Will the show go on?

That is the question that many Parisians started asking about Paris Fashion Week following their capital’s worst terror attacks in decades.

The response? The show must go on.

This time, designers decided to react to the recent crises and issue of censorship involving the city in the only way they knew how: through their own designs.

It has always seemed that fashion has taken the more insensitive side to social and political issues through editorials that feature blackface or articles that praise the beauty of dictators’ wives. However, unlike what most people think, fashion is often used as an outlet for socio-political commentary.

While there are several other outlets designers could pursue, they have the right to express their thoughts through whatever medium they feel necessary. Sometimes that’s fashion, sometimes it’s not.

Possibly the most notable was from Belgian fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck with his menswear collection called Explicit Beauty. His first model came down the runway in a clear plastic top, donning the phrase “Stop Terrorizing Our World”— a message clearly in response to the Charlie Hebdo and Parisian grocery store terrorist attacks from early January.

Almost all his other designs incorporated a quite unusual accessory — butt plugs.

While Van Beirendonck’s choice seems quite strange, his use of this accessory was a nod to a giant inflatable sculpture in the same form done by an American artist, Paul McCarthy, which was vandalized soon after being set up in Paris last October.

Van Beirendonck’s runway was a reaction to the censorship and the questions of censorship that surround Charlie Hebdo’s controversial cartoons. He is known for using strong graphics that often communicate social or political statements — for example, safe sex advocacy.

“Initially I didn’t want to make statements. But when you see what is happening in the world you have to react,” he told Expatica in a Jan. 21 article.

This was not Van Beirendonck’s first time making strong political statements either. In his Autumn/Winter 2014 show this past year — in tune with Steve McQueen’s film “12 Years a Slave” — Van Beirendonck made a strong statement against racism with feather headdresses marked with the words “stop racism.” They were interspersed with helmet-like felt hats and worn with multicolored striped blazers and pants.

During the same show season, Turkish designer Umit Benan showed a collection inspired by African-American hero Jackie Robinson. He sent models down the catwalk holding baseball mitts covering their faces — a theatrical comment on the racism that rendered African-American players invisible to the major leagues during the beginning of the 20th century. At the end of the show, Benan himself came out holding a banner that said, “No to racism for the love of the game.”

Message received loud and clear.

Many designers have also used fashion to become proponents for gay marriage rights. Parisian associations against gay marriage often gather outside menswear show venues that are advocates for the cause. Last season, a demonstration was held before designer Thom Browne, who responded by staging a wedding between two male models to the song “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles.

Clearly, marriage equality remains a controversial topic, but most designers don’t hesitate to show their stance. Ashish Gupta dressed a model with a sequined rainbow T-shirt with the message “love will win” at the finale of his show, which then turned into a Facebook and Twitter hashtag.

The other notable response to political movements in the past year was from Karl Lagerfeld and his Spring/Summer 2015 collection, which also just happened to be in Paris. Coincidence?

Lagerfeld’s campaign for women’s rights was led by Cara Delevingne, who carried a megaphone down a catwalk in the city’s Grand Palais along with an army of models holding signs demanding “divorce for all,” “peace” and “feminism not masochism.” His collection was a response to the feminist movement that has taken storm across the world, calling for gender equality in all forms.

While the effectiveness of these fashion statements is definitely up in question, it just shows us that the elite world of fashion — which many people often think is unconnected to the rest of the world — isn’t completely oblivious to world events.

Alexis McDonell is a junior magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email her at admcdone@syr.edu.

Published on February 1, 2015 at 11:01 pm