Trashy Clothing’s Barragán collab sends up America’s twisted empire

If two brands were to drop a six-piece capsule collection amidst a US presidential race, you might not think it was the savviest move, predictably consumed by the 24/7 rolling headlines and hysterical commentariat reactions. But the new collaboration between cult fave Barragán and the Palestine-based Trashy Clothing seems almost perfectly timed to meet this tumultuous political moment. Designed by Trashy founders Omar Braika and Shukri Lawrence with Victor Barragán, Arsenal of Democracy is described by the trio as “incorporating references to the influence of [US] media and propaganda, reflecting Trashy Clothing’s Palestinian background, Barragán’s Mexican roots, and allowing the designers to explore and confront imperialism from both perspectives.”

The Arab references that run through Trashy’s work are combined with Gulf-era propaganda, bloodied US iconography and pop culture allusions for maximum effect. The ‘Murica mesh skirt is covered in a frantic collage of deranged Americana, with Stars and Stripes, Hillary Clinton, the World Trade Centre and Mickey Mouse all making appearances, overlaid with blood-red Arabic lettering. A second floor-length wrap skirt replaces George Washington with Monica Lewinksy on a giant dollar bill, one that’s splattered with crimson blood on its front and reverse. “The collection highlights the hypocrisies of modern empires and the games they play in writing and rewriting narratives,” Braika and Lawrence told us over email. “Monica on the Bloody Dollar Bill Skirt represents how America twisted her story and subjected her to slut-shaming to protect her abuser.”

Whether it’s Kamala or Trump, the empire’s imperial project remains intact – Omar Braika & Shukri Lawrence

But the collaboration’s brazen iconoclasm doesn’t stop there. The trio also take aim at military propaganda too with their ‘psyop’ print, as wires, hard drives and mobile phones reference non-combative psychological campaigns. It’s something that spills over into the collection’s accompanying campaign, which features faux-drone shots alongside grainy photos of models wearing the designs, satirising an American POV of what Trashy’s community might look like. “The campaign took American narratives and satirised them,” Braika and Lawrence told us, before adding, “no matter how much that narrative is manipulated, native people of all religions resisting their erasure and fighting for liberation – whether in Palestine, Armenia, or Lebanon – are engaged in a just fight.”

But though Arsenal of Democracy has dropped at the tail end of a vicious election cycle, the designers clarified that the collaboration happened because Trashy Clothing and Barragán “share a vision of using fashion as a form of resistance”, not because of any partisan political leanings. “For us, regardless of whether it’s Kamala or Trump, the empire’s imperial project remains intact,” the pair told us after Donald Trump’s election victory had been confirmed. “Its agenda continues, and the bombs will drop, sugarcoated or not. Our work speaks to the underlying continuity of the imperial machine, which persists despite changes in leadership.”

Barragán x Trashy Clothing is available to pre-order here, and ships early December. Scroll through the gallery above for the accompanying campaign, and the gallery below for the entire SS25 collection.