Strait off the runway: mental health, fashion and straitjackets

Words: Sophie Wilson / Photo: Ayesha Tan Jones

Mental health is not fashion, but straitjackets continue to trigger outrage and fear, proving just how provocative both clothing and stigma can be.

Sterile lights flashed and a heart rate monitor beeped as models walked listlessly along a hospital conveyor belt at Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2020 show. But then came a moment that prompted a media furore: an unexpected silent protest from model Ayesha Tan-Jones, who held up their hands with a message scrawled across them in biro – ‘MENTAL HEALTH IS NOT FASHION’.

Tan-Jones was protesting both the clinical atmosphere and the ivory outfits featuring buckles and extra-long sleeves that looked eerily, and purposefully, like straitjackets. There were smocks, shirts and jumpsuits, all referencing the straitjacket, a garment that symbolises a murky past of asylums and reflects historic abuse of the mentally ill.

After the show, Gucci posted an explanation on Instagram, describing the looks as “the most extreme version of a uniform dictated by society and those who control it”. These clothes will not be sold. However, Gucci’s misjudgement speaks to a wider misunderstanding and fetishisation of mental illness in fashion and popular culture. Straitjackets in medical contexts have become almost obsolete – in the UK at least – yet their power to elicit such strong reactions reveals the lasting impact both clothing and stigma can have.

Thanks to advances in medicine and better understandings of mental health, in most parts of the world, straitjackets are now believed to be both ineffective and inhumane. However, a quick ‘straitjacket Halloween’ Google search generates more than 32 million results, with costumes sold by Amazon, Smiffys and Fancydress.com. You can buy a ‘sexy straitjacket’ and even a ‘children’s straitjacket.” The comments can be disturbing: “Would this work to actually restrain a child, like, not as a costume?”

The straitjacket is thought to have been invented in Paris in 1790. The garment was initially introduced as a more humane alternative to restraining patients with chains. Made from either strong canvas or duck cloth, these restraints were only supposed to be used for patients who posed a serious threat to themselves or others. However, misuse was rife in the 19th century when psychiatric hospitals were understaffed and ill-equipped. Poorly trained staff were unable to provide the right care for patients, so they put them in straitjackets instead, sometimes for days at a time. The garment became a punishment rather than a form of therapy or rehabilitation and caused physical problems with breathing as well as unnecessary emotional distress.

Since the 20th century development of ‘chemical straitjackets’ – the nickname given to the first tranquillisers – straitjackets have been slowly phased out. Yet the spectre of how poorly psychiatric patients were treated in the past still looms large in horror films, Halloween costumes, and, now, high fashion. It is ironic that straitjackets were a product of society’s misinformation about mental health, when that is exactly what their contemporary representations continue to spread.

Jo Loughran, director of mental health anti-stigma campaign Time to Change, says that “straitjackets reinforce a damaging stereotype that people with mental health problems are dangerous and need to be restrained. While the narrative of the Gucci show was incredibly disappointing, it’s encouraging to know that the public will no longer stand to see mental illness used as a gimmick. When people feel empowered to call out stigma in such a public way it can send a powerful message to the world – that stigmatising mental health problems is never acceptable.”

So why is there still an enduring popular interest in a garment with such dark symbolism? Cognitive behavioural therapist Mandy Kloppers believes that it’s because, for most people, straitjackets represent the unknown. “Hopefully, in the future, people will be enlightened as to what mental illness is, and isn't, and the mystery surrounding it will no longer exist.” Fashion could play a role in demystifying mental illness, Kloppers says, “by educating the public. Designers could put slogans on garments educating people about what mental illness is. The more mystery and lack of understanding there is, the more fear exists. Explain it to people and it seems less threatening.”

PCP Corp, based in Canada, still manufactures and develops straitjacket-style restraints. The company’s restraint suits give the user more freedom than traditional straitjackets, but they are a method of physical restraint nonetheless. Its bestsellers in the suicide prevention category are a long-armed vest and a restraint suit, the latter made from a mesh fabric developed in Switzerland so that doctors can also administer sedative drugs, the preferred form of restraint in most situations. They also give patients freedom to move their arms within the suit, avoiding the breathing problems associated with traditional straitjackets.

“The image of the straitjacket is very powerful,” says PCP Corp vice president Jason Campoli. “It’s like why people like zombies and Halloween because it's something you don't see every day. It's taboo. It's behind closed doors. What we’re trying to do is make it less repressive, less controlling but the reality is that if someone is crazy or showing signs of lunacy they unfortunately need to be confined.”

This feeling of confinement was what Gucci tried to evoke in the opening of their show. In the brand’s Instagram explanation, Gucci described straitjackets as one of the “most extreme version[s] of a uniform dictated by society and those who control it…@alessandro_michele designed these blank-styled clothes to represent how through fashion, power is exercised over life, to eliminate self-expression. This power prescribes social norms, classifying and curbing identity.”

In the past people were institutionalised or arrested and restrained for daring to live outside of prescribed social norms. Today, however, this explanation perpetuates the myth that seeking help for a mental illness can dilute creativity and “eliminate self-expression.” Psychiatric treatment is still far from perfect, but this ongoing misinformation in popular culture and fashion can make some of the most vulnerable people afraid to seek help. Most of us have only seen straitjackets in horror films. Hannibal Lector in 1990’s nightmarish The Silence of the Lambs is the perhaps the most vivid image in popular culture. The message is clear. Straitjackets are for crazy people and crazy people are dangerous.

Sara Davidson is a mental health advocate who has experienced first-hand the damage that fashion and popular culture can have on people living with mental illness, and psychotic illnesses in particular. When fast fashion brands print slogans like ‘cute but psycho’ on hoodies and t-shirts it might seem harmless but it “presents this warped idea that mental illnesses are okay to use as adjectives for very normal day to day events and behaviours,” Davidson explains. “The word ‘psycho’, a slur most commonly associated with schizophrenia, is used to describe jealous, insecure or violent behaviour which has real life consequences.”

“Most psychotic people are more of a danger to themselves than anybody else, while we are also far more likely to be victims of violence,” she continues. “The representations and glamorisation of my mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia, has dramatically impacted my health.” The Gucci straitjackets did not feel explicitly like glamorisation – the models looked catatonic and depressed – but when you take in the bigger picture of front row influencers snapping Instagram pics at a luxury fashion show it is clear how it could be interpreted that way.

“Straitjackets should not be glamorised,” emphasises mental health blogger and author Eleanor Seagull. “They are a symptom of past brutality to those with mental illness who were confined to mental health hospitals that didn’t know how to treat them respectfully. If there was a wider point about recovery, hope and empowerment by Gucci then that would have been good, but it seems to be about restriction and nothing positive. Straitjackets are not art.”

The fashion industry has witnessed many tragic and public breakdowns. Why then is it still so tone deaf when it comes to mental health? According to Blue Cross Blue Shield, millennials will get sick and die faster than Gen X despite being physically healthier. In this 32-page report, researchers maintain that these differences are down to “behavioural problems”, such as depression, anxiety and substance abuse. When so many people are living with mental illness, fashion’s future representations should be executed more thoughtfully. Fashion can and should interact with mental health. We just need to come up with creative solutions that fight stigma rather than leaning into it.