All language subtitles for American.Style.S01E04.720p.AMZN.WEBRip.x264-GalaxyTV_Subtitles01.ENG

Woman: Style is how you
project yourself.

It's about coming into stores
like this

and finding your favorite thing

and just putting it
all together.

It's places you go to eat,

the people you hang out with
and the magazines you read.

It's a lifestyle.

Woman:
It's about creating something

that's your own and saying,

"Here I am.
Look at me today."

Man: By the '90s and 2000s,

things had become
increasingly less formal.

Woman: She shows you it's not
about the dress.

It's about the woman
that wears it.

It's become
a lot more free-form.

Hello, lover.

Man: Style no longer came
from New York or Hollywood.

No one is saying, "You must
appear this particular way."

We are in the inclusivity era,
and it's race,

it's age, it's gender,
it's size.

American style is becoming
very diverse.

Woman: Fashion is becoming much
more accessible in every way.

Man: After the '80s excess,

you had a return
to simplicity in the '90s.

The '90s, for a long time,
seemed like was a period

that didn't seem
to have any style

after the extremely
visible styles of the '80s.

Gunn: We, as a nation,
had been dictated to

by big brands
and big names until the '90s.

It was very confusing for people

because we hadn't been
in a position

to make many decisions
other than are you mainstream

or are you nonconformist?

It was an American style crisis,
and it was a crisis of identity.

Who are we?

Man: In the early '90s,

Bill Clinton,
governor of Arkansas,

was running against
George H.W. Bush for president.

Man:
Some of the things that he did,

like playing the saxophone
on "Arsenio Hall"

or going on talk shows was part
of broadening his appeal

among segments of the population

that mainstream politicians
had largely ignored in the past.

In contrast, Bush 41 was of
a generation when presidents

were disconnected
from popular culture.

You wouldn't imagine him
appearing on any talk show,

so Clinton was able to make
himself appear to be cool

and connected to the culture

in ways that his older
opponents were not.

Man: We liked this guy.

He came across as somebody that
was concerned about the hood.

There was a high hope

that he was the triumph
of something new.

On this day,

the American people have voted
to make a new beginning.

In politics, you want to talk
about change,

and change means
a new generation, new styles,

new fashions, new energy,
and Bill Clinton exuded that.

Hello.
This is Hillary Clinton.

I want to thank you for
letting me speak with you

about solving our nation's
health care crisis.

Boyd: Traditionally,
First Ladies

were expected to be trophies.

They were not considered
individuals

who would have their own
opinions unique to themselves.

Hillary, though, was just
as strong, just as articulate,

just as committed
to causes as Bill.

I suppose I could have
stayed home and baked cookies

and had teas,
but what I decided to do

was to fulfill my profession

which I entered before
my husband was in public life.

Man: America was not ready
for a working First Lady.

America wanted to have
a First Lady who baked cookies,

and when she said, "I'm not
a First Lady who bakes cookies,"

America went crazy.

Man:
She defied stereotypes,

and she faced
a very sharp backlash.

I regret that anybody
would have thought

I was putting
any other woman down.

Woman need to have
some sense of solidarity

to respect the choices
that each of us make.

Man: Hillary Clinton felt
as though her work

should speak for itself.

Woman: Hillary's style
while she was First Lady

was distinctly unstylish.

She didn't have the attitude
and interest

that somebody
like a Jackie O. had.

Woman: She thought, "You know,
I'm just going to wear

what I want to wear,
that makes me happy,

and, like, whatever."

But there is no whatever

when you're a woman
in the public eye.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has taken
on a lot of heat as First Lady,

so a new poll posts
a simple question:

What do Americans
want in a First Lady?

Fifty-nine percent say
that she should not

only dress appropriately
but fashionably.

Woman: She was criticized for
what her hair was doing,

if she had a headband,
if she was wearing a skirt,

if she was wearing pants.

Man: I remember reading an
article that stated

she was indecisive
because of

how many times
she changed her haircut.

You know, and it's like,
"Come on.

Can she have a little fun?"

She drew a lot of fire
that's really very sexist.

When women show that
they are ambitious,

the culture takes issue
with that.

Man: This is something that
stuck with her

throughout her long political
career in the public eye.

Woman:
People gravitated towards Oprah

because she was
a self-made person.

She gained her identity because
of the force of her personality

and her vision,

and that spoke
to American women.

There's one thread
running through each show we do.

It is the message that you,
you are not alone.

She allowed people to talk
about their problems,

and we didn't really
do that in America.

And she, herself,
then shared things

that she had gone through
that were similar,

so it was breaking
down the walls.

Can I have a Kleenex
to get the river

that's running under my armpits?

Man: And suddenly women were
watching at home on their couch,

and they realized
there were other people

who could relate to them.

Oprah's show tapped
into some deep-seated

need for a spiritual guru
who wasn't the Pope,

who wasn't an evangelical scold,
who wasn't a misogynist.

There was none of those things.

It's a challenge!

Man: Women were incredibly
influenced by the things

that she would talk
about on her show.

-Hey!
-She had "My Favorite Things,"

where she would talk about
the things that she loved,

and she would often give away
these products to her audience,

and in doing so, every time
she would mention a product,

its value would massively
rise in the marketplace,

and this started to become
known as the Oprah Effect.

Man: She was really a champion
for things

that she personally
thought were great.

Books!

Woman:
She was so relatable.

At the time, people on TV
were perfect.

They had perfect TV helmet hair.

They had perfect wardrobes,
perfect makeup,

and Oprah was
perfectly imperfect.

Gunn:
Oprah is a relatable person

in terms of her size,
her shape,

and it means that if she
looks good in something,

I'm probably going to look
good in the same thing.

Man: The fact that she admitted
her biggest problem

has been dealing with
her weight speaks volumes.

Man: She was encouraging us
to be our authentic selves,

and that opened the floodgates

of what was about
to happen in America.

Woman: Now in the '90s, fashion
has ushered in the supermodels

who can demand as much
as $10,000 a show.

As they sometimes do five
shows a day,

their weekly salaries can
quickly climb to six figures.

The 1990s was the golden age
of the supermodel.

That was the first time
in fashion history

that there was a group of girls
that everyone knew.

-Naomi.
-Claudia.

-Cindy.
-Christy Turlington.

Linda Evangelista.

They were all over the press.

They were all over TV, and they
were making a lot of noise.

They were chased by paparazzi.

They were at all
the biggest parties.

They were dating celebrities.

Sometimes they married
and then divorced celebrities.

Woman:
In the '80s, Sports Illustrated

was the first one
to put my name on a cover,

and walking down the street,
cab drivers would go,

"Yo, Christie! Hey."

You know?

And all of a sudden,
I had a name.

They were known
as personalities,

and they were almost
like actresses,

but some of the times
the personality seemed

to be really larger than life,

where Naomi Campbell
was more famous

for throwing her cell phone
at people than her fashion work.

They're in their early 20s,
but yet they seem very womanly.

They wore those clothes.

They were not hangers.

They could do different looks
and shoots,

and you would
lose yourself in them.

Woman: They see something that
the other people don't see,

and they bring it forward,
and then you see it.

Woman: Supermodels really
brought fashion

into every household.

Man: Generation X, they're
the 14-to-29-year-olds

who, we are told, feel the best
of times are long past,

the best jobs are out of reach

and the future
is out of control.

Woman: The twenty-somethings now
were shocked into reality

before they even got a chance
to have the freedom

and the fun and the dreaming
that other generations

had when they were
in their 20s.

When "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
was first broadcast,

you were like, "Oh, my God.
What just happened?"

It had a shock value
that was seismic.

Man: It was angsty,

drugs and booze
and basements sound,

and it was really kind of shot
through with a hopelessness,

and there was no expectation
of a future

that involved money or position
or achievement or anything.

That sense of economic
marginalization, of loserdom

then broke onto the national
stage because of Nirvana.

Man: The grunge movement
was a direct response

from the excessive '80s.

There was this subculture
that was developing

in the Pacific Northwest

which was brought along
by music culture of the time,

and those people
were just kind of,

like,
they didn't give a .

They were antifashion,

and antifashion was about
wearing a lumberjack shirt,

real ripped-up old jeans,
never washing your clothes,

never combing your hair
and wearing sneakers

that looked like they had
been through hell and back.

Gunn: Grunge is an extension
of the hippie movement.

It was the anticonformist
fashion niche,

but it was also about
fairly minimal clothes.

I mean, we have a T-shirt.
We have a pair of jeans.

We have a ratty old holey
sweater.

Man: People wore something they

didn't even have to think about.

It looked as though,
in the case of Kurt Cobain,

he did his shopping
at secondhand stores.

That was the beginning of
vintage becoming popular

and then, in today's world,
vintage becoming expensive.

It's about coming into stores
like this

and finding your favorite thing

and just putting it
all together.

Man: These guys weren't trying
to create a fashion trend.

They had poured all their heart
an soul into their music.

They didn't have money
to go buy stuff.

They were thrifting,
and eventually

because of the power of
their music,

it transformed from
what was not intended

to be a fashion movement
to truly a worldwide sensation.

Woman: In the early '90s,

grunge was
picked up by Marc Jacobs.

Man: Marc Jacobs is one of

the most well-known
American designers,

and he was designing the women's
collection at Perry Ellis,

and he decided to do
a collection based on grunge.

He showed it
the high fashion look,

and you had plaid shirts that
suddenly were selling for $400

when you got it secondhand
at the thrift store for $4.

Instead of flannel,
the shirts were made out

of chiffon and silk
made to look like flannel,

and it was very well
thought out.

It was very expressive,

but the criticism was that
the clothes looked inexpensive,

but they weren't,
and that regular 30-,

40-year-old women
would not wear it.

Woman:
The rich were offended by it.

The kids who felt like their
uniforms had been taken away

from them
were offended by it,

and it got him fired
from Perry Ellis,

but it made him famous.

What it did is it opened
the door to Marc Jacobs

to start his own collection.

Woman: The appropriation of
the clothing of the rebellion

is a standard approach
to fashion now.

Woman:
While police and politicians

and parents are all worried

to death
about kids and drugs,

the fashion industry has been
sending a very different message

to young people featuring
what's called "heroin chic."

Man: Heroin was a big part
of the grunge scene,

and in the commodification
of grunge,

heroin came bundled with that,

and a certain kind of look --

gaunt and circles under the eyes
and sallow but sexy and young.

Woman: Heroin chic initially
came as a pendulum swing away

from glamour to another
kind of youthful beauty.

What came before it was
the supermodel era,

and then you get Kate Moss,
and she's 16, and she's skinny,

and there were a lot of girls
who liked that.

"I'm skinny. I'm not that
glamorous model."

Man: All the models were getting
really gaunt,

and thin was extremely in,

and these girls looked like
they were drugged up,

and they very well
might have been.

There was a lot of backlash
to heroin chic.

When you put somebody
passed out on a floor

with dark circles
under their eyes,

that's sending a message
to young people

that this is okay to do,
that this is a glamorous drug,

and it's been that way
for a number of years.

The truth of it is that
there were people using drugs,

and there was a problem,
and then people died.

Man: A young
New York photographer

named David Sorrenti

experimented with the style
and with heroin,

and 3 months ago
he died of an overdose.

The glorification of heroin
is not creative.

It's destructive.
It's not beautiful.

It is ugly.

That became a wake-up call
to a lot of people in fashion,

that perhaps this imagery
is glamorizing

a lifestyle
that's extremely dangerous.

Woman: Nevertheless,
that look influenced

a lot of fashion trendsetters.

To this day, there's still

a little tinge of that
heroin chic

in the modeling industry.

Woman: When "Sex and the City"
burst on the screen,

it was fabulous.

Man: It was about this sexually
aggressive woman,

and it was so culturally,
like, shocking and great.

It really brought the whole
dialogue

about being a woman
to a certain place.

Carrie Bradshaw was a
fashion icon in her own right.

She sort of bridged the gap
between couture runways

and the everyday woman.

God, Carrie, I'm sorry.

I just can't imagine
where your shoes went.

You know, Jennifer was
wearing sandals.

Perhaps she took yours
by mistake.

Well, actually,
they weren't sandals.

They were Manolos.

Manolo Blahnik and Jimmy Choo,

straight men know
what those shoes are

because of "Sex and the City."

Hello, lover.

The clothing and the styling
of the characters

on "Sex and the City"
was so personality-driven.

Each of these women
sort of communicated

through their clothing
who they were,

and I think that really connects
with this innate

feeling that we want
what we wear to say

something about
who we are in the world.

All the girls were glued
to that show,

and all the girls
were defining themselves.

"Are you a Samantha?"

That show had a lot of impact.

Just to watch Carrie Bradshaw's
own fashion evolution

was inspiration enough.

The mixing of high and low
where you have extravagant items

paired with the most commonplace
items inspired people.

Woman: Fashion become more
personal, because at the time,

everyone just wore a uniform.

You had your Gucci
by Tom Ford uniform.

You had your Chanel uniform.

You were one type of girl,
and that was it, you know?

But with Sarah Jessica Parker,
she kind of said,

"Hey. It's okay to be you."

And that's what Pat Field
brought to the small screen.

Woman: "Videofashion" spent
today with Emmy Award-winning

costume designer Patricia Field
during New York Fashion Week.

She scoured the shows
for looks to transform the women

of "Sex and the City"
into their characters.

Man:
It's really all Pat Field.

I mean, she did everything,
and she's a phenomenon herself.

Her father was a tailor,
so she knows lines,

seams, draping,
flow and structure.

Everything about the success
of "Sex and the City"

was a wonderful surprise.

Sarah Jessica Parker was
a natural in clothing:

graceful, enjoyed it,
was intellectually into it.

So she and I had
that creative relationship

which produced
that whole thing.

She understood that you
could wear pearls

with a wifebeater
and a tutu or whatever.

If you take the classics
that are real classics

and put them together
in new ways,

you know,
you've got a winning hand.

Woman:
And there was still debate

about some of
her most iconic ensembles,

on whether they work
or don't work,

but that's some of it because
some people think they do,

and some people think
that they're outrageous,

and all the opinions are valid.

The most valuable thing that...

My takeaway was my communication
with women.

What I heard
over and over again was,

"Finally, someone made us
look the way we are:

glamorous and happy."

It really made me feel good

because that is
my attitude anyway.

I come from a happy place.

The current craze for reality
television has created

what many see as a growing
and deplorable dependence

on endangering
or humiliating people

just for pure entertainment.

Man:
It's a generational thing.

I mean, I think that
this kind of TV is to TV

what heavy metal and gangster
rap is to teen music.

It's a generational thing.
It's a fad.

Reality TV really,
really took off in the 2000s.

Man: All of a sudden, you could
be just a regular person,

and you could be on TV.

Everyone started to think,

"My life is as interesting
as that.

I could be the center
of my own show."

Man: There were competition
shows like "Survivor"

and "Big Brother."

I think of "The Simple Life,"

Paris Hilton
and Nicole Richie

Woman: There's the home
improvement shows,

where you can sit at home
and say,

"I, too, can do this,
and I can afford it."

There were the makeover shows

like "Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy."

"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"

basically came
around the same time

as the advent of
the word "metrosexual,"

where it was this novel term

to imply that
a straight man could,

oh, my God, be interested
in grooming and fashion.

Before, it was kind of
if you cared too much,

that might make you gay,
and we're like,

"No, you can be a little gay."

And I think that show
gave guys permission

to care
about the way they looked.

It's going to be
a little bit longer.

Woman: All of these shows not
only inspire us as viewers

but get us up and motivated,

whether it's through style of
fashion or style of your home.

That's what's so exciting.

It has democratized the playing
field, democratized taste.

This is "Project Runway."

Let's go!

Hell yes, I'm the best.

You're either in, or you're out.

I'm in.
They're out.

"Project Runway" is one of
the granddaddy reality shows,

and when it first started,
the question was,

"Oh, are people really going
to watch people sew."

I want to ask all the designers
to please onto the runway.

We've tallied your scores.

If I say you're name,
please step forward.

Man:
Before "Project Runway,"

people were disconnected
from the idea of clothing.

They would just go to a store
and buy something and put it on.

"Project Runway" showed
the process of a garment

being thought of and produced
and shown on a runway

and talked about and dissected.

Gunn: It was a lens into
the fashion industry

that, quite frankly,
was very polarizing

when the show first
began to air.

There were a lot of people
in the fashion industry

who said,
"We like the fact

that there's this veil
and mystery and intrigue

and that the work of fashion
designers is so rarefied."

"Project Runway"
ripped the veil off.

Woman: It was the first show
that made you feel like

a front-row VIP.

You're watching the runway show,

and you're like,

"That designer crushed it.
That designed choked."

Gunn:
The summary of the show's impact

was made by Conan O'Brien,

who said to me,
"This program has given me

a vocabulary
to talk about clothes."

And I thought, "How interesting,
and how unexpected,

but it makes sense."

Christian...

you are the winner
of "Project Runway."

The fashion industry is very
difficult to break into,

but those designers who were
able to use the platform

were able to kind of
get into the public sphere.

Parsons told us that
their applications

went up nearly 70 percent once
"Project Runway" started airing.

I mean, that's a big deal, like,
people considering,

"Oh, that could be
my life path."

And then we see people
come to the auditions and say,

"Oh, I watched 'Project Runway'
when I was a kid,

and that's what made me decide
to be a designer,"

but it's pretty impactful

to have had that influence
on an entire generation.

Ever thought about what you
were doing when you were 15?

Chances are you weren't
in the front row

at a Paris runway show,
air-kissing famous designers,

but that's the life,
part of the life we should say,

of a young blogger who's turning
some very fashionable heads.

Woman: Social media and bloggers
broke the world wide open.

Woman:
It's a fascinating phenomenon

because you realized that any
individual anywhere in the world

can suddenly have an audience
from around the world.

Man: They enabled radically
new possibilities

for self-expression
and self-experimentation.

It's become possible for people
who have really distinct style

and taste
to ascend the ranks.

There is so many talented
people in the country,

and the social media
and the Internet

is really leveling
the playing field in all spaces.

Woman: So you could be a little
girl like Tavi

who was obsessed with fashion

and starts putting
herself up online

and becomes a real
fashion influencer

and is flown
all over the world

and seating in the front row
at fashion shows.

She had immense impact.

Everyone wants to know
what young people care about.

Woman: People don't really
trust advertisements.

They know you're trying
to sell them something,

but if somebody who's not
a member of a company says,

"This bag is so fabulous,"

sales of that bag
are going to take off.

Woman: Tina Craig, also known
as the Bag Snob,

is one of the most
influential style bloggers.

With her posts, she can
transform the fortunes

of an entire business.

Oscar de la Renta said
that their bag sales doubled

when the Bag Snob
started posting about them.

Oscar de la Renta
reached out to us

and brought us in prior
to the fashion show,

and at the time
it was unheard of.

It was Cathy Horyn
and Anna Wintour,

the only two that had access
to Oscar's collection

before the show,
and had us look at the bags.

A lot of people took notice,

some not as positive
in the editorial world.

"Why did they get access?"

Bloggers have changed
the style landscape

in that they've kind
of made the pie bigger.

If an event is happening,
the commentary is ubiquitous

and so detailed,
and then, poof.

It's gone.

Everything happens
at the speed of light.

Woman:
Gucci is suing Forever 21

for trademark infringement.

Gucci claims the retailer
is copying

its iconic green-red-green
and blue-red-blue stripes.

Man: Fast fashion is a series
of chain retailers

who basically are able
to look at the runways

and make garments really quickly
and put them into a see-now,

buy-now kind of
a retail environment.

The one thing about fast fashion

that is challenging
in the fashion world

is a version of it
is out there

with some of
the fast fashion companies

before you even put
your product out there.

Woman: So now you have stores

like H&M, ZARA, Topshop

that they're just
a constant cycle of trends.

Everyone has access to
the Internet to watch a show.

It's made us so impatient.

If you're going to offer
the show,

you're going to let
everyone see it.

You know, they should
be able to have it.

So fast fashion became
very popular

because we all crave
that instant gratification.

Woman: I heard this story.

One of these big fast fashion
companies have ships

that are literally factories,

and they have people
sitting on those ships

as they're crossing the oceans,
sewing, so that by the time

that the ship reaches
its destination, it's together.

I never checked it,
to be honest,

but it sounds very plausible.

Fast fashion is very much
a phenomenon of globalization.

Now it's not about everything
being manufactured in one place

in New York City
or in the United States.

There are these factories
all over the world

that produce things very quickly
at a very fast turnover

and very cheaply.

Fast fashion is also about,
when we say fast,

it's not going to last
in your wardrobe very long.

So it's going to be fast on you
and fast off you.

What has happened
is that has turned into,

"Everyone should get
new clothes all the time."

And it's sort of devalued
the idea

that you would save
your money for,

you know, a really beautifully
made garment

and that then you would
keep it, you know,

that it was not
a disposable garment,

and that concept
has kind of disappeared.

And CNN can now project
that Barack Obama, 47 years old,

will become the President Elect
of the United States.

Man: When Barack Obama won,

we were
pinching ourselves with glee

that America could be so brazen
and open-minded.

When he showed up in Grant Park,
the crowds came,

and he gave this
extraordinary speech.

There was a feeling
that we're going to be okay.

If there is anyone out there
who still doubts

that America is a place
where all things are possible,

tonight is your answer.

Man: He became a president
of great integrity.

The public didn't turn on him,
and a First Lady that's beloved.

Woman: It's very symbolic,
at this particular moment,

we're having this
global economic meltdown

that the First Lady
of the United States

is wearing J. Crew
to Number 10 Downing Street.

Woman: It was interesting to
watch Michelle Obama use clothes

unlike anyone before her.

Her approach to it was entirely,

you know, thought out,
strategic, conscientious,

tied to her husband's,
you know, platforms.

It was the most democratic
look of a First Lady

that felt stylish but reached
a lot of people that said,

"I can be Michelle Obama."

Woman:
Certainly with Michelle Obama,

you can't get away from
the American history of racism,

from the stereotypes that,

you know, that exist around
how people should look.

Man: Something as insignificant
as Michelle Obama

wearing something
that didn't have sleeves

was thought
to be scandalous.

It's really not scandalous
at all.

However, a lot of people
were reacting to the fact

that they had never seen a black
woman in this position before,

and anything that sort of
further exposed her blackness

made some people
uncomfortable.

After that, she wore floral
dresses with cap sleeves,

and that was a conscious
decision to say,

like, "I'm not going to be
a scary person.

I'm going to, like,
dress like Doris Day."

You know, then it became
part of how she looked.

She made them her own.

Woman:
Michelle Obama is so in vogue,

she's on the cover of Vogue.

Man: Michelle Obama, I think,
has great style,

and she was never afraid
to wear the high or the low.

She just wanted to come in front
of the public and look good,

and I think she did
a great job of it.

Woman: Michelle Obama is an
incredibly important role model.

She is strong.

She's beautiful.

She is inclusive.

She's generous.

Man: She also really honored
the American fashion designer.

She wore tons of up-and-coming
designers,

and that was amazing
because otherwise

they would not have been seen.

By the time they left
the White House,

she had worn 90 percent
of the designers

on the New York Fashion Week
schedule.

No one can wear that many
different designers

without thinking, "Okay.

I'm going to make sure
that I promote everybody."

She also focused very much
on designers

who were kind of hyphenates.

You know, Cuban-Americans,
Japanese-Americans,

Chinese-Americans,

you know, which was very much
about inclusivity

and outreach and promotion
of small businesses.

Woman: They've always been thin,
but some of the models

on the catwalk these days
are not just skinny.

They're downright skeletal.

Woman: There have always been
ideals of bodies,

but as standards get higher,

they get sort of more
and more narrow and repressive.

Man: The beauty ideal
is usually something

that's difficult to obtain.

When people worked in the fields
and food was scarce,

the beauty ideal
was porcelain-white skin

and some meat on your bones,

and now as food
is incredibly plentiful

and most people work indoors,

thin and tan
is the beauty ideal.

If you only looked at
runway shows,

you would think these women
are from another planet.

They're not even
remotely relatable

because they are
a rarefied size and shape.

Woman:
You can have someone who looks,

by anybody's standards,

really young and beautiful,
and yet the photo of them

or the video of them
is still touched up.

People are now really
pushing back against that,

and they're saying,
"Maybe you should also be

trying to make clothes
that actually fit

and are flattering
to all of the sizes that we are

as opposed to the sizes
that you would like us to be."

Gunn: There are more than
80 million women in this nation

who are larger than a size 12,

and they want to look as great
as they can look,

and they should.

Woman: Move over, waifs.

some real women are sharing
the spotlight,

and the industry says
that's a real plus.

Woman: A lot of the designers

who are using
size-inclusive models

in their runway shows get it.

They get that their customers
are that size

and want to see
themselves reflected

in the runways,
on the campaigns.

Couric: In an effort to reach
real women,

companies are turning
to real women, like Dove,

whose latest well-publicized
ad blitz features models

plucked from all walks of life.

Man: Dove has done
an ongoing campaign

where they've used
real women:

curvy, older, younger,
multiracial.

When you look at this country,
you know, 20 years from now,

white people are going
to be in the minority,

so all of these people
need to be embraced.

We've had the body era.

We had the waif era,

and now here we are
in the inclusivity era,

and it's race.
It's age.

It's gender.
It's size.

This has basically taken form
in the natural hair movement,

where black women
were complaining

that they were not
represented in media.

It's a question of, you know,
if you're a little curvy,

own your curves,
and they become your assets.

This comes in the form
of the body-positivity movement,

and then also, this has taken
its own new way of,

I think, too, into transgender
visibility more recently.

Man: Broadening the scope,
broadening the frame

allows for more different
types of beauty,

but it also makes us think
about power and status

in different ways.

Man:
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg,

who is getting just as much
attention for his sense of style

as he is
for his company's IPO.

Man: In America, it often
matters who wears something

and how they wear it.

Take Silicon Valley, right?

You look at the men
in Silicon Valley:

super casual, the hoodie,
Converse, whatever.

Man: These people could wear
anything that want

because they are so wealthy

they don't have to put
on any airs, etcetera.

A guy like Mark Zuckerberg
indicates

that he's not
what you've come to expect

because he often wore a hoodie.

It was a way for him to say,

"The culture that I represent
is younger, less formal,

but ultimately very effective."

In contrast, if you take a kid
like Trayvon Martin,

stylistically,
he wore his hoodie

with the hood over his head,

and, of course,
when Trayvon Martin was killed,

he was identified as a thug.

Race is the prevailing factor.

A white guy wears a hoodie
and gets to be a billionaire.

A black guy wears a hoodie
and ends up in the cemetery.

Demographic, race
and class distinctions

have always been linked.

Woman: Demonstrators changing
Eric Garner's last words,

"I can't breathe."

Woman: The NBA's most
prominent player,

LeBron James, in the warm-up
between the Cleveland Cavaliers

and the Brooklyn Nets
put on a black T-shirt.

Man: The power of style
is to assert individuality.

So by conveying a stance,

a disposition,
through style,

that is a political act.

Man: The major thing about style
is you can say so much

without ever opening your mouth.

Woman: Ladies and gentlemen,
this is the first time

we've seen
the First Lady in 26 days.

Here she is sitting next
to her husband, the President.

Woman: Melania Trump has been
very, very silent,

does not appear very much
and hence, when she does appear,

what she wears gets
a huge amount of attention

because it seems to be sending
some sort of coded message

to her husband,
to someone else.

It's never entirely clear,
but, you know,

when they were
on the campaign trail

and the notorious
"Access Hollywood" tape leaked

and we have Pussygate,

she then arrives at her
next public appearance

in a fuchsia Gucci
pussy bow blouse,

and everyone thought,
"Oh, my God. It's great.

She's, like, she's sending
coded messages to her husband

about how she's mad at him."

During an announced visit
to a detention facility

for migrant children
in McAllen, Texas,

earlier today,
the First Lady's office

is pushing back
against reporters

who asked about the First Lady's
jacket of choice

as she boarded Air Force One
headed for Texas today.

The jacket said, on the back,
"I really don't care. Do U?"

Woman: There's no way she didn't
know that however many steps

that was, from car to plane,

that people were going
to be taking pictures.

And then her spokesperson said,
"Oh, well,

there's no hidden message
in that.

It's just a jacket."

You know, everyone thought, "No.

It's not hidden.
It was right there."

Like, you couldn't miss it.

So then the question becomes
who is it for?

And, you know, there's still
a huge amount of debate

about that, but, you know,
I don't think there's any doubt

she was sending a message
to someone.

We're living in interesting
times right now

in terms of how
we utilize fashion to address

the way we're feeling about
what's happening in the world.

Style gives you a voice.

It's freedom.

Woman: Now, there's no such
thing as one American style,

and that's what's
really wonderful.

It's porous, and it's coming
from lots of different places,

and the diversity
that we have in this country

is just life-affirming.

There is no fashion designer who
dictates what we wear anymore.

Christian Dior dictated
what women wore in the '50s,

Balenciaga in the '60s.

Calvin Klein and Ralph and Donna
decided in the '80s.

Now what's embraced
is being yourself.

You can be who you are
and have your own style,

have your own look,

and if it works for you,
then it's great.

If you feel like you look great,
then you look great.

The artist is important again,

like the street artist,
the normal person,

and that's healthy
because young people

need to experience
expressing themselves.

I think American style,
like our country,

is constantly changing.

Where we are as a culture
is divided,

but maybe we'll be open
to finding common ground.

Man: People are really embracing
the opportunity

to tell their story visually.

People wake up and want
to feel this sense of freeness

from the clothes
they put on their backs.

The new American identity
is all around us.

Just go into any city
in the United States

and feel the ethnic diversity
and multiculturalism.

The one thing that's certain is,
every second,

the world is changing.

It gets exhausting when
the world spins this quickly.

We've got to find ways
not to lose our own decency.

Man: It's a new road.

It's the best time
ever for American style.