1 00:00:12,014 --> 00:00:17,093 I'm going to talk about political protest and papier mache. 2 00:00:17,205 --> 00:00:18,306 (Laughter) 3 00:00:18,406 --> 00:00:22,755 But for any of this to make sense, I first need to confess something to you, 4 00:00:22,962 --> 00:00:26,584 something that might not be obvious just by looking at me. 5 00:00:26,958 --> 00:00:30,109 My name's Lucy, and I'm a sensible grown-up. 6 00:00:30,714 --> 00:00:31,997 I work hard. 7 00:00:31,997 --> 00:00:33,682 I'm a decent mother 8 00:00:33,682 --> 00:00:36,047 and a responsible member of my community. 9 00:00:36,795 --> 00:00:39,689 But I much prefer dressing up as someone else. 10 00:00:40,175 --> 00:00:45,303 You see, I have always loved fancy dress. 11 00:00:46,045 --> 00:00:47,607 And since this picture - 12 00:00:47,607 --> 00:00:48,902 (Laughter) 13 00:00:49,896 --> 00:00:53,986 But since this picture was taken, I've ramped things up a bit. 14 00:00:54,442 --> 00:00:58,252 I've commissioned made-to-measure armor from a workshop in the Ukraine, 15 00:00:58,414 --> 00:01:00,835 imported professional Hollywood blood. 16 00:01:01,336 --> 00:01:05,089 I've nurtured a collection of 36 tiaras. 17 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:08,727 I've had a fake wedding, complete with fake bridesmaids, 18 00:01:08,727 --> 00:01:10,986 fake vicar, fake husband. 19 00:01:11,747 --> 00:01:13,804 I hospitalized myself once 20 00:01:13,804 --> 00:01:17,087 after an incident with a Roman toga and some very hot glue. 21 00:01:17,190 --> 00:01:18,358 (Laughter) 22 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:21,932 And I once sent my son to school looking like this. 23 00:01:22,470 --> 00:01:24,369 (Laughter) 24 00:01:27,268 --> 00:01:30,990 Now, the kind of fancy dress that I love is not the same as cosplay 25 00:01:30,990 --> 00:01:34,424 with its discipline and immersiveness and accuracy. 26 00:01:34,738 --> 00:01:35,966 They're the real deal. 27 00:01:36,530 --> 00:01:39,736 But what I adore is the peculiar eccentricity 28 00:01:39,736 --> 00:01:44,704 of cardboard cut-outs, dodgy sewing, stapled seams. 29 00:01:45,251 --> 00:01:47,405 It's kitchen-table couture. 30 00:01:47,762 --> 00:01:51,552 The for-one-night-only aspect, falling into bed drunk 31 00:01:51,552 --> 00:01:54,588 and danced out and still wearing the face paint. 32 00:01:54,941 --> 00:01:57,057 And there's nothing disciplined about that. 33 00:01:57,695 --> 00:02:01,557 So in order to have more fancy dress in my life - 34 00:02:01,557 --> 00:02:03,332 because, honestly, it's awful - 35 00:02:03,332 --> 00:02:07,211 you can't do it in supermarkets or on average Wednesdays. 36 00:02:07,590 --> 00:02:09,448 So I created a podcast about it. 37 00:02:09,448 --> 00:02:14,545 The only podcast about fashion, fantasy, and fancy dress. 38 00:02:14,545 --> 00:02:17,130 Or costumes, as they prefer to call it in the US. 39 00:02:18,283 --> 00:02:21,540 It's a place to explore the elaborate themes, 40 00:02:21,540 --> 00:02:25,461 intricacies, and influence of costume in real life. 41 00:02:26,201 --> 00:02:27,621 Because I'm interested 42 00:02:27,621 --> 00:02:31,819 in the distinction between the performative and the personal. 43 00:02:32,197 --> 00:02:36,006 Ordinary people in extraordinary outfits. 44 00:02:36,593 --> 00:02:39,094 And what struck me more than any other subject 45 00:02:39,114 --> 00:02:40,833 we've encountered on the show 46 00:02:40,833 --> 00:02:45,291 is the way people use costume as a tool for protest. 47 00:02:45,807 --> 00:02:47,284 Now, you might be thinking, 48 00:02:47,284 --> 00:02:50,841 "What does dressing up have to do with the important business of politics?" 49 00:02:51,802 --> 00:02:53,012 (Laughter) 50 00:02:53,364 --> 00:02:55,496 And it does seem counterintuitive. 51 00:02:55,496 --> 00:02:58,910 Why dress silly in order to be taken seriously? 52 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:02,543 But from caped crusaders to modern suffragettes, 53 00:03:02,543 --> 00:03:06,179 people are getting creative with costume to express their outrage 54 00:03:06,179 --> 00:03:08,260 and garner global attention. 55 00:03:08,290 --> 00:03:09,512 And it's working. 56 00:03:10,358 --> 00:03:14,663 It's worth saying here that fashion is often treated as a flimsy, 57 00:03:14,663 --> 00:03:18,509 generally female distraction from the real issues of the day, 58 00:03:18,509 --> 00:03:21,380 and despite being a three-trillion-dollar industry, 59 00:03:21,380 --> 00:03:25,744 it's often marginalized or dismissed in commentary about current affairs. 60 00:03:26,471 --> 00:03:30,534 And yet, every day each one of us 61 00:03:30,564 --> 00:03:34,535 uses what we wear as a tool for constructing our sense of self, 62 00:03:34,535 --> 00:03:36,753 for literally fashioning our identities. 63 00:03:37,816 --> 00:03:42,301 If fashion is considered frivolous, then fancy dress is really frivolous. 64 00:03:42,301 --> 00:03:43,400 Right? 65 00:03:43,789 --> 00:03:49,489 But actually, it allows us to express the most extreme version of ourselves. 66 00:03:49,819 --> 00:03:52,313 It allows us to be something other. 67 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:56,146 Something in-between, something in development. 68 00:03:56,560 --> 00:04:01,201 And historically, it's always had a relationship with hot topics. 69 00:04:01,585 --> 00:04:06,092 Here's a gown by Worth worn by Mrs. Vanderbilt in 1883, 70 00:04:06,110 --> 00:04:08,991 representing the spirit of electricity. 71 00:04:09,650 --> 00:04:13,169 More recently, there's been a decidedly less beautiful trend 72 00:04:13,169 --> 00:04:16,798 for dressing as the Millennial's favorite, the avocado. 73 00:04:17,030 --> 00:04:20,022 (Laughter) 74 00:04:25,085 --> 00:04:26,169 Sorry. 75 00:04:26,169 --> 00:04:27,663 (Laughter) 76 00:04:27,887 --> 00:04:32,237 Over the years, fancy dress has playfully depicted controversial moments, 77 00:04:32,267 --> 00:04:35,507 from this matchgirl factory-strike dress 78 00:04:35,536 --> 00:04:39,271 to Urban Outfitter's Halloween "Influencer" costume. 79 00:04:40,316 --> 00:04:43,774 It's satire and disruption and provocation. 80 00:04:44,119 --> 00:04:47,568 So I'm going to take us beyond slogan T-shirts 81 00:04:47,789 --> 00:04:50,826 to look at the ways bonkers subversive garments 82 00:04:50,826 --> 00:04:53,325 are being used to take on the establishment. 83 00:04:53,995 --> 00:04:56,515 Here, we can see an anarchic continuity 84 00:04:56,515 --> 00:05:00,266 from gunpowder plot through to Occupy Wall Street. 85 00:05:00,266 --> 00:05:03,305 These masks taken from the comic book "V for Vandetta," 86 00:05:03,305 --> 00:05:05,985 are used as a public face of the anonymous movement. 87 00:05:06,105 --> 00:05:09,115 They're a variation on a Guy Folks theme, 88 00:05:09,115 --> 00:05:12,005 and they hark back to ancient carnivals and masquerades 89 00:05:12,005 --> 00:05:14,956 where the usual societal rules don't apply, 90 00:05:14,956 --> 00:05:17,474 and everything is temporarily topsy-turvy. 91 00:05:18,336 --> 00:05:22,236 Here, "Handmaid's Tale" costumes are appropriated for demonstrations 92 00:05:22,236 --> 00:05:24,119 against the Trump administration, 93 00:05:24,119 --> 00:05:26,619 and we saw a lot at the Kavanaugh hearings - 94 00:05:26,619 --> 00:05:31,009 taking a moment in fiction from Margaret Atwood's 1985 dystopia, 95 00:05:31,009 --> 00:05:33,518 and applying it to a very current conflict, 96 00:05:33,918 --> 00:05:39,418 lines of silent, highly visible women outside courtrooms and the Capitol. 97 00:05:40,469 --> 00:05:44,559 Hilariously, later, in a complete misjudgment of the cultural mood, 98 00:05:44,559 --> 00:05:47,601 the retailer Yandy prompted wide-spread disgust 99 00:05:47,601 --> 00:05:50,860 when they launched a sexy version of the Handmaid. 100 00:05:51,041 --> 00:05:52,690 (Laughter) 101 00:05:55,310 --> 00:05:57,051 I don't think they'd read the novel. 102 00:05:57,051 --> 00:05:58,680 (Laughter) 103 00:05:59,330 --> 00:06:02,541 Elsewhere, the visual language of the suffragettes 104 00:06:02,541 --> 00:06:04,311 is borrowed from new battle, 105 00:06:04,311 --> 00:06:08,111 purple for dignity, white for purity, green for hope. 106 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,516 Powerful Pantones and a pre-hashtag way of building momentum. 107 00:06:12,850 --> 00:06:15,497 Sentiments like "Same shit, different century" 108 00:06:15,497 --> 00:06:17,268 are rendered ever so lady-like. 109 00:06:17,268 --> 00:06:18,407 (Laughter) 110 00:06:18,547 --> 00:06:22,309 The campaign group Fathers for Justice uses a range of costumes in their stunts 111 00:06:22,309 --> 00:06:24,289 from Batman to Santa. 112 00:06:24,289 --> 00:06:26,690 Clear statements in a contentious debate. 113 00:06:26,690 --> 00:06:29,626 By using classic icons of good, 114 00:06:29,629 --> 00:06:33,307 by hijacking the visual grammar of superheroism, 115 00:06:33,307 --> 00:06:37,104 they're trying to invoke an almost an instinctive, nostalgic, 116 00:06:37,104 --> 00:06:39,415 sympathetic response in the viewer. 117 00:06:40,623 --> 00:06:43,993 The Pink Pussyhat Project took a traditional domestic skill 118 00:06:44,263 --> 00:06:47,333 and rendered it the opposite of calm or comforting. 119 00:06:47,333 --> 00:06:51,977 This open-source knitting pattern, this moment of craftivism - 120 00:06:51,977 --> 00:06:55,527 originally conceived the people who wanted to march but couldn't - 121 00:06:55,527 --> 00:06:59,087 was quickly embraced by women's activists all over the world. 122 00:06:59,207 --> 00:07:00,457 Sarah Mower called it 123 00:07:00,457 --> 00:07:04,497 a global cheerful symbol of feminist defiance in British Vogue, 124 00:07:04,497 --> 00:07:07,647 and it's considered so important a moment in fashion history 125 00:07:07,647 --> 00:07:12,155 that the V&A's brilliantly titled Rapid Response Collection 126 00:07:12,155 --> 00:07:13,867 have already acquired one. 127 00:07:15,387 --> 00:07:21,728 Now, imagine if you took the costumes away in all these examples. 128 00:07:22,248 --> 00:07:26,548 If they were just standing there in jeans and anoraks. 129 00:07:27,095 --> 00:07:29,765 What does that do the occasion, 130 00:07:29,765 --> 00:07:32,735 the atmosphere, the news cycle? 131 00:07:33,595 --> 00:07:36,485 Each of these examples uses cultural referencing 132 00:07:36,485 --> 00:07:39,185 to make a statement without saying a word. 133 00:07:39,185 --> 00:07:41,075 It's free speech without speech, 134 00:07:41,075 --> 00:07:44,235 the messages writ large on the body. 135 00:07:44,235 --> 00:07:47,385 And how do you express your feelings about issues 136 00:07:47,399 --> 00:07:49,409 that are so complex, 137 00:07:49,409 --> 00:07:52,899 so shifting, so delicate, so divisive 138 00:07:52,899 --> 00:07:54,879 that sometimes language eludes 139 00:07:54,879 --> 00:07:56,692 even the very best of us? 140 00:07:58,949 --> 00:08:01,679 I just love her face in that picture. 141 00:08:01,679 --> 00:08:03,659 (Laughter) 142 00:08:05,569 --> 00:08:11,614 At a time when the words of experts are ridiculed and critics are trolled, 143 00:08:11,614 --> 00:08:14,784 when fake news rebrands truth as fiction, 144 00:08:14,784 --> 00:08:18,307 perhaps we need tools that are beyond language 145 00:08:18,307 --> 00:08:21,007 to securely assert our values. 146 00:08:22,014 --> 00:08:26,528 I think there's a link between fancy dress and ambition. 147 00:08:26,528 --> 00:08:28,012 It's why we love it growing up. 148 00:08:28,012 --> 00:08:30,152 You can be a ballet dancer and a firefighter, 149 00:08:30,152 --> 00:08:31,752 all in the same afternoon. 150 00:08:31,752 --> 00:08:33,152 But for the game to work, 151 00:08:33,152 --> 00:08:35,619 you have to do more than just put the clothes on. 152 00:08:35,822 --> 00:08:38,962 You need to aspire into those costumes. 153 00:08:39,392 --> 00:08:42,692 Fancy dress isn't just a tool to passively join in, 154 00:08:42,692 --> 00:08:46,799 but an opportunity to project our future selves, 155 00:08:46,958 --> 00:08:48,082 our hopes. 156 00:08:48,864 --> 00:08:50,624 And I believe there's a relationship 157 00:08:50,624 --> 00:08:54,231 between the way we dress and how brave we feel. 158 00:08:54,231 --> 00:08:57,342 I know that because it took me weeks to decide what to wear today. 159 00:08:57,342 --> 00:08:58,352 (Laughter) 160 00:08:58,352 --> 00:09:03,822 Perhaps, dressing up gives us courage to behave in ways we wouldn't otherwise. 161 00:09:04,010 --> 00:09:06,800 Here are some extreme illustrations of that. 162 00:09:07,652 --> 00:09:12,132 During the American Civil War, Frances Clayton dressed as a male soldier, 163 00:09:12,132 --> 00:09:14,074 becoming Jack Williams. 164 00:09:14,074 --> 00:09:18,428 She fought with the Missouri Regiment in 17 battles 165 00:09:18,744 --> 00:09:20,946 before her identity was revealed. 166 00:09:21,680 --> 00:09:25,812 She used uniform first to disguise her gender, 167 00:09:25,812 --> 00:09:30,001 second as armor, a layering of costume that allowed her 168 00:09:30,001 --> 00:09:31,422 to elude the male gaze 169 00:09:31,422 --> 00:09:35,562 and instead train her eye to fight alongside them. 170 00:09:35,832 --> 00:09:37,765 Which, I wonder, was the more dangerous? 171 00:09:38,972 --> 00:09:41,312 By wearing her warrior status, 172 00:09:41,312 --> 00:09:45,312 Frances was dressing up in order to be allowed in. 173 00:09:45,652 --> 00:09:48,037 A whole life born out of those clothes. 174 00:09:49,512 --> 00:09:52,166 The women of the 18th century often used the masquerades 175 00:09:52,166 --> 00:09:55,060 as an opportunity to elope or escape. 176 00:09:55,060 --> 00:09:59,399 Being masked and unchaperoned gave them an unusual freedom, 177 00:09:59,399 --> 00:10:02,719 a socially sanctioned moment of disguise 178 00:10:02,719 --> 00:10:05,649 to pursue a life beyond the one ascribed to them. 179 00:10:06,526 --> 00:10:09,716 The mask made them dangerous and daring. 180 00:10:10,342 --> 00:10:13,406 We know how extreme the psychology of this can be 181 00:10:13,406 --> 00:10:17,380 because the worst imaginable atrocities have been committed masked 182 00:10:17,380 --> 00:10:19,131 and in a kind of costume. 183 00:10:20,310 --> 00:10:22,085 A corrupt courage. 184 00:10:22,085 --> 00:10:25,360 Cloaked and criminal. 185 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:29,100 A group united as a chilling icon of hatred. 186 00:10:29,699 --> 00:10:32,279 Costume isn't intrinsically innocent. 187 00:10:32,279 --> 00:10:36,279 And a disguise can free an innermost evil, too. 188 00:10:37,672 --> 00:10:41,672 Costume for unity can be seen in a completely different way here: 189 00:10:41,822 --> 00:10:42,870 where it says, 190 00:10:42,870 --> 00:10:46,075 "She is getting married, so we're having organized compulsory fun." 191 00:10:46,075 --> 00:10:48,012 (Laughter) 192 00:10:48,012 --> 00:10:49,375 We've all been there. 193 00:10:50,245 --> 00:10:52,373 Or here, at the State of the Union, 194 00:10:52,373 --> 00:10:54,765 where it says we are part of an empowered tradition 195 00:10:54,765 --> 00:10:57,039 honoring the suffragettes' legacy. 196 00:10:57,939 --> 00:11:02,519 Simply put, when an activist puts their identity alongside a placard, 197 00:11:02,519 --> 00:11:06,109 they show that they, as an individual, express a view. 198 00:11:06,109 --> 00:11:09,639 If they want to connect it with a wider movement, they can use a signifier, 199 00:11:09,639 --> 00:11:10,944 like the suffragette colors 200 00:11:10,944 --> 00:11:13,404 or the "hi-viz" vests of the French "Gilets jaunes." 201 00:11:13,404 --> 00:11:15,484 It's tribal. 202 00:11:15,484 --> 00:11:20,904 Whereas in fancy dress, the costume subsumes the individual entirely 203 00:11:20,904 --> 00:11:22,794 into the view they're expressing. 204 00:11:23,084 --> 00:11:27,514 It's as if, bizarrely, when someone is concealed, 205 00:11:27,514 --> 00:11:30,884 their true values become completely visible. 206 00:11:31,764 --> 00:11:34,104 The arresting protest images I've shown you today, 207 00:11:34,104 --> 00:11:35,751 and of course there are many more, 208 00:11:35,751 --> 00:11:39,234 all, unequivocally, communicate collective hopes. 209 00:11:39,624 --> 00:11:43,014 By protesting in costume, these people are giving voice 210 00:11:43,014 --> 00:11:47,144 to their democratic right to imagine a potential future, 211 00:11:47,144 --> 00:11:48,944 to identify with each other, 212 00:11:48,944 --> 00:11:50,694 and to express their freedom. 213 00:11:51,034 --> 00:11:55,168 So costume has real potential to challenge and confront, 214 00:11:55,168 --> 00:11:57,298 for disruption and dissent. 215 00:11:57,298 --> 00:12:00,495 By dressing outside ourselves, we trick the eye, 216 00:12:00,495 --> 00:12:03,943 attract the focus, demand recognition. 217 00:12:03,943 --> 00:12:08,874 We creatively tell the people in power that we're not comfortable conforming, 218 00:12:08,874 --> 00:12:13,354 that the collective issue is bigger than our personal perspective. 219 00:12:14,257 --> 00:12:20,538 Fancy dress is not bound by who you are or how you identify 220 00:12:20,538 --> 00:12:23,194 but by the message you want to embody. 221 00:12:23,583 --> 00:12:28,453 And those messages aren't constrained by the limits of your experience 222 00:12:28,453 --> 00:12:29,943 or your environment. 223 00:12:30,423 --> 00:12:32,523 Only by your imagination. 224 00:12:33,206 --> 00:12:37,686 And we have to imagine our utopias before we can build them. 225 00:12:38,222 --> 00:12:40,172 It is imagination that sells 226 00:12:40,172 --> 00:12:43,892 thousands of cheap and cheerful Marilyn Monroe dresses every year. 227 00:12:43,892 --> 00:12:48,282 Imagination that sends kids to school clutching Harry Potter wands, 228 00:12:48,282 --> 00:12:52,882 and sales figures for grotesque rubber presidential candidate masks 229 00:12:52,882 --> 00:12:57,353 have correctly predicted U.S. election outcomes since Nixon. 230 00:12:59,372 --> 00:13:00,882 Isn't he handsome there? 231 00:13:00,882 --> 00:13:02,425 (Laughter) 232 00:13:03,343 --> 00:13:06,083 Unlike any other kind of getting dressed, 233 00:13:06,083 --> 00:13:09,887 fancy dress is fundamentally about infinite possibility. 234 00:13:10,087 --> 00:13:12,132 That's why we keep it alive, 235 00:13:12,332 --> 00:13:15,464 even when technology offers up far more sophisticated vehicles 236 00:13:15,464 --> 00:13:18,055 for experimenting or escapism. 237 00:13:18,515 --> 00:13:20,675 We still throw another party, 238 00:13:20,675 --> 00:13:25,955 hand down our treasured dressing-up boxes, those time capsules of ideas 239 00:13:25,955 --> 00:13:27,805 and interpretations. 240 00:13:28,444 --> 00:13:33,294 So if dressing together as one brilliant rainbow crew 241 00:13:33,294 --> 00:13:36,274 gives you a sense of strength and belonging, 242 00:13:36,274 --> 00:13:39,696 a palette just about big enough to celebrate your pride, 243 00:13:40,194 --> 00:13:42,054 then use all the colors. 244 00:13:42,334 --> 00:13:47,664 Or if you wake up one morning thinking Brexit is a job for Wonderwoman ... 245 00:13:48,034 --> 00:13:49,671 (Laughter) 246 00:13:49,951 --> 00:13:51,490 you might be right. 247 00:13:52,150 --> 00:13:57,270 Or if you're moved to rise up in solidarity in a crowd of pink hats 248 00:13:57,270 --> 00:14:03,098 that say in glorious, loving shorthand how your body is equal, 249 00:14:03,658 --> 00:14:06,062 how it is not there for grabbing, 250 00:14:06,062 --> 00:14:09,743 how it belongs fiercely to yourself, 251 00:14:10,343 --> 00:14:12,153 then get knitting. 252 00:14:12,583 --> 00:14:16,835 Just as children dressing as astronauts aren't trying out a future career, 253 00:14:16,835 --> 00:14:19,573 they're playing with an alternative reality. 254 00:14:19,573 --> 00:14:24,003 So we can use the freedom of fancy dress to communicate an imagined, 255 00:14:24,003 --> 00:14:26,178 better version of our lives. 256 00:14:26,178 --> 00:14:30,988 Because fancy dress says, "This tawdry reality isn't good enough for me." 257 00:14:30,988 --> 00:14:34,998 Think of it as dressing up for the job you want, not the job you have. 258 00:14:35,268 --> 00:14:37,290 Or for turning one night only 259 00:14:37,290 --> 00:14:41,308 into a blueprint for a magical tomorrow, too. 260 00:14:42,669 --> 00:14:43,824 Lets remember, 261 00:14:43,824 --> 00:14:48,360 fancy dress has a grown-up role to play beyond stag parties and Halloweens. 262 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:51,550 Its principles even have a place at the State Opening of Parliament 263 00:14:51,550 --> 00:14:53,340 and the State of the Union. 264 00:14:53,340 --> 00:14:59,130 From full get-up to subtle signifiers, this is about being emboldened. 265 00:14:59,575 --> 00:15:03,225 Massive movements are born of micro demonstrations. 266 00:15:03,225 --> 00:15:08,533 Things that seem trivial or frivolous can be potent symbols 267 00:15:08,533 --> 00:15:12,473 of what you stand for, or what you won't stand for. 268 00:15:12,473 --> 00:15:15,254 There's real power in putting on those knitted ears, 269 00:15:15,254 --> 00:15:18,982 in choosing to wear a cape for good versus evil. 270 00:15:18,982 --> 00:15:23,916 Fancy dress has a unifying quality that we can use to fight for change, 271 00:15:23,916 --> 00:15:28,376 armed only with glue guns and gumption. 272 00:15:28,886 --> 00:15:31,486 And if costume makes up braver, 273 00:15:31,486 --> 00:15:36,466 it gives us the courage to explore imaginative alternatives. 274 00:15:36,728 --> 00:15:41,760 The courage not just to turn up but to be noticed. 275 00:15:42,223 --> 00:15:46,223 So I hope we never grow out of it. 276 00:15:46,223 --> 00:15:47,611 Thank you. 277 00:15:47,611 --> 00:15:50,442 (Applause) (Cheers) (Whistles)