In Difficult times, Fashion is Always Outrageous
Paris Fashion Week started strong on January 21st, 2025, exactly one day after Donald Trump was sworn in as President of the United States. A strange juxtaposition occurred: The biggest names in fashion presented meticulously crafted collections based on creativity and boundary-pushing, while Trump “unleashed American prosperity” on the world.
After eleven days in office, Trump put 10,000 USAID employees on administrative leave. These employees join thousands of other federal and non-federal employees who have been laid off, whose departments have been cut, and who have been threatened with furloughs. These events constitute “difficult times” for the American landscape and abroad.
However, Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli once said, “In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.” Current fashion is outrageous, but are these difficult times producing even more outrageous fashion?
Outrageous fashion is not limited to the most exaggerated silhouette or the brightest color story. Like any descriptor of fashion or art, “outrageous” is subjective and changes from person to person and era to era. What constituted outrageous fashion 100 years ago may be seen as standard in the current day, but outrageous fashion — no matter the time it arises from — usually has the common thread of being a response to a society in difficult times.
Kunihiko Morinaga of ANREALAGE presented the brand’s Fall/Winter 2025 collection on March 4th. The show took place in a Parisian cathedral with three panes of stained glass framing the background. It featured exaggerated silhouettes, LED lights, and pixelated fabric, resembling something out of Minecraft. The collection, entitled “SCREEN,” aimed to explore how we interact with technological advancements. “Like a living billboard, soft yarns and textiles embedded with LED-LCD technology — developed in collaboration with MPLUSPLUS[2] — can be folded, knitted, sewn, and draped into any shape” is how ANREALAGE describes the collection. As the use of AI rises in every facet of life — from academia to art — designing with technology and not by it is part of what made this collection outrageous.
Photo by Paolo Lanzi, courtesy of Gorunway.com
In addition to the technological use, the aesthetics and visuals were just as outrageous. Models walked down the runway in fishnet stockings, casting patterns across their faces, and boxy silhouettes swallowed the human figure. In the show's latter half, the garments became illuminated in saturated pixels. The collection expressed an appreciation of technology and a time before technology, inviting viewers to interact with both sides of our ever-evolving world.
Morinaga is a Japanese designer, and Japan itself is going through political turmoil. On October 27th, 2024, national elections took place in Japan. As Rob Fahey for the Tokyo Review explains, “Unsurprisingly, the party with the most to celebrate after this election is the mainstream centre-left opposition, the Constitutional Democratic Party. It added 50 seats to reach 148 in total, which arguably makes it look like a 'proper' opposition party for the first time since 2012…” The country’s two dominant political parties are the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which leans conservative, and the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), which leans liberal. The LDP has had a majority control over the government since 1955, with only a few years of minority control. This major shift of power means a new way of life for Japanese people, and Morinaga’s artistic work reflected a changing world.
Photo by Paolo Lanzi, courtesy of Gorunway.com
A. Potts’ Fall 2025 Ready-to-Wear collection was filled with unique draping techniques, bold jewelry pieces, and slightly taller-than-average hats. Aaron Potts, a prominent Black American designer, said that his collection was inspired by the act of joy and its cultivation. “I was in a really dark place when I started developing this collection. It’s this fucking election. I knew I needed to use my creativity to find some joy.” The 2024 election incited fear and panic in marginalized communities. According to data gathered by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation in an article by Rayna Young, the largest areas of concern for Black voters were education and criminal justice along with disability rights, housing, and voting rights. “While these issues are important to Black communities at large, elected officials must listen to the voices of those who are most directly impacted to ensure that marginalized voices are elevated. All Black Americans should feel safe while exercising their right to vote no matter which state or region they live in” (Young).
Photo courtesy of A. Potts
Trump’s swift rollback on all DEI programs greatly harms the Black population, among other marginalized peoples in the U.S. According to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are “Programs that increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility are not quotas, which are illegal. Instead, they are strategies to equalize opportunities for groups of people who are unfairly disadvantaged, such as: engaging in broader outreach and recruitment measures to expand a college applicant pool; adopting a policy to only focus on necessary skills and qualifications in hiring; providing training to ensure that healthcare providers can effectively treat patients of all backgrounds; among others.” In a similar vein, the Trump administration no longer requires explicit prohibition of segregated facilities from contractors, as of March 18th, 2025.
A. Potts’s collection was an authentic expression of pleasure and methods of creating pleasure in a world darkened by the Trump administration. The ensembles juxtaposed fluidity and utilitarian designs and were united through a quiet playfulness — optical patterns, knit leg warmers, and leopard print were common motifs that created a comprehensive and nuanced assemblage of fashion. Pott’s radical display of joy is something few and far between in the fashion world and the world at large — outrageous joy.
Photo courtesy of A. Potts
While designers and artists alike produce outrageous work in mundane and ordinary times, difficult times push them to new bounds. By responding to the upheaval of the world through artistic creation, designers create outrageously progressive fashion. Elsa Schiaparelli created art during both WWI and WWII, two eras plagued by fascism and tyranny. As society witnesses oppressive forces rise yet again, fashion designers like Morinaga and Potts pave the way for revolutionary design by tapping into areas such as change and joy — outrageous spheres.