Palm trees, a hippie bus, a beach, a guitar – and under the image, an inconspicuous slogan: “White Boy Summer.” At first glance, this T-shirt from the brand Patria Laden resembles the kind of mainstream fashion found by the thousands in major retail and fashion chains: a hip beach look, a colorful adventure aesthetic, and apolitical happy symbolism.
Patria Laden, however, is a fashion label from the far-right scene, and the slogan “White Boy Summer” is a widely recognized symbol in far-right circles. In the 1990s, neo-Nazis and far-right extremists marched through the streets with shaved heads, combat boots, and bomber jackets, but today’s far right-wingers often wear polo shirts and a hipster look, some of which are presented in the style of ad campaigns by major fashion chains.
Elke Gaugele, a cultural studies scholar and professor of fashion and style at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, knows why that is: the new right has long been striving to emerge from the shadows, move away from the image of “basement Nazi” hooligans, and enter the mainstream. And given that clothes make the man, as the saying goes, fashion is a central vehicle of the new fascism.
From skinheads to hipsters
This is the underlying rationale: political debate does not take place exclusively in committees, parliaments, or at the ballot box. Politics is also a “conquest of minds,” as the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci once noted in his prison journal. A battle of ideas, values, culture, and symbols.
That has long been understood by the far right as well. They produce their own music, build their own media companies, and even brew their own “patriotic” beer, the Pils Identitär. While all of this has been well-researched, the field of far-right fashion has received little attention. “It’s high time for a systematic investigation,” says Gaugele. Since 2023, Gaugele and her team have been conducting research as part of the FWF-funded project “The Neo-FashFarRight”. They are examining the role of fashion for the far- right in Europe and the U.S. from a fashion-studies perspective.
Whereas in the 1990s, far-right extremists often adopted existing brands, such as Londsdale, as outfits for their scene, the early 2000s saw them founding their own fashion labels. One of the best-known labels from those early years is Thor Steinar, which combines Norse mythology (Thor) and relevant Nazi symbolism (Felix Steinar was a former SS general) with subcultural aesthetics, such as those found in the hooligan or biker scenes. “The Thor Steinar brand began very early on to cater to the diversity of youth culture styles, and this appeal also extended to bikers and surfers,” says Gaugele to explain this fashion producers’ strategy.
