36 - Producing and Predicting Fashion in Twentieth-Century America and Europe

In a bold cultural move, some style-conscious American activists of the twenty-first century have engaged with the material history of the civil rights movement (1954–68) to make a powerful statement about clothing, class, and community. Whether commemorating historic 1960s marches or fighting for racial justice as part of Black Lives Matter (BLM), activists have taken to the streets in their ‘Sunday best’: sharply tailored suits for the men, and fancy party dresses for the women. Casting aside the oversized t-shirts, gym shorts, and baseball caps that have become synonymous with street style, elegant protesters have looked back to the 1960s when the dapper Dr Martin Luther King Jr (1929–1968), the future US Congressman John Lewis (1940–2020), and countless other American activists proudly embraced the dress code of respectability that earmarked white middle-class culture of the modern era.