Meet the Ballbreakers: 'Corporate Cosplay' Is Serious Business for H&M
/Mia Armstrong in 'Corporate Cosplay' for H&M by Carlijn Jacobs AOC Fashion
AOC noted rising model Mia Armstrong in Ralph Lauren’s S/S 2025 campaign and returned for another look. Armstrong appears here in the ‘Corporate Cosplay S/S 2025’ drop for H&M, styled by Katie Burnett. Carlijn Jacobs [IG] captures the sophisticated, serious but sensual approach to corporate dressing that actually carries a big message.
This H&M post resonates after Tuesday’s Quinn Mora’s Ferrari-inspired love story in Vogue Turkey.
AOC noted that In the 1960s and 1970s, the sexual revolution increased the prevalence of sexy women embedded deeply in high-performance, luxury car marketing. Many second-wave feminists felt empowered by this marketing, especially if they were themselves accomplished in the business sector.
Did non-mainstream feminists want to strangle us? Yes.
Testosterone-dominance is fundamental to the American experience, but women have made significant progress for decades in creating a wider platform for our success. In 2025, with bro culture ascending again in mainstream America led by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, our futures are in peril in dangerous ways.
This is a complicated marketing topic in America, but one this H&M creative team has pulled off with perfection.
Younger American women do not have the determined grit to pull off this power fight against the bros — nor do they care, in many cases. And women are not blameless in the erosion of our rights in America.
Back in the day, we were called ballbreakers, a woman, whose character and behavior may be regarded as threatening a man's sense of power. I noted this concept also in Bella Hadid’s new Miss Sixty campaign, embedding the famous ‘80s Enjoli commercial. There can be no delay in True Grit women dusting off our big-shoulders blazers — metaphorically-speaking.
Contemporary ballbreakers include Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Gretchen Whitmer, Jasmine Crockett, and Nancy Pelosi. I am thinking, thinking, thinking. ~ Anne