Alice Rhodes BA (Hons) Fashion
Bitches in Protest
Bitches in Protest began as an exploration of femininity and how feminine dress is perceived in 2023 in comparison to previous decades, with initial research centred around hyperfeminine interiors and dress with an interest in how women can be powerful whilst wearing hyperfeminine dress. My practice has often contained messages on feminist issues and my initial research into femininity then led me to explore how feminist organisations have reappropriated the colour pink, embracing it in their marketing and identity and rejecting the negative connotations attached to it such as being ‘silly’, ‘weak’ or ‘vapid’. Activist groups such as Pussy Riot, Code Pink, and the Gulabi Gang all unapologetically reappropriated the colour to stand for equality and women’s rights. This led me to source images of women protesting their rights, which has become a key research strand in my project. Additionally, images of police arrests at protest have been mimicked through reflective detailing and hardware. To create my prints, I invited friends to join in protest workshops in which I used a series of drawing tasks to create motifs and then protest signs which comment on real life issues they were pissed off with in 2023. All these hand drawings have been engineered into my prints alongside my drawings of dogs in protests and classic girly motifs such as lace. My collection has a feeling of rebellion and unity expressed through these prints, colours, and textiles.