but damn if I don't love their nail clippers
I think to me secondhand is another ballgame where unless the branding is a known awful quantity and I’d be signaling something bad (Yeezy for example) I’m probably down to go for it if it’s cute and a good price
I need to sell my damn yeezys fuck
Like I wouldn’t buy a new LV bag but if I got a good deal on a monogram secondhand I’d buy it
I’ve actively avoided buying from muji because of their use of ughyir cotton from china but i also understand that not everyone can buy designer hakamas for hundreds of dollars
Trolley problem do you keep the yeezys you can't wear or sell them to someone who is most definetly problematic
I’m very hypocritical of this though because I still do buy for new balance and another mass production brands
Theyre shoes at the end of the day, adidas owns the copyright and kanye doesnt earn a dime from them anymore
Yea but think about the people who would want to wear yeezys rn
Yeah, suckers :xd: :xd: get that bag
i definitely avoid buying retail from brands i know are all across the board Bad (ie, puma, adidas) and if they make something i Have To Have, i'm getting it secondhand
Is Adidas bad? I am ill informed on their politics
Are you bumping the ignition remix now that r Kelly doesn’t own his music
You actually are contractually obliged to because I think the money goes to his victims right?
i very much prefer to know i'm buying clothes made by people who don't hate folks like me so badly they wish i would die, etc
German :(
iirc it was similar to puma last i looked but it's been a while
😭 😭 i hated r kellys music before the charges but i get what youre saying. Its different if you already own the shoes vs you plan to buy them if that makes any sense
Dont see a reason to put them to waste
The best move would be to resell them
adidas actually caught flak because they worked with Bella hadid a bunch of zionists jumped them and they folded fucking pussies
see and this is the interesting conjunction of politics & morality because idt adidas wants all queers dead but they do want trade deals
Also puma funds illegal Israeli settlements in violation of international law so I strongly encourage people not to buy from them
More like puma pants
vs puma who was literally outfitting the Israeli soccer team
We’ve seen that shift pretty heavily with the new administration and how theyre basically nuking all their dei hires, they never cared about diversity (obviously) but its so mask off now
Adidas are cowards for folding but that’s a far cry from literally supplying Israel lmao
No longer but they’re still on some bs
oh good
I mean I don't really agree ig! Rainbow capitalism has always been fundamentally capitalism at its core
Ok the shoe they picked was so unlucky
I don’t remember the details hang on let me go see
It was a gazelle type shoe but it was the one they did for the 1972 Olympics
LMFAOOOOOOOOOO
How does this always happen
How is there no one in the room going uhhhhh
Somebody knew fs
:yea: idk if youve seen that one meme with the mario galaxy music and all the LGBT logos changing after pride month but it lives rent free in my head
Generationally bad choice of a shoe to retro
genuinely love that shit
waow German Olympics surely nothing bad happened
The laziest bullshit, for your consideration
Basically every sponsor has pulled out of our pride parade
This is the one where BSO killed a bunch of members of the Israeli Olympic Team specifically
Yes lol
Real whoopsie daisy by the folks at adidas
Bella invented the gazelle/samba looks go give her any other shoe that looks like this
like relying on corporations to uphold morality and diversity has always been a losing battle and i think this admin has made that blindingly clear for everyone who wasn't paying attention to Raytheon Sponsored Pride Parades, so for me as a queer individual i couldnt give less of a fuck if nb or adi donated to the repub campaign
On one hand they set Bella up to fail with that
On the other hand
Pretty fuckin racist to lump Bella in with a terrorist group because she happens to be the same nationality as them
Yeah there’s some schizophrenia involved
we’re back to every Arab looking person getting called Al-qaeda dude like
we never left
when it comes to designers I now check for controversy before buying stuff :xd:
I found a cool Gosha top last year for cheap on vinted,
EHM GLAD I LOOKED IT UP
Then there's ppl like galliano where I just stay away from it even though I see they're still somewhat popular (Lyas on IG is somehow his biggest fan??), from lack of understanding of the full picture
At the end of the day second hand no money goes to them but it's mostly just an image thing
Don't want to be associated with those ppl and for fashion cultured mfs to assume things about me
I would buy the right secondhand Galliano piece even though he is racist to me because
Idk why tbh but I draw the line there
There's so much on Vinted I'm starting to wonder if all the fashion girlies are selling their cool galliano prints because they dont want to be associated with him either LOL
Real adapt heads know I have a jacket from this rtw in the back of my closet bc I think it’s funny
Idk why in my head there’s a difference in his name brand and like him at MM I mean not like he was doing the rtw at mm anyway
I’ll never wear it because the design is a little racist but I think it’s hysterical
but yeah I get you
It's difficult to really gauge those things
I think he was just kinda around for 20+ years and his name brand was an affordable alternative to his stuff at Dior
A lot of it’s out in the world organically
So i can rag about ERD for hours but this brand is some of the worst shit to ever blow up in the fashion industry
Its priced out specifically to gatekeep anyone who isnt incredibly weathly and aims to be edgy just for the sake of being “punk” without actually carrying any of the values of punk because its audience is exclusively for the rich and the wealthy
If their entire stock burned down nothing would be lost
I’m sitting on the Rick Owens at dsm typing these btw
ok this reminded me
Every single fashion poster who looks at willy chavarria and waxes poetic about his queer inspirations and representation without even so much as a sideways glance at his latino heritage pmtfo and i wish them a very bad day
Yeah it’s a really good example of how critics only want to touch the stuff that’s familiar to them
Bro is absolutely a breath of fresh air for runway and its because of that intersection
I’m curious if this ethic applies to vintage garments too. Like, if im eyeing a vintage polo shirt made in Italy, where the owner had an affinity had an affinity for Mussolini years earlier, does that make it not okay to wear in 2025?
gonna need to see examples of this lol
I mean, this is a hypothetical. But the best example would be Carl Zeiss, who made literal Nazi scopes for Nazi weaponry in addition to all the other stuff.
I would probably not personally
And you can still buy zeiss stuff from the 30s that’s wearable.
I mean as long as its not militaria glorifying fascist regimes?...
Lot of grey zone to wade through there though
Trying to discuss Willy Chavarria without understanding how much of Latino and Chicano culture and subcultures influence his work seems asinine to me. I don’t see how you can even have a good analysis without delving into that
AND YET!!!!
More impressive that it's somehow not completely apparent to some. The pants and shirts cuts, the styling, etc.
Does that mean the ethic only applies then to people we are currently in conversation with? Because id argue that the most dangerous ideas are the ones that are hidden.
Ok I agree but this is insanely vague without examples
I gave one; which is Carl Zeiss
Not arguing your point at all, let's not glorify any monsters, but this is vague in the context of this discussion
I mean, I guess vintage Hugo Boss 💀
Yeah I mean idk how you could look at this and not get it, it’s literally called the “cholo chino”
Not at all but like awz said unless its like ww2 german gear with camoflague developed by nazi germany theres a lot of grey room there
You gave an example of lenses and Zeiss spans a literal century or more
Also depends on why someone is wearing something too, the iron cross is often associated with alt right movements so unless youre a poc biker, or its done in a counter culture way like in skateboarding you got to explain why exactly you have that shit on
Realistically if you're sitting on possibly Nazi use/era Zeiss it's best to just donate it to a historical archive or museum
Same applies for any other militaria/clothing
Yeah I think that's kinda gauche if it's gonna be for everyday wear
You could just avoid this altogether though and find brands that do this style without the association
It's a fun historical curio but I don't think I'd be repping that publicly when there are equivalently priced eyeglasses without the baggage
I simply just wouldn’t like mosh said you can get the same thing without it being connected
Yet, you see it frequently. I remember walking into Solakzade and seeing quite a lot of this type of thing from Germany and imperial Japan. There’s clearly a huge market for it. One that’s high-end and the super rich utilize.
Keeping it a buck I cant keep myself up worrying if someones great grandpa supported mussollini or Chiang Kai Shek, I have contemporary shit to think about. My zeiss lenses will stay on
Yeah, that’s fine. It’s not like you’re wearing them because of the connotation , its just you have alternatives to bounce off of
Is this modern Zeiss or ww2 era lenses
Modern lmao
That’s totally normal and fine
Yeah nobody buying hugo boss in the modern day is thinking about their ww2 uniforms :xd:
Yeah... there's still a lot of glorification unfort
It's always sad to see
Me when I am drinking fanta
Nobody buying Hugo Boss in the modern day is thinking much at all about what they’re wearing let’s be real
Sort of related, but you see that in a lot of spaces. The bored ape nfts (which were lofted by the super rich) reference imperial japan and nazi symbolism all the time
It sucks
Yeah, and it’s super hard to identify unless you understand those signifiers.
the number of times i've had to explain dogwhistles to friends, where I thought the connotation/symbolism was obvious and blatant and they had no idea
I think one of the scary things is that some of those signifiers are signifiers because they are aesthetically pleasing.
Just reminds me of Kanye
A lot of brands signal political topics as well but ironically (like in this case with junya watanabe)
But I’m not really sure how to feel about it. A contextualizes the collection in the era it’s in but besides that it feels lazy and cheap. If anyone has any examples of like “ironic political clothing” done right id be interested to see it
Realistically you can't boycott every politically shitty brand, because almost everybody profiting from fashion sucks politically
I think it's fine to avoid brands that are bad in issues you care about, that's not hypocritical
Like it's not cherry picking
To an extent yeah but thats by design to normalize it so nobody points out why elon is using nazi ww2 font on his maga hat yknow?
it’s a wink and a nod to the people who do understand
dog whistles are dog whistles because only dogs can hear it like thats not new
And then everyone who doesn’t think you’re looking into it too deeply
there have been a number of people in the fiber arts space (mainly yarn dyers plus some patternmakers) who have come forth with MAGA posts and stuff, but ravelry (by far the largest/most common place to find knitting + crochet patterns) banned open trump support in 2019
Right, but then how can you create a non-hypocritical and solid ethic around it at all. And you’re right, by the way. It’s just impractical to live one’s life this way.
Is not possible to be blunt. You can just do your best to be ethical but you cant beat or game the system unfortunately
I mean if you're solely relying on consumption as political engagement then i got some bad news
no ethical consumption under capitalism, blah blah. all we can do is do our best
and not let perfect be the enemy of good
I'm completely turned off individual efforts to be ethical tbh
Like as a queer person im still gonna clown people wearing fog or eating at chikfila, but you can't do anything as an individual
If people put that energy towards mobilization we might actually get somewhere
i could go all day about this but i agree with u fundamentally because it so often leads to Suffering Prioritization Tier Lists. Obvi a blunt example but: XYZ company has pro lqbtq+ messaging and hires a diverse leadership team however their clothing does in fact result in the real and tangible suffering of an entire demographic overseas, BUT they support my lifestyle soooo
Like ultimately it is a systemic issue not solvable by the individual
i do think it's interesting and good to have these conversations and obvi people are going to make these decisions, it's just fascinating to me.
Ya it's easy to say I'm gonna make ethical decisions until you dig deeper and it's all fucking shit
exactly, and it is very telling to me when people decide to stop digging!
I try to boycott companies that have actively pushed against us and our rights because well duh,
the other way around, it's too difficult to differenciate rainbow washing from companies actually giving a shit and I don't have the energy to dig deeper so I just don't look at that messaging at all and assume none of those companies are genuine about it and that it's just a scummy business practice but not necessarily based in hate, so I don't feel too bad not looking further
(by us I meant queer)
Yeah. Do what you can with what you can, when you can
I mostly just try to be aware of and avoid the most egregious examples at the very least. Thursday Boots, Fear of God, Tesla, etc.
activism against brands for a specific purpose in this environment has been powerful
Tesla being the best example
Beyond Tesla, it remains an uphill battle on which ones to collectively go after — and how effective it really is.
the target boycott seems to have done some damage
i think a big thing with a lot of boycotts is that they're too diffuse + target too many companies (or a big megacorp where no one knows what does and doesn't count)
the children yearn for the sewing machines
on a serious note, if i’m aware of a brand doing serious malpractice (i.e primark’s dodgy alleged child labour) I try to avoid it. if i’m aware of brands political presence and I don’t subscribe to it I would avoid buying it. that said i don’t think i’ve ever looked into the beliefs of specific designers.
i’m also never convinced big brands care all that much. even brands seen as very politically active like ben and jerry’s are massively hypocritical and only do so where it is profitable. i’d hazard this is near universally the case
yeah they got acquired too :/
If I could generalize, I think we are largely talking about boycott and things of the sort as responsibilities of people who can reasonably afford/access more ethical alternatives
Yes, part of the issue with fashion specifically is that the supply chain is so huge and complicated youre pretty much guaranteed to have bad ethics somewhere in there
But that's a different issue from the topic at hand
I think one of the things about giant corpos is that the monster needs to be fed—buying less is definitely the way to go to curb their greed and power. Any corpo once it gets big enough is going to have the same type of ppl heading it as long as it’s publicly traded. A lot of the nicer companies you hear about in terms of business practices are traditional, non franchised, privately owned companies. Or Arizona tea… which I don’t remember whether it’s private or public. doing more digging into the labor practices also helps but only in context: for example, most of the mica produced in India are from a drought stricken region known for bad labor practices including child labor. The unfortunate additional context is that due to the drought, (surface) mica mining is one of the only ways they have to not die; so while the supply chain people might learn of this, it’s not like they can just turn them away and ask people to farm land that’s not currently arable. This is why unless it’s like hobby lobby or chickfila, or lululemon, where they’re aggressively and openly causing problems, im jot too focused on it. Ffs the hobby lobby people are some weird fundamentalists
I don’t on principle believe in political engagement from any (bigger) brand ever. Smaller brands I think might have more variability
I particularly agree with the last bit - if the brand leaders aren’t outspoken bigots I’m generally not too bothered
fundamentally the existence of huge mega corporations are against my core principles anyway
there really does come a point in it all where you have to just sigh and remember "no ethical consumption under capitalism" and just keep doing the best you can
One thing you can try is to get things custom made the old fashioned way where ppl could afford like 3 items a year or something lol
that too!!
I saw part of this great book on American influence on French fashion, I’ll see if I can find the title sometime, but it’s been very interesting to read about conscious consumerism and how the high level of knowledge towards garments had people both know how to get stuff made and also how to do simpler things at home. Fun fact: there used to be clothes smuggling rings when the us put tariffs on French clothing
that doesn't surprise me at all
anything gets banned ever and people will do what they can to smuggle it past
Yeah, I find it hard to take brand stances at face value because fundementally, they say whatever they think will get your sale. I still like to avoid any owned by people who clearly redistrubute their profits into the pocketbooks of bigots but realistically, you wouldn't hear about every single position touted by these folks
My stance is i try to minimize the harm my actions impart
not sure if it's ironic, but Miuccia Prada had a direct take on fascist Italy and the ENM in her 1988 show.
ill check it out i appreciate it!