Flags & Banners: Fashion & Flags

A pink triangle has been a symbol for various LGBTQ identities, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reclaimed as a positive symbol of self-identity. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, distinguishing those imprisoned because they had been identified by authorities as gay men.^[1][2] In the 1970s, it was revived as a symbol of protest against homophobia, and has since been adopted by the larger LGBTQ community as a popular symbol of LGBTQ pride and the LGBTQ rights movement.^[3][4]

^{Copyright: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_triangle}

Wig wag : the flags of fashion

A Vaccari (Alessandra), 1965-. Venezia : Marsilio ; [Firenze] : Fondazione Pitti discovery, 2005.

Flags are everywhere, even in our wardrobes. Why are these brightly coloured cloth rectangles so fascinating? Are they fetishistic cult objects, fascinating stereotypes of identity or unsettling signs of power? And how do they fit into the omnivorous iconography of fashion and the anarchy of the creative processes of style? The book, Wig Wag, The Flags of Fashion rides along in the midst of that dense stream of visions and references - sporty, ethnic, patriotic or nostalgic - triggered by flags as a theme and by their relationship with fashion. It tears them away from the immediate association with the concept of nations and follows them through their visual metamorphoses that were created and guided by historic names such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior and Emilio Pucci; designers and brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Vivienne Westwood, Franco Moschino, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada, Antonio Marras, Alexander McQueen and Viktor & Rolf; and street-style brands, including Mambo, Vans, Eastpak, Gsus, Nigo, Stussy and Ipath. Irony and identity are the driving forces behind the multiple ways in which the flags of the United States, Great Britain and Italy have been appropriated. Fashion also has a place for the colors of Brazil, Jamaica and Japan, red flags, rainbow flags and flags that have no country. The book traverses this explosion of colourful symbols to present the creative processes of a fashion in close contact with cinema, art, design and music.

Dressing in Flags:  SPICE Girls, The WHO, BOWIE, RASTA  etc

• Nationalism
• Racism
• Segregation
• Identity

FUTURE Flags of No Land