What to Wear to the Protest

(Photo from French Style by Bérénice Vila Baudry)

What to wear to the protest? Red lipstick, obviously. Or as the French say, c'est évident, non?

The French love a good demonstration, or as they call it--a manifestation.

I'm a little obsessed with the Paris May '68 manifestations and the idea that in just one month students and workers united to change their country and culture. In fact, after centuries of using the formal pronoun, vous, they embraced the more familiar tu pronoun. Can you imagine? It must have felt as if they were shaking off their corsets and dropping their hoop skirts.

But back to red lipstick and what you should wear to the protest.

Perhaps you should wear plaid.

Why? Well, because plaid is very subversive, don't you think?

Or leather. Leather shows you're tough.

Oh, a Mohawk. That'd be punk.

Maybe you should dress like Leonard Cohen in an old-fashioned suit and tie, a hat. That'd be retro and give everyone pause and make them wonder which side are you on.

Maybe you should dress up as Marie Antoinette. It would be ironic. Let them eat cake and all that. But then, you'd need some kind of clever poster to explain yourself and that might get complicated. Well, forget Marie Antoinette.

Still, I do want to mention that during the Paris May '68 protests, the students from the Sorbonne and L'Ecole des Beaux Arts occupied the Odeon Theatre. In between the speeches and pontificating, a group wandered off backstage and came upon the theatrical costumes. Imagine this--dressed up as Sarah Bernhardt dressed up as Desdemona or Ophelia--perhaps Marguérite Gautier, the courtesan from The Lady of the Camellias--they danced, jubilant, right into the middle of the demonstrations on the streets of the Latin Quarter. It must have been downright surreal.

And people couldn't help but notice. But, that's the point of a demonstration, isn't it?

So--what to wear to the protest?

Wear something that gets you noticed, that makes people think.

Creative Friends--a protest is a form of performance art. Play your part in the pageant. Find yourself a great costume. Add music and dance and poetry and drama. Oh, and comedy. Levitate the Pentagon. Write a protest song. Oh, and be sure to document the moment, because yes, history is watching.

Love,

Jamie