Take a look at this:

Fashion [Def] :  • noun 1 a popular trend, especially in dress. 2 the production and marketing of new styles of clothing and cosmetics. 3 a manner of doing something.

Politics [Def] :   • plural noun usu. 1 the activities associated with governing a country or area, and with the political relations between states. 2 a particular set of political beliefs or principles. 3 activities aimed at gaining power within an organisation: office politics. 4 the principles relating to or inherent in a sphere or activity, especially when concerned with power and status: the politics of gender.

source: Oxford Dictionary

Gabrielle Bonheur “Coco” Chanel (1920)

Notice a link? Both fashion and politics refer to the way we go about things and why we do so. In reality, the two worlds seem more detached.

I started to think about how the two things I love can mesh to become something better. What can politics learn from the world of fashion?

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the streets, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening” Coco Chanel

Self-ownership is  incredibly important in making fashion bigger than the clothes we wear. Fashion captures the imagination. We can feel like we present it, are part of it and somehow influence it.

How can we recognise that influence and have the same feelings about politics? By recognising ourselves as political. Chanel‘s words fit both politics and fashion. I certainly believe this is possible, but I can see why others mightn’t.

Glance newspaper headlines and that’s enough to make you want to bail on the entire power scene. But power isn’t just strolling round Westminster, like anything really important, it’s pretty much everywhere. It’s not all about voting if we do it in the right way.

The right way is to make politics fashionable. Yes, really.

For a start, we need to recognise our influence by harnessing the creative energy in fashion, music, learning, sex and art and connect all these things to find ways to change the system through our everyday choices.

This is a tricky one but with great campaigns like Think Act Vote around, there is great potential. By being active and positive we are more likely to persuade parties and the media not to play on our fears and anger, but on our hope, energy, potential and creativity that so often keeps the fashion world alight.

Put simply, I’d love it if we recognised and felt like we owned our individual political identity as strongly as we recognised our personal image.

That outcome definitely gets my vote.

Lauren Ivory is a consultant with the third sector consultancy FutureGov. Say hello to her on Twitter @laurenivory