The Effect of the Fashion Industry on Modern Day Society
The definition for fashion is a popular or the latest style of clothing, hair decoration or behaviour.
Fashion is all around us and has become increasingly important in our day to day lives over the past decades. Whether we realise it or not everyone is fashion conscious, daily we make the decision on how to dress or style our hair. In earlier times fashion was only essential to the affluent classes who could afford it. However class no longer matters in anyway on the road to becoming fashionable. In a recent poll on debate.org 65% of people voted that fashion was essential. The fashion industry such as Vogue, Prada and so on are the people in charge of making, selling and then marketing future fashion trends. These people portray their fashion designs through adverts and shows. The models used for these represent the stereotypical view of a model in the fashion industry, they have to be stick thin, beautiful and have thigh gaps. This leads to the fundamental question; is the fashion industry harmful to society? Throughout this article we will discuss some of the positives and negatives that surround this question.
The stereotypical models are essentially a hanger to parade gorgeous items of clothing that people are then engrossed to buy. The fashion industry is established as praising skinniness and frowning upon curves. Models are often seen as health inspirations encouraging the public to take better care of their bodies. Nonetheless thousands of models get their figure by starving themselves, resulting in eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. The modelling industry isn’t short on horror stories of models going to treacherous lengths to meet impossible physical appearances. This was the case for Isobelle Caro, a French model recently died due to Anorexia. In 2007 she starred in a campaign, naked to draw attention to the horrific results of anorexia hoping to warn women and teenagers. However the campaign seemed to suggest to girls that if they look like this they will become famous. This mixed message was diagnosed by Stanfors Renè Girard, who suggested that we all want to lose weight because we know that’s what everyone else wants- the more people succeed in shedding the pound’s the more we feel we need to do so also. He emphasises an aspect others miss: the build-in tendency to escalation that accompanies any fashion trend: “Everybody tries to outdo everybody else in the desired quality, here slenderness, and the weight regarded as most desirable by young women is bound to keep going down.” Isabelle Caro knew she was anorexic but couldn’t do anything to rectify the situation as a consequence on the 17th of November 2010 she died from her illness aged 28.
Some people suggest that the idea of the ‘perfect body’ is taught from a young age through the image of dolls such as Barbie. Barbie dolls are played with by children from a young age all around the world every day. Barbie is stick thin, blonde and beautiful and is extremely recognisable. Therefore as a consequence many young girls may aspire to look like Barbie, which could damage their body by them considering an unhealthy weight. A recent article by DailyMail.com and Rehabs.com revealed what Barbie would look life is she was a real person. Their research showed her head would be two inches larger than the average Americans while resting on a neck sick inches thinner. By these measurements she’d be entirely incapable of lifting her head. Her 16 inch waist would only have room for half a liver and few inches of intestine. The research aims to point out the outrageous and extremely rare physical characteristics of a doll seen for more than 50 years as a role model for girls. Rehabs.com found out that the odds of finding a single woman with the same naturally tall and thin neck like Barbie would is one out of 4.3 billion. Similarly finding a woman with Barbie’s waist would be one out of every 2.4 billion.
Despite this times are changing and the fashion industry has become more realistic praising girls for their curves. An example of this is globally famous Kim Kardashian, known for loving her curves. Although her body shape isn’t exactly normal, she is promoting curviness. She has over 34 million followers on Instagram thus showing the pictures she is posting are sending a message received and understood by so many of her fans. Stars like Kim Kardashian as well as Beyoncé are landing covers on magazines such as Vogue which suggest they don’t just get our seal of approval but also the fashion industries. In a recent poll 58% disagree with the statement: “A thigh gap is attractive on a girl.” These progressive views are beginning to banish the ideals of the ‘perfect’ skinny body.
Furthermore a model named Tess Holliday astounded the fashion industry by becoming the world’s first size 22 model. The global phenomenon discards the cliché of a model. Earlier this year she signed with a major agency MiLK model management and been hailed as the ‘biggest thing’ to happen to modelling. Holliday says that “When people are telling you, ‘you’re fat and gross’ it does the complete opposite.” Tess Holliday may have inspired young girls around the world, “You can be beautiful regardless of your size” and she may not be the only size 22 supermodel for long.
Finally France known for their fashion Capital Paris sent shock waves through the global fashion industry by passing a surprising law on April 3rd making it a criminal offence to employ a dangerously skinny women on the catwalk. Under the new law anyone running an agency found employing undernourished models below, as-yet undefined Body Mass Index risks a maximum six-month prison sentence and $75.000(£55,000) fine. Magazines will also have to systematically indicate when a photograph of a model has been digitally ‘touched up’ to make her look skinnier/bulkier. Dr Olivier Vèran, a socialist MP and neurologist who tabled the amendment said it was crucial to change mentalities in the fashion world about what is considered acceptable in terms of skinniness, “The prospect of punishment will have a regulatory effect on the entire sector”, pointing out Spain, Italy and Israel have taken similar measures. The world health organisation considers people with a BMI below 18.5 to be underweight and at risk of becoming malnourished.
So overall despite the past opinions on the ‘perfect body size’ society is changing the views of the fashion industry and vice versa. Although this may be the case having a skinny body and thigh gaps are still extremely common and desired. Moreover the question on the effect of the fashion industry in society can only be answered by you and whether or not you think society has changed for the better or the worse.
