A recent article in Vogue gave rise to the question about fashion and politics in light of the pandemic. “Fashion functions as a mirror to our times, so it is inherently political,” Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was quoted in the article. “It’s been used to express patriotic, nationalistic, and propagandistic tendencies as well as complex issues related to class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.”
But if fashion is connected at its core to the conventions of our time, then recent years saw the connections grow even stronger. Such was the case of the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign—a feminist campaign that was marked with the launch of a simple t-shirt. The design was straightforward enough, with the term “Phenomenal Woman” printed on the front.
The concept came to Harvard Law graduate and back then, a tech adviser and entrepreneur, Meena Harris, in 2017, as a way of promoting International Women’s Day. The idea was to donate the profit from the T-shirt to women’s organizations like The United State of Women, a national organization dedicated to convening, connecting, and amplifying voices in the fight for full gender equity.
The term itself—“phenomenal woman”—was a quote from Maya Angelou‘s 1995 poem (“I’m a woman; Phenomenally. ; Phenomenal woman, ; That’s me.” reads the poem, first published in 1978 and meant as an empowering message for all women).
But what began as a gray t-shirt spiraled into a movement, proving, as Andrew Bolton remarked, that fashion can indeed be used s a way of relating, even confronting, complex social issues.
These days, the brand’s range of t-shirts includes sayings like “Phenomenally Indigenous,” “Phenomenally Black,” and “Phenomenally Asian”. Harris stressed that the brand continues to partner with organizations, promoting discussion about major issues like voting, immigration, and female empowerment.
“I look at it as sort of this gateway drug,” remarked Harris in an interview with Complex., “like an engagement ladder where one day I have you wearing the T-shirt, and then hopefully in a year, maybe you are knocking on doors or you’re doing more. I saw how people were engaging with it and in such a small but concrete way, and how it was really speaking to them. I started thinking about how to keep using that as a tool to raise awareness around different issues.”
For more details about the unique brand, click here, and follow them on Instagram.
