Ep. 85 - The Politics of Dress, Pt. 1 ft. Hannah Linsky

30-11-2022 • 1 hr 41 mins

BrownTown invites Hannah Linsky (she/her), vintage stylist, seller, educator, and liver and breather of all things fashion to unpack the politics of dress. The friends use their experiences with clothing and fashion growing up to dissect the often overlooked yet important cultural artifact. As an everyday window into individual and collective beliefs and values, the limitless expression of how we adorn our bodies is a site for discussion around gender and patriarchy; sustainability, labor, and capitalism; and much more. The politics of dress communicate praxis of power and hierarchy yet offer an opportunity for resistance and decolonization. Listen to Episode 89, Part 2!

Full Transcription Here!

GUEST
Hannah Linsky is a vintage stylist, seller, occasional model and avid collector. She lives and breathes fashion and loves playing dress up almost as much as she loves talking fashion. She is a recent graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she earned her Master’s in Art Education. Her work Revolutionary Dress centers around examining historical movements through the lens of dress.

Rev Dress (site, Instagram) looks at the ways dress has been used as a strategic tool of resistance and revolution, across countries, cultures, and communities from the past and today. Dress is an important and often overlooked cultural artifact, a window into so many aspects of human life and behavior. Studying what people wore can help us understand their daily experiences, beliefs, values, social structures and so much more. We can use what we’ve learned about past people and movements to inform our choices today, and better recognize how our dress can be one tool amongst many in our collective, ongoing fight toward liberation.

Mentioned in episode:

TRAP House Chicago
Shein controversy (1, 2, 3)
SoapBox and Demand Justice clothing collaborations

Hannah's recs on accounts and people to follow:

Hoda Katebi -- fashion, politics, abolition, Chicago/East Bay
Alokvmenon -- Degendering fashion, queering fashion
Aja Barber -- Intersectional sustainability and politics
Dressing Dykes -- Lesbian fashion history
The Slow Factory -- Intersectional sustainability and politics
The Zay Initiative -- The Art of Arab Dress
Clothes Horse Podcast -- The podcast that loves clothes but hates capitalism!

CREDITS: Intro soundbite from Alokvmenon and outro music Wu Wear: The Garment Renaissance by the RZA ft. Method Man & Cappadonna. Audio engineered by Kiera Battles. Episode photo by Hannah Linsky.