Marching amongst the North Eastern universities at the NUS ‘Fund our Future’ protest in London was a mass of sights and sounds that expressed a lot about peoples’ political views. Whether it was the ‘2468 who do we think is fake? Nick Clegg, Nick Clegg’ chant of Leeds students or the huge banners sporting ‘Sheffield Students will screw you over Nick Clegg’, there was a lot of political frustration. Students also conveyed their political messages through the use of political fashion, using clothes to express how they felt.
The expression of political fashion is most potent with clothing sporting messages. It is one thing to hold up a banner with your words on, but it is another thing to literally incorporate your words and views in dress. Outfits using the strong messages such as ‘RIP higher education’ were worn, whilst others used banners saying ‘fees rise, class divides’ as outerwear over coats.
Some people attended the protest simply to have fun and dressed in costume, including a Viking from York University and a Tiger from Sheffield. Although they weren’t intense political messages, to be having fun and dressing up was a display of their political interest.
As the peaceful protest turned into the tense storming of Millbank, a renegade, rebellious fashion emerged. Bohemian styles with bandanas, denim and dreadlocks emerged around a newly started fire. Indisputably controversial, their fashion choices would lead some people to assume they were there to cause trouble.
By: Jamie Watt
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