To make their voices heard, young people join together in youth movements. Unlike earlier youth movements, such as the punks, they are less recognisable by a uniform style. Rather, they focus on a common content. The history of political fashion is a long one and the wearing of clothes almost always implies a certain outward effect. The dichotomy of young people between self-realisation and the search for a new sense of "we" is something I would like to take up in my project. In the context of this bachelor thesis, eight outfits on current political statements and a corresponding lookbook were created. The work focuses on the currently polarising youth movement "Fridays for Future".
Stimmen
You can only understand the young people in our society if you listen to them. To make their demands heard, I collected some and made a collage from them. This is intentionally loud and jumbled, because the voices of young people are not quiet. Also, not all wishes and opinions go in the same direction, because just because young people are part of one generation, they also think and feel the same. On the contrary, there are enormous differences here.
Einheitsbrei
Many German politicians are white, male and, above all, old. Of the 709 members of the Bundestag in 2021, only 223 are women, whereas 485 are men. Only 58 of all MPs have a migration background. The print of the jacket shows this "uniformity". To make the problem of the lack of diversity obvious, I designed a collage of current German politicians. The uniformity and the resulting one-dimensional view should become clear. In discussions with politicians, one of the things that stands out is that concrete commitments are rarely made and projects taken in hand. Promises often remain empty. This leads to an increasing loss of trust and frustration among young people. They feel that they are not taken seriously.
Forderungen
Few are aware of the succinctly and precisely formulated instructions to achieve the 1.5° C target. This outfit communicates them directly and without mincing words. Unlike how it is usually perceived, the loud demonstrations fade into the background by placing pictures of them behind the lettering. The imprecision of the sewn typography and the open edges of the sewn-on photographs are intended to visually recall protest outfits of the punk movement, some of which openly presented their revolutionary ideas on their clothing.
Altersverteilung
The outfit shown represents the age distribution in Germany. 76 % of all German citizens are over 25 years old (represented by white fabric) and only 24 % are younger (represented by beige fabric). The outfit can be viewed from two perspectives, with the other colour disappearing completely from view, because every decision has two sides or ways of looking at it. The mobility of the fabric shows how fluid the boundaries between old and young are. The percentage distribution of fabric is in line with the survey results.
Getting Wet
One of the concrete threats facing humanity is the rising sea level since the beginning of the 20th century. Between 2006 and 2015, this rose by around 3.6 millimetres per year. This is mainly due to melting glaciers and ice sheets. By the end of this century, a rise of 43 to 84 centimetres is expected. Our actions today can still mitigate this, even though sea levels will continue to rise inexorably for the next few centuries. On the trousers of this outfit, the rising sea level is reflected in the form of a diagram. On the inside of the top is the letter from "Scientists4Future". The mackintosh above, with the slogan "Getting Wet", on the other hand, is a reference to the youth's nevertheless humorous approach to the topic at the demonstrations.
Politikverdrossenheit
The outfit shown here represents young people's disenchantment with politics in Germany according to surveys from the Shell Youth Study 2019. 71% of respondents agreed with the statement: "Politicians:inside don't care what people like me think" (white) and only 27% disagreed (beige). 2% made no statement (grey). The different colours of the fabric and the asymmetrical lines symbolise the disruption and uncertainty of the young people. This disorientation can be counteracted with political education and enlightenment.
Rückgrat
According to Fridays for Future, the largest climate strike in history took place on 20 September 2019, with around 1.4 million people taking part in 575 towns and cities in Germany. (Cf. fridaysforfuture.de). As of May 2021, there are 675 active local groups on the website. They form the backbone of this movement and ensure a nationwide organisation. If you write all the local groups under each other, you get a kind of spine. This is how I present them in my project. On a plain white T-shirt dress, a list of these is attached to the back. This was printed on fabric and then sewn onto the dress.
Shitstorm
The anonymity of the internet seems to give people the feeling that they can say anything. During my research, I came across, among other things, "hate speech" directed at young people in social networks. While the members of "Fridays for Future" argue with scientifically sound sources, the opponents often react with insults. To give some humanity back to this anonymous hatred, I designed a collage of real "Hate Speech" tweets. In this way, I bring the discussions into the real world. By wearing the dress, the tweets suddenly become personal.
Lookbook
The accompanying lookbook, which functions as an exhibition catalogue among other things, comprises 106 pages loosely connected by a ring binding. The pages have three different formats, which is intended to support the appearance of an open collection. Likewise, different papers were used for the individual chapters. It starts with a theoretical part that explains the background in the form of a text. Behind the text are pictures of demonstrations of current youth movements, but also historical ones. The following pages show lists of the age of the population of different countries and of the current members of the Bundestag in Germany. In addition, there is a list of the local groups of "Fridays for Future". Below are coloured pages with infographics and their descriptions. These can be taken out of the book and work without the context.