You’ve changed,” I said to my friend — let’s call her Emily. It’s impossible
to pin her down these days; she’s got different friends, different
conversation. Is it a boyfriend? Ambition? No. Practically overnight,
Emily’s gone and got herself a cause. Or several: namely, climate change,
human rights, anticapitalism, antiwar, anti-Tesco — only the hottest,
sexiest causes for Emily. “I wanted more substance in my life,” she
explains. “I found I was being perceived as superficial, and it wound me
up.”
Previously, “substance” to Emily meant materialism. This season, her favourite
accessory is having something to say for herself. Emily is not alone. The
Free Tibet campaign has seen an almost 20% increase in support in the past
year. In the past three months, Amnesty International’s followers on
Facebook, Bebo and Twitter have doubled. The G20 protests were deluged with
hip young professionals, many protesting for the very first time, all
dressed for Glastonbury in look-at-me frocks and DIY slogan parkas.
Protest chic demands a whole new set of rules — ninja hoodie disguises and
hemp sackcloths are the last outfits you need to get the mainstream on side.
“The look is really stylish,” says one anonymous insider (who doesn’t want
to look “shallow”). “But it’s critical to get it right. It’s got to have
hippie values, but not look hippie.” So flea-market finds are in; labels and
fancy, expensive footwear are out. “You want to get noticed and look hot,
but you need to look like you don’t care.” Now that any public action ends
up on Facebook, on Twitter or even in Vogue — which treated the G20 protests
like a catwalk, snapping away for a forthcoming issue — no wonder appearance
is all-important.
The old hardline protesters are rumoured to be quite scared by the fashion
pageant. Perhaps that’s because diamanté heels and skinny jeans — worn, for
example, by two of the eco-starlets of BBC3’s Blood, Sweat and T-shirts, at
War on Want’s recent demo outside the Primark AGM — just aren’t enough to
stay the course. The unprepared lambs both left early because they were
cold.
The magazine Don’t Panic
(www.dontpaniconline.com) satirised the G20 protests in a recent issue by
asking “What are people wearing?” and “Will the revolution come from
Shoreditch?”. “I did worry seeing all the Louis Vuitton bags and Gucci
sunglasses,” says its editor, Heydon Prowse. “A lot of people didn’t have
much idea about the issues.” Prowse reckons it was as much a cultural
phenomenon and social gathering as a demonstration. But so what if the new
guard bluff their way through it, bringing their beloved brands with them?
It’s not a problem to Prowse. “At least they’re engaging. If they’re bumping
into people who educate them, all the better.”
The artist Matthew Stone, whose first commission concerned with a cause —
Colombian human rights — was recently shown at the Baltic Centre for
Contemporary Art in Gateshead, admits to feeling out of his depth. “I had no
direct knowledge, I’d never been to Colombia. The very obvious question is:
who am I to make art about this?” And his very obvious answer? “Who am I not
to relate to it? That line of questioning damages progress. Political apathy
occurs not because people don’t care, but because they feel powerless and
irrelevant.”
So what is the motivation for this trend? For Rosie Wolfenden, co-founder of
the accessories label Tatty Devine, who wore heels to Climate Camp and calls
herself a part-time protester, it was a coming of age. “In the past six
months, my involvement has accelerated because the issues are surfacing at
such a rapid rate.” This she attributes to the rise of blogs and social
networking. And, of course, watching shops closing down every day: “That
really highlights the fault lines in politics and capitalism.” She says her
friends are also becoming more active: “When you see it affecting all your
life, it becomes too close to the bone.”
The branding expert Neil Boorman acknowledges the phenomenon. “When you have
tons of money in your pocket, you can afford to be carefree. Now, it’s a
different matter. Most of these kids have never experienced a recession —
it’s anathema to them.”
Since last year, Boorman has been busily rebranding “giving a shit”, as he
calls it, making being political “sexy and cool”. He oversees the Christian
Aid-funded campaigning platform. It has no central cause, but aims, says
Boorman, “to provide an army of kids whenever a cause needs it”. Uptake has
soared since the credit crunch kicked in: it now has 20,000 online members.
“For young people now, caring is 100% a badge of honour, a novelty,” he
says. Protest chic is simply another brand of lifestyle — as with labels,
protesting makes you look and feel a certain away.
“Young people have been raised to think that if they want to feel sexy, they
should buy sunglasses,” adds Boorman. “When you don’t have the money, you
find other ways.” Protesting works because your mates think you’re cool and,
he says, the opposite sex wants to shag you. “It’s why they display their
message so proudly and so immediately: they just want to get home and get
their leg over.”
Now that the kids own the demo, there are plenty of pulling opportunities: tea
parties on traffic islands, loud lunches outside, say, branches of the Royal
Bank of Scotland, eco-raves in, yup, Shoreditch. A common cause unites the
people. It’s wildly romantic that they’re trying to save the world together.
And they’re good to go, so svelte and healthy from farmers’ market fare, and
so charged — sexually charged — with all that fight. “There’s a lot of love
out there,” trills Emily, who’s still holding out for an eco-hero, but
predicts good times as the scene’s intensity swells this summer. But has
everyone forgotten that other endgame, the cause itself? Are the demo
dilettantes actually making a difference?
It’s complicated — impact might be hard to quantify, but lifestyle change is a
huge step in the right direction. To get the look, Emily has sold the
Kompressor, and has taken up cycling, recycling and growing vegetables.
“I’ve never gardened before in my life,” she shrieks. “The future’s green!”
