19 Comments
User's avatar
Ruth S's avatar

appreciate this and you. I am reminded that all tyrants fall, someday. lets make it sooner rather than later this time...and if there are sparkles and queer power mixed in, so be it.

Expand full comment
Ruth S's avatar

reject fascism, reject the aesthetics of fascism, make it clear how ridiculous they really are at their core.

Expand full comment
Julia's avatar

Really love this! People who call fashion and art 'frivolous' in these times forget that creativity has always been how we make statements of our humanity. They're as needed now as ever, and you explain why so beautifully.

Expand full comment
Jessie Couberly's avatar

SAY THIS AGAIN FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!

Expand full comment
Betsy's avatar

Thank you! When I need this reminder, I also like to visit Isa Segalovich's (InterstellarIsabellar) gorgeous TikTok series on German tracht, and how erasing cultural identities through traditional clothing across Germany to present a "unified" nation under the most Aryan form of the Bavarian Dirndl WAS A FACIST STRATEGY. Not only do I find joy in my clothes, I have political power with them. Lately, as I've reached out to join various mending communities, I've also found hyper local community. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Expand full comment
Julianne Fisher's avatar

Well said! Thank you for the much needed pep talk! I will continue to resist by thrifting and making my own clothing and by finding personal joy putting together my daily outfits. I’ve made a pledge this week to call my representatives every day and I have honored that, but the strength to do this (I was super nervous!) has come from the confidence that I’ve given myself by taking the time to find my authenticity through dress.

Expand full comment
Kate's avatar

This is so well said, thank you 🙏

Expand full comment
Sara's avatar

Thank you for this

Expand full comment
Thuy's avatar

Mandy, your vulnerability is a gift. Thank you for sharing; unedited and all. I feel scared too.

Expand full comment
tariro makoni's avatar

I love you !!!!!!!!!!!

Expand full comment
Piccolina Wears Nada:'s avatar

Beautiful and necessary

Expand full comment
Paula's avatar

Thanks for writing this. Fashion, like any art form, has the capacity to “comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable”. I know I can dress myself in ways that signal resistance to some and a potential safe space to others, and that is what I strive to do.

Expand full comment
Sharon Dallas's avatar

<3

Expand full comment
More Than Clothes's avatar

It's like you live in my brain!!! Your posts never not amaze me with the way you think and write!! This is what's been on my, and likely many others, mind lately. Thank you for writing about it.

Expand full comment
The Sole Blog By Tay La Sole's avatar

This was the first article I’ve read of yours. I immediately subscribed. Thank you for this.

Expand full comment
JoAnn's avatar

this was so good! i wrote something too in a similar vein because this is so top of mind. i really love the direction you took with this in connecting conservatism's influence on style -- def seeing that with tradwives and momtok being at the forefront of culture.

loved this:

"They want you to be quiet. Shut the fuck up and stop thinking. Stop learning. Stop thinking for yourself and CERTAINLY stop dressing for yourself.

I won’t comply."

hell yes to fighting back in small ways like thrifting and buying secondhand. i'm going to be thinking about these lines and this essay for a while.

Expand full comment
Vicky MD MPH's avatar

Beautiful writing and honest writing. Keep it coming please.

Expand full comment