![\"Images](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Grace-Wales-Bonner.jpg\")
Images courtesy of Grace Wales Bonner<\/p>\nIn the highbrow world of academia fashion has always been seen as an instrument of identity formation. In other words, we are what we wear \u2013 there\u2019s no arguing about that. Subconsciously or quite intentionally we construct ourselves with the use of clothes, signalling our gender, social position, religious beliefs, cultural affiliation or professional association. However, more and more fashion designers deliberately choose to explore the elusive issue of identity.
\nHere we look at five recent collections that delved into identity politics.
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Images courtesy of Grace Wales Bonner<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old design prodigy who won the LVMH Prize earlier this year, continuously explores the nature of a hybrid identity. The matter is quite personal for Bonner, a mixed-race girl who grew up in South London. Inspired by figures as different as Jean-Michel Basquiat,\u00a0 Caribbean composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges and the main character of Ralph Ellison\u2019s Invisible Man, she displays how multifaceted, diverse and expressive the cultural blend can be. Combining cultural dress-codes with the traditional British tailoring, Grace Bonner presents a refreshing alternative to conservative Saville Row brands. Her collection for autumn-winter 2017, shown just a month ago at London Fashion Week, was an ode to Senegalese street-style with Stephen Jones-created Rasta caps, crystal-embellished breeches and Masai-beading.
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![\"Photography](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Vetements.jpg\")
Photography Lucie Rox<\/p>\n
The latest collection by Vetements, staged at Centre Pompidou in Paris, was a visual journey through recognisable social types. As Demna Gvasalia commented after the show this time the design collective were most interested in \u201csocial uniforms\u201d. Not, strictly speaking, rather intended as a research into identity issues, the collection nevertheless cleverly played with familiar dress-codes, ironically (as it always is with Vetements) presenting the range of sartorial choices, closely associated with social identities.
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![\"Images](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Chin.jpg\")
Images courtesy of Chin<\/p>\n
In her ground-breaking book The Second Sex from 1949 Simone de Beauvoir revealed the century-long stereotype of perceiving the male identity as a neutral and the female one as a non-neutral and impaired with negative qualities. Decades after de Beauvoir feminists have proven that the male identity is as diverse, fluctuant and complicated as the female one. Menswear designer Chin brilliantly shows femininity embraced by men. His menswear collection for AW 2017 plays with codes, traditionally associated with womenswear \u2013 cut-outs, high waists, frills \u2013 giving tailored suits a softer touch and providing an alternative to rigid gender norms.
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![\"Photography](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Anniesa-Hasibaun.jpg\")
Photography Frazer Harrison<\/p>\n
Just a month before the inauguration of Donald Trump Indonesian designer Anniesa Hasibuan made a strong case against cultural stereotypes. Hasibuan presented an empowering collection accessorising every look with a headscarf. The designer offered an alternative interpretation of a Muslim female identity. In her collection the headscarf appears as a garment, embraced by women, not as a symbol of oppression, as populists would like to see it.
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![\"Images](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/jessie-shroyer.jpg\")
Images courtesy of Jessie Shroyer<\/p>\n
In the rapidly globalising world the USA are often seen as the importer of cultural values. But whereas the whole world seems to be aspiring to the American way of life, the American identity itself has turned into a vague marketing idea. In her graduate collection from Parsons, MFA student Jessie Shroyer takes the American identity under scrutiny, revealing the darker side of the global dream. In Shroyer’s collection the cult symbols of the American pop-culture \u2013 Disney characters, brand logos and the national flag itself \u2013 are ripped and re-stitched. Interested in the perception of identity, the designer asked her friends to give her garments they associated with their national identity. Those very garments were deconstructed and re-imagined for her thesis collection.
\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We tackle the topic of identity through fashion with five brands of the moment<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[7732,7733,7734,7735,3721,21,2071,2632,7736,6716,2734,7381],"class_list":["post-45271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fashion","tag-anniesa-hasibaun","tag-aw-17","tag-chin","tag-collections","tag-demna-gvasalia","tag-fashion","tag-grace-wales-bonner","tag-identity","tag-jessie-shroyer","tag-parsons","tag-vetements","tag-wales-bonner"],"acf":{"main_category":null,"legacy":"1","exclude_from_ads":null,"hero_title":null,"subtitle":null,"hero":null,"teasers":null,"facebook_image":null,"related_articles":null,"next_article":null,"sleek_card_focus":null,"content":null},"yoast_head":"\n