Why Dior's $710 T-Shirt is Cheap
It was a Tuesday morning around 8:00am when I was lost in the thick haze of grilled Papaya Dog somewhere in the morning hustle of Midtown East. A moving sign flashed in the corner of my eye, it read “We Should All Be Feminists.” How odd, I thought, for the well-known Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie quote to be on Fifth Avenue in the center of shopping, in the window of one of the most famous luxury department companies in New York City, in the world!
An MTA bus (blaring it’s horn loud enough to wake any snoozer on the island) passed through my line of vision drawing my attention away for a brief moment. When I looked for the sign again, now realizing it was the window of Saks Fifth Avenue, it had disappeared and was replaced with flashes of models, draped in clothes, shape shifting in rhythm to the kind of bumping music heard in every PG-13 Hollywood movie from the 2000’s – where there’s a jam-packed pool party happening downstairs while an unrealistic sex scene unfolds in the daughter’s bedroom.
I stood on the sidewalk watching like clockwork. “We should all be feminists”, subsequent shots of the same models, then the last image, in bold, clean lettering, one word: DIOR.
Two weeks later I found out that this moving image advertisement was for Dior’s newest spring collection. The central piece: a cotton T-shirt that read “we should all be feminists” being sold for $710 a pop. I also read that a “percentage” of the proceeds would go to Rihanna’s charity organization, The Clara Lionel Foundation. The company didn’t disclose how much of the proceeds would go to her organization. But really, I’m not sure the “how much” of it matters.
When you brand a saying it’s not a movement. It’s consumerism.
Maria Grazia Chiuri, the first and only female creative director for Dior, said, “Seeing artists such as Rihanna wearing the We Should All Be Feminists T-shirt showed me how important it is for women to advance their fight.” (Elle, Dior's "We Should All Be Feminist" Shirts Will Benefit Rihanna's Charity)
As a feminist movement, we are in constant dialogues with peers and strangers, working to define feminism for ourselves as individuals and as a global movement: intersectional feminism, the blindness of white girl feminism, free the nipples on Instagram feminism, equal pay, paternity and better maternity leave feminism, women becoming our national leaders in politics feminism. What is Dior Feminism?
If you’re going to sell a shirt for $710, say something. Say what Dior feminism is. Or else we make assumptions. Like this: Dior stands for an expensive feminism, an exclusive feminism. A 1% feminism. A women’s white t-shirt for $710 dollars? A cheap feminism.
When I was at the Women’s March in DC, I saw women my age shouting and hollering to start the march over ANGELA DAVIS as she spoke.
Angela. Davis.
Angela Davis!
When Angela Davis is speaking it doesn’t matter what your feminism is, you LISTEN. I say this not to blame certain women of a generation (my generation) for not knowing who Angela Davis is. I am commenting on the bigger issue. There is an obsession with catchy sayings, BUYING and wearing clothes with the label ‘feminist’ without having an understanding or discourse about the who, what, when, where, and why we are in the position as feminists now.
A $710 white t-shirt that says “we should all be feminists” is not forward thinking OR fashion forward.
If companies like Dior, want to embrace feminism as a brand, I implore them to do so by embracing conversation, embracing a knowledgeable feminism. Give perspective and context. Or again, we make assumptions. Like if they had any perspective at all, the cotton shirt wouldn’t cost so damn much.
Or they’d at least site the female black writer’s name who said “we should all be feminists” on the shirt. AT LEAST. Or better yet, put the name of Rihanna’s charity on the sleeve.
When did we start confusing consumerism with feminism?!
Dior is just one company, but it’s a powerful one. What’s feminist about it, is that there is a female creative director for the first time. The potential in that is incredible in possibility. I wish the company and companies like Dior acted and stood for substance.
“My position in a house as influential as Dior, but also my role as a mother, reminds me every day of my responsibilities and the importance of my actions." - Chiuri (Creative Director of Dior)