Fashion week has always been more than a showcase of trends; it’s a stage where identity, politics, and power walk side by side. What we see on the runway is not just fabric, it’s a message. And when Palestine enters that space, clothing becomes a declaration of resistance and a refusal to disappear. 

Copenhagen Fashion Week SS26 was no different. It took place against the backdrop of Netanyahu announcing plans to take over Gaza, and attendees used fashion to show they could make statements too. Many attendees expressed solidarity with Palestine by unapologetically adorning their clothes with the kuffiyeh that appeared everywhere this season.

In front rows, at afterparties, and draped across the shoulders of prominent celebrities, styled as a scarf, skirt, t-shirt, and more. It wasn’t just a styling choice; it was a political statement and a declaration that governments and institutions might censor voices, but they can’t censor the visual language of clothing. Each woven square carried a history of resilience and served as a reminder to the industry that some garments aren’t trends, they are testimony to our shared humanity.

While it may feel like the bare minimum, these expressions of solidarity can offer a flicker of hope to people who feel betrayed by the institutions that claim to celebrate freedom of expression, but too often fall silent. 

Resistance is In Fashion’s DNA

Fashion has always carried protest on its shoulders. Chanel once sent models down the runway with feminist placards. Vivienne Westwood turned shows into climate rallies. PETA stormed catwalks with “Leather Kills” banners. In Paris, Willy Chavarria staged a haunting protest against migrant detention. And Katharine Hamnett famously wore her anti-nuclear slogan to a Downing Street reception during London Fashion Week in 1984.

This year’s most striking fashion and political statement came on the closing day by Palestinian-American model, creative director, and human rights activist Alana Hadid when she wore a kuffiyeh gown from Mailliw by William. “I wear my pride wherever I go,” Hadid wrote on Instagram, posting photos of the gown as she strode down the street in Copenhagen.

For Palestinians, traditional symbols like the kuffiyeh are part of a long lineage of resistance. Alongside embroidery like tatreez, passed down through generations, each stitch is rooted in the land, carrying a memory and the promise of resistance and return. These textiles are not accessories or fashion trends; they are the fabric of identity and archives of survival, resisting the forces that seek to erase them, embroidered by hands to endure. Their presence is undeniable, even in spaces that try to exclude them. 

Worn across shoulders, tied around the waist, or draped as a scarf, the kuffiyeh embodies defiance and liberation, and the determination to see the fall of a brutal occupation. It is a language in itself, a way of speaking when words are silenced.

More than just a piece of cloth, the kuffiyeh has been worn for decades as a symbol of Palestinian identity and struggle, its distinct fishnet and olive leaves pattern instantly recognisable worldwide. In the context of fashion week, it’s a reminder that style can carry weight, meaning, and a call to conscience.

Censorship in Fashion

During a show by Finnish brand Merimekko, model and musician Jura was escorted off by security for pulling a Palestinian flag from her pocket and holding a flag that read ‘ACT NOW AGAINST GENOCIDE’. She later posted a statement on Instagram:

“The thing is, there is no future for us without Palestine. Don’t you get it? If we accept for Israel to starve away all of Palestine now, we accept the world’s wealthiest to control what minorities are up next for genocide. Don’t you get it? What happens to Palestine is everyone’s future.”

Her message resonated with hundreds of people and reached thousands more, serving as a reminder that it is the people who built fashion week as a space for rebellion, not its organisers. The incident also exposed the limits of an industry that claims diversity yet is quick to shut down dissent when it threatens capitalism and comfort.

Power in Fashion

What unfolded at fashion week was more than a spectacle. It was a reminder. Fashion thrives on rebellion, yet often censors the very voices that embody it. The tension between silence and expression reveals the truth: fashion is political. It is also a strange, surreal world, where messages of solidarity play out on runways while ethnic cleansing is streamed live on phones.

CPHFW showcased both resistance and failure: resistance in the kuffiyehs displayed, and failure that the world can applaud gestures on stage while genocide unfolds in real time.

The fact of the matter is that Gaza’s genocide is far beyond the reach of empty political statements. The runway cannot feed the hungry, cannot shelter the displaced, cannot bring back the dead. Yet it might matter in another way. As Noorunisa said, “Fashion is political…But at this point, wearing your Palestine pin or kuffiyeh is not political; it’s showing you’re human.”