At first glance, the words “woke” and “fashion” don’t exactly seem to have much in common. But some time between the former’s emergence in progressive black circles in the US as a term to describe social, political and racial awareness in the early aughts and its co-opting by the internet mainstream as a slang catchall in the 2010s, it became the fashion in fashion. An extraordinary term that became everyday. In 2016, MTV actually added “woke” to its list of 10 words you should know.
The proof is in the wave of catwalk political statements that started with designers such as Maria Grazia Chiuri at Dior and Prabal Gurung reviving the protest slogan tees made famous by Katherine Hamnett in the 1980s. This spirit of activism continues apace with model bookers taking a more considered, diverse approach to casting that’s beyond tokenism: from the cornrowed Sudanese model Adut Akech walking the Valentino runway and Kenyan born Halima Aden in hijab at MaxMara, to trans model Jessica Espinosa walking for Louis Vuitton and the reappearance of older supers, such as Stella Tennant at Salvatore Ferragamo.
Meanwhile, the influencer corners of Instagram went from aspirational street style, carefully filtered selfies and designer outfits to spaces leaning more towards activism, where a new class of equally well-dressed but notably less filtered women began opening up about their flaws with candour. These everyday women advocated for greater body positivity, equal pay and more meaningful diversity.
Captured on the Google Pixel 3
Scroll through Instagram on any given day and you’ll see original fashion influencers such as Tamu McPherson declaring Black Lives Matter and Susie Bubble encouraging her followers to exercise their right to vote. Or model Adwoa Aboah revealing her struggles with addiction and mental health. Or actress Yara Shahidi demanding tighter gun control. But perhaps no one embodies the sea change from unheralded to everyday heroine more than Chidera Eggerue. Better known as The Slumflower, Eggerue is a Nigerian-born south Londoner who’s used her fashion blog to interrogate and dismantle rigid, age-old standards of beauty.
Captured on the Google Pixel 3 with group selfie cam
It helps that Eggerue’s rise coincided with a general backlash against the false, Facetuned perfection that had been so pervasive on social media channels such as Instagram – and a shift towards individuality and authenticity. “I do feel that I am a new breed of fashion influencer because I’m contributing to changing the way people view themselves, and I think how you view yourself influences the types of decisions that you make,” she says.
Eggerue chose the name The Slumflower after a project by the same name that was created by menswear collective Street Etiquette about a rose growing from concrete – or, in Eggerue’s case, a young girl growing up in Peckham. “Beautifully growing, glowing and flourishing in an environment that appears to promote the opposite,” she says.
Eggerue recalls reading fashion magazines as a child and being struck by the homogenous depiction of glamour on the pages. “The imagery perpetuated a narrow definition of beauty, which is why I had to create #saggyboobsmatter,” she says of the hashtag she launched last year that grew to become a movement.
“It impacted me because it made me feel like I was never going to be good enough and that I had to be a particular type of woman in order to receive the type of love that is glorified – you know, men professing their love with grand gestures for these beautiful women who look so divine and perfect,” she says. “I always felt like I’m not divine or perfect, so that means I’m not going to get the love I want. And if I do want that love, I’ll need to look different.”
Her breasts became a lightening rod. “They were the main issue because when I’d go out to get bra fittings done, the models on the packaging never looked like me. Their boobs didn’t look like what my boobs looked like. So, even when I’d get the bra that was being pushed in my face, I still wouldn’t have the desired result, so it created a complex in my mind,” she says.
Eventually, she realised the only way to conquer it was to own the very qualities she initially viewed as flaws. “It forced me in the direction of having to be content with my own beauty, because if I didn’t do that I would be living and walking in a shadow of myself. I wouldn’t have known joy or what it’s like to feel confident in myself. I wouldn’t have known that the world is definitely not going to come to an end,” she says. “In fact, the world will come to an end if you refuse to accept yourself, because all you’ll know is a version of yourself that other people have told you to be and why do those people have authority over who you are?”
The message behind the #saggyboobsmatter movement resonated on social media, generating more than 8,000 Instagram posts from women around the world sharing their own everyday body narratives in response to Eggerue’s extraordinary honesty. The pace with which the hashtag spread was proof that social media’s cult of perfection had lost its lustre.
When Victoria’s Secret received criticism for a fashion show that relied on tired, reductive and restrictive notions of female sexuality, it was Eggerue’s hashtag that journalists referenced as an example of how times have changed. Women no longer aspire to Barbie doll proportions and Kardashian-esque curves.
Eggerue’s profile has grown alongside a community of like-minded, equally prominent women on social media such as the trans model and activist Munroe Bergdorf @munroebergdorf and influencer Megan Jayne Crabbe @bodyposipanda, an attractive woman of size known for posting videos in which she joyfully twerks, shakes and rolls her ample love handles, hips and thighs.
“I’m never going to stop talking about Munroe because she shows up so boldly,” she says. “She’s tenacious, courageous and paves the way for other women and I just think her presence is so important in modern society. I can’t imagine where I would be without knowing she existed. And Megan opened up a massive conversation about beauty ideals and fashion accessibility. She has about a million followers and she basically became popular for making videos where she would jiggle her body to music in her underwear and as a plus-size woman that’s something you rarely ever see. I learn so much from watching her Instagram stories alone.”
Captured on the Google Pixel 3 with group selfie cam
Most likely, others feel the same way about Eggerue. The BBC recently included her on its annual 100 Women list, honouring trailblazers in their field. “I remember when I was laughed at for creating #saggyboobsmatter,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the news. “Now, I’m being referred to as a leader among legends!” A new breed of woke fashion influencer? You’re looking at her.
