Nicola Glass, On What Feminist Dressing Means To Her

Where does a brand as optimistic as kate spade fit in the world we live in? We speak to its creative director, Nicola Glass, on what feminist dressing means to her

- Gregory Woo

Everything is political. In a world where one, and I’m speaking hyperbolically, could sneeze and cause an uproar on social media, the question I hazard to ask is what exactly is fashion’s place in such charged times. You don’t have to read the headlines to know that the world is in flux, you can feel it in the air… and see it in the Instagram comments. Fashion, accordingly, continues to react to that, and it’s no coincidence that the styles of the early ’60s and ’70s have bubbled back up to our collective consciousness. Many pieces of clothing women have no qualms with wearing today – bell-bottom trousers, penny loafers and mini skirts – were championed by their foremothers who redefined female dressing during the second-wave feminism of that time. Heck, if you’ve ever heard the phrase “free the nipple”, just remember they were the first women in modern times to… well, liberate the areola and going braless was a sign of freedom from male oppression.

Fast forward some 50 years and that same message can get a little muffled. Here’s the thing, one can glob a statement onto practically anything one wears, and while much like the early ’70s hit I Am Woman, one doesn’t always have to scream it from the rooftops. Or in this case, from the front of a T-shirt. When it comes to dressing, designers the world over who have their pulse on the times are banding together – serenading the woman of today with the same tune, one with an upbeat tempo that the wearer can vibe to her own step.