How fashion industry is marginalizing people and their profit.
Currently, in the fashion industry today, plus-sized clothing is overlooked, thus causing a lack of fashion choices for the people affected. “No one wants to see curvy women.”, said by Karl Lagerfeld who was an artistic director of Chanel and, he had a long history of disparaging fat women. He has also blamed people for societal woes on national television. He argued that “Fat Shaming” is a social security issue as well as disease caught by the fat people. The article does not go into explaining what it means or provide further dialogue to clarify what it is that he is exactly trying to say from this phrase. At a glance, it is interpreted as if he is blaming the victim. He blames the society for the issue while avoiding the blame on himself. In an interview that followed in 2012, he was asked to explain about his models all being skinny. To this he answered that his models are skinny but not that skinny (Jennings, 2019). Karl Lagerfeld, who is an icon in the fashion industry said these words that can be controversial. The fashion industry is still harbours people with these mindsets are filled with skinny models. The fashion industry should prioritize size diversity because this will not only help brands make profit but also help everyone feel included and represented.
Fashion brands should give attention to making a profit by providing various sizes for people who does not fit into conventional model of fitness. “These people [big size people] do not have many options to buy their garments even if they represented 68% of shoppers” (Schallon, 2019). Fashion brands are in the industry to make money. Targeting minor 32% and leaving out majority of the population representing 68%. The fashion industry still makes limited sizes, and mass fashion magazines hire models who have an unrealistic thin body. The fashion brands along with designers send skinny models who are unrealistically skinny down their runways. The same models cover the front page of fashion magazines and appear on TV shows. The Health Research Funding Organization found out that about 80% of women in the United States feel insecure because of the images of women in movies, fashion magazines and advertisements. This may have adverse effect in mental health, physical health, and can lead to self- destructive thoughts and behaviours (Mascaro. R, 2018). Therefore, people who does not fit into the standard, 68% according to Schallon, have adverse effects like feeling fat themselves and try to lose their weight even they are not fat. Fashion companies refuses to make big sizes because they believe that there is no profit, but this is not true (Schallon, 2019). Rihanna, and LVMH’s new line of clothes, “Fenty” produces styles up to Size US 14 embracing all kinds of beauty by incorporating plus-sized styles (Robehmed, 2019). The new line “Fenty” is currently very successful and getting massive media attention as well. There is no more excuse to overlook plus-sized women because of profit. As shown with Fenty’s success, working with full spectrum of sizes of clothing will not reduce the amount of profit the company. Also, there is another fashion company that supports plus-sized people. Co-Founder of SoCal Fashion said, “We get a lot of customers and retail clients because we’re able to produce for everybody. We’ve gone up to 6XL — and people are so happy about that” (Petter, 2019). This shows that even if you produce plus-sized clothing, there is no monetary loss in any company.
Fat-shaming is everywhere in today’s society, from businesses to a normal lifestyle. Changing the ways of how fashion media markets “ideal beauty” into marketing all beauty, it’ll be better for health and the business in many ways. Fashion designers like Karl Lagerfeld who only make clothes for skinny people create this “ideal beauty” for consumers and make the 68% of the population feel shameful, 80% of that population to be specific. This also means that most of the fashion industries who market “ideal beauty” are missing out on the chance to target 68% of the population who does not fit into that standard of beauty. These representation of “Ideal Beauty” and fat-shaming are recognized as forms of discrimination (Sparks, 2019).
For example, sports illustrated is one of the popular magazines, which is introduced fat models in their magazine. Sports Illustrated is known for using models who are thin and sexually attractive. On the same note, Victoria’s Secret recent addition of a new model on their line of supermodels a size 14 model, Ali Tate-Cutler. Ali is the first plus-sized model in Victoria’s Secret. In the past, the famous undergarment brand has been a target of criticism for not being inclusive from the public and celebrities (Miller. K. 2019). Those movements like hiring fat models can be positive and reduce fat-shaming both online and offline. Reducing the sheer number of exposure of “Ideal Beauty” on media and representing all sizes will decrease fat-shaming as suggested by The Health Research Funding Organization. If high-end brands like Gucci and Channel, which have a lot of influence, start to hire and expose big-sized models, fat-shaming can be less harmful. The Dove ‘Real Beauty’ campaign is a campaign where the company was inclusive of all sizes and races. Starting in Toronto in 2004, the campaign covered billboards, traditional print ads, and videos, all sending the message that women women should not feel bad about their appearance (Mull, 2018). The Dove campaign has positive marketing, which helps people to be inclusive and change the prejudice of fat people. Many people are affected by the unrealistic standard of the body from the fashion industry. Those standards force many people to make less people’s self-esteem and negatively affect self-perception. So, Dove started to acknowledged this problem and insists that women might adopt an unhealthy lifestyle if all company continues to market only thin models. Dove featured advertisements that include “bigger models or those with more varied skin tones” to be inclusive of all people (Mull, 2018). Just like Dove, if all the other companies with media power adapt and are inclusive of fat people, the “ideal beauty” the media pushes will be less prevalent and less stressful for people that are influenced by those. As pointed above, there will be no monetary loss and expand the market broader. Mull argues in her article that the Dove campaign has created positive image in some people but it also brought forth ambiguity in the positive body image. People whether big or small now are confused as to how to express their feelings. The huge success of the Dove campaign promoted other companies to imitate the ad. However, Dove does not sell on the idea of body image yet the company sells soaps. Mull ends her article by saying that companies like Dove should not get involved in representing people’s image. Companies like Dove should not be at the forefront of creating positive self image. In the end, it is the consumers who decide what the companies should represent.
However, Dove might have a point. In the article stating that fat-shaming create people who are affected sicker and heavier, Vogel found that exposure to weight bias brings physiological and behavioural changes related to poor metabolic health and weight gain. It is also linked to depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Moreover, She also found that more people are exposed to fat-shaming, the more affected they are (Vogel. L. 2019). For example, Paris is known as the capital of Fashion, started to showcase fashion panels and shows of plus-sized clothing collections. People who work in the fashion industry can feel fat discrimination in their daily life. This can cause current employees to drop out and pressure plus-sized employees not to pursue fashion as a career; then, the fashion industry might not see the development we have today. The bottom line is that all people should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their body size. Fat-shaming is harmful and increases social prejudice.
There are still fashion brands that discriminate being fat more intensely. Revolve brand released a sweatshirt that said, “Being fat is not beautiful; it’s an excuse.” and received significant backlash from the community (Deabler, 2018). If the fashion industry keeps ignoring the plus-size market, it will not save any money or lose profit margins. They lose out on the big market that is out there and are just missing out. As pointed above, 68% of women shopper is the plus-size (Schallon, 2019). That is the majority of the market that most fashion brands that do not take advantage of. Their noise marketing is awful. They discriminate against people with big sizes. The company derogate their dignity and judge them. Fat is not a crime and anyone’s fault. They have the right to be treated like who they are naturally, not their body size. People have dealt with these problems related to the lack of various sizes in the clothing and fashion industry in argument research essay. The issues are not matters to be ignored. Facing the parts of the problematic fashion industry, and people need to consider the meaning of body size that people have and deserve to respect every people, not judge their right with their body size.
In conclusion, the fashion industry has considerable chances to make significant profits. They should influence to change the unrealistic standard of body, which causes fat people to feel marginalized. Thankfully, some people who work in the fashion industry are aware of these problems like harmful prejudice. The more people who lack awareness of problematic thin body size, the more lead to an adverse effect on society. Therefore, the Fashion industry should not tend to desire a thin body size. They need to see overall view facing by providing clothing in a variety of sizes. As discussed above, changing the “ideal look of beauty” the fashion industry pushes into a more open, and realistic look, the company will suffer no losses. The industry will revolutionize into a more open, and accepting industry that we currently lack today.
