Fashion and Politics: cultural and aesthetic trends leaning towards conservatism
Fashion has always functioned as a kind of political language. By choosing a particular item of clothing or preferring a specific color, people signal how they want to be interpreted: traditional, rebellious, artistic, feminine, gothic, and so on. Much of our identity is built on how we express ourselves through style.
Lately, online discussions have pointed out how fashion and pop culture trends can act as markers of the emergence of fascist or authoritarian currents. Italian feminist and fashion professor, Eugenia Paulicell,i reminds us in her book “Fashion under Fascism” that, under fascism, clothing and films were deliberately used as tools to shape national identity and promote a “politics of style.” When Mussolini created the Ente Nazionale della Moda (ENM), or National Fashion Agency, in 1930, it was not just about regulating the fashion industry — it was a way of incorporating fascist ideology into everyday life. Italians were encouraged to adopt traditional dress codes, local materials, and “authentic” national roots as part of a broader cultural program.
Although this story belongs to 1930s Italy, the pattern resonates today. Since Donald Trump’s re-election in 2024, fashion has been visibly shifting toward a conservative-inspired aesthetic. Trends such as the “Clean girl” look, “Quiet luxury,” “Old money” style, and “Tradwife” aesthetic echo a return to more traditional ideals, restrained and codified by social classes. As Jordan Anderson observes in NSS Magazine, fashion is inherently political: changes in style often reflect deeper cultural currents, and in recent years, these currents have been moving toward conservatism and traditionalism.
Fashion is not limited to being a mirror that reflects individual identity. In this reflection, we can also see, if we remove our biased lenses and view it through one of the oldest systemic mechanisms, coined by investigative journalist Robert Parry as “Perception Management,” the reflection of changes in the political landscape. Just as fascist Italy used clothing to impose a national ideology, the current revival of conservative aesthetics signals an alignment between cultural trends and broader authoritarian currents.
With the resurgence of political currents that reaffirm hierarchy, patriarchal ideals, and narratives of a return to traditionalism, communication based on coded language has also