Monica Lewinsky parodies politics in a campaign by the fashion brand Reformation: ‘You’ve got the power’
The activist who became famous for the Bill Clinton scandal has teamed up with an eco label whose outfits have been worn by Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss
“Voting is using your voice to be heard, and it’s the most defining aspect of our democracy,” says Monica Lewinsky on the website of Reformation, the California fashion company whose latest campaign she stars in. The brand, born as a vintage clothing company in Los Angeles in 2009, explains the reason for choosing Lewinsky: “Monica’s been empowering women to use their voices and feel powerful for a long time. So it just makes sense that she’d help us do the same. And while great clothes won’t fix everything, putting them on and going to the polls is a pretty good place to start.” It’s all part of an initiative by the brand and Vote.org to encourage people to register to vote at the presidential election on November 5.
Lewinsky, born in San Francisco 50 years ago, went down in history at the age of 22, when she was working as an intern in the White House, and it emerged that she had had sexual encounters in the Oval Office with the then president, Bill Clinton, who was 51 at the time. Clinton had been accused of sexual harassment by Paula Jones and the case ended in an impeachment. A report by the independent counsel Kenneth Starr brought to light the relationship with Lewinsky, which Clinton denied. One of the crucial pieces of evidence in the case was a blue dress from the Gap clothing store with semen stains that Lewinsky had kept. The young woman went through intense public humiliation, went on to study psychology in London and has since focused her work on activism against harassment and bullying.
That Lewinsky should re-emerge now with a campaign like Reformation’s does not seem like a coincidence. In a 2010 interview with Vanity Fair, she said that people had been telling her story for decades, and that it was not until recently that she’d been able to get her own narrative back. At the time of the interview, it had emerged that she would be producing the third installment of Ryan Murphy’s series American Crime Story, which centered on Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial. In 2021 Lewinsky also co-produced a documentary about her story called 15 Minutes of Shame. “Imagine waking up with the whole world talking about you because your mistake, your secret, has now been made public. Trust me, I know a little something about this. I was patient zero of having a reputation destroyed because of the internet. And I would not be the last,” says her voice in off as the documentary begins.
The Reformation campaign takes up the idea of recovering one’s narrative: now, instead of hiding her clothes, Lewinsky wears them proudly. In the Instagram post she shared to publicize the campaign, she says: “@monica_lewinsky and @votedotorg are here to remind you that you’ve got the power.”
“Voting is always important, but the stakes are especially high this year with voter frustration and apathy threatening to meaningfully impact turnout. I’m excited and grateful to be working with Reformation to remind people to register, use their voice and vote! A Ref woman is an empowered woman — and an empowered woman uses her voice,” said Lewinsky in statements to Variety magazine. The campaign images show a confident Lewinsky posing against a gray background or in front of the glass windows of a building surrounded by skyscrapers.
It is not the first impactful campaign that Reformation has come up with. In 2018, they had a viral hit with their wedding dress collection starring a couple of lesbian models, Erika and Heather, who were also a couple in real life. “We make everything from low-impact materials, rescued deadstock fabrics, and repurposed vintage clothing,” says the company on its website. “We get to know all of our partners, so we can answer ‘who made our clothes’ at every level of the supply chain, and ensure positive environmental and social impacts of our stuff.”
That message has resonated with many celebrities: Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Karlie Kloss, Alexa Chung and Chloë Grace Moretz are some of the celebrities who have worn outfits made by the brand that The New York Times has described as “an Eco label the cool girls pick.”
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition