The Feminist Fashion

I was skimming through the Elle Collections UK magazine today when I came upon an article questioning whether fashion was feminist. They posed a really good question, a lot of people who don't know or don't care about fashion tend to believe that fashion is not feminist. The magazine asked this question to different people in the fashion industry; from designers, to journalists, and bloggers. It was so interesting to see everyone's responses to the question, the majority seemed to believe that fashion and its industry was feminist, while at the same time a few fiercely opposed this notion. Personally, I think that fashion can be feminist, but really its not the clothes which make a person a feminist its the person themselves who makes clothes feminist (does that make any sense?). If a women is a feminist then what she chooses to wear will reflect her attitude but she won't be repressed by her clothes. I think a lot of people have this notion that fashion "represses" and "restricts" women from what really matters, they are too preoccupied with their looks to care about, say, the enviroment, or finding a cure for AID's. Which is totally untrue, in fact I think that fashion helps keep feminism an important issue in todays society. The way a person dresses can show how powerful and intouch they are with the world around them. I really loved the responses of one of the people Elle interviewed, it just struck a cord with me, and perhaps it will better explain my feelings about this topic. Jane Aldridge of the blog, Sea Of Shoes, said "When women wear something they love, they feel powerful. Feminism doesn't have to be anti-beauty." I think Jane made a valid point, so often people feel that people who are feminist are against fashion and beauty, and that is not true. I mean look at me, I love fashion but yet at the same time I still consider myself a feminist, and their is nothing wrong with that. So what do you think? Is fashion feminist? Or not?
Jem