The fashion industry is exhalting the power of women and demanding gender equality via the cat-walk, with numerous personalities joining the cause in one way or another. Before the celebration of the International Day for Working Women we outline some of the most radical fashion-parades of this season. A new feminism is being woven within the sector and it is capable of stirring consciences…

The Dior Revolution

Something has been afoot in Dior since the traditional “maison” incorporated Valentino and now the Italian designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, who becomes the first woman to head the creative management of the company. This change was shown to full effect in the first collection which the designer presented in Paris last September. To illustrate the feminine commitment Maria Grazia Chiuri took as her point of departure the uniform worn in fencing – which is virtually the same for both men and women – to express the duality between fragility and strength, head and heart in a kind of non-gender fashion which advocates equality of conditions. Following on from that, in the second part of the parade feminine style was more in evidence with flat shoes, full and transparent garments printed with powerful messages such as We Should All Be Feminists. This t-shirt has already stood out as one of the key garments of this Spring for its revolutionary character and for the fact that hundreds of women, including celebrities such as Rihanna or Natalie Portman, wore it in protests like the #Women’s March in Washington. The revolution continues in Winter and Maria Grazia Chiuri’s second collection, presented a few days ago in Paris, maintains the feminist line with garments and messages less evident at first sight but equally subversive. Key detail: the designer came out to greet the public with the famous white bandana, a symbol of the cause.

An energetic and positive step

The British designer, known for her ecological commitment (she advocates sustainable fabrics and does not use animal skins ) also takes advantage of the Paris parade to launch feminist demands without abandoning the environmental cause. Hence her Spring-Summer 2017 collection, presented in the Garnier Palace, displayed comfortable garments for today’s woman combined with colourful prints and cotton t-shirts charged with messages in English such as “Thanks, Girls “, “Say No to Skins” or “Love” in very graphic and sporty prints. The most surprising thing about Stella McCartney’s parade was the final dance, which became a viral phenomenon in the social networks. The models jumped up onto the famous carousel with a dance choreographed by the Spaniard Blanca Li which celebrated this girl power with a great deal of energy and high doses of optimism.

Prabal Gurung

The latest to revolutionise the cat-walk with a presentation which defends women and femininity without labels is the Nepalese designer Prabal Gurung. Apart from the fluid garments, comfortable designs and versatility of the silhouettes, which are conceived for all types of women, the designer also opted for models from all ethnic backgrounds and of all sizes in a fashion which makes no distinction of any type. The Autumn-Winter collection 2017 / 2018 presented in January in New York ended with a women’s march in support of equal rights and against the controversial speeches of Donald Trump. Hence models like Bella Hadid exhibited on t-shirts powerful slogans of the Seventies such as The Future is female, Our minds/ our bodies/ our power, I have a dream, to the song “Imagine” by John Lennon. For all those present it provided an emotional end in a new demonstration of strength and of the key feminist demands.