fashion industry under attack!
The concept of beauty changes with the times. What is beautiful today, might not be considered beautiful tomorrow. On the other hand, what was beautiful 20 years ago is not the ideal beauty today.Today it seems fashion designers tend to favour the wafer thin model as the clothes hanger for their latest designs. Toothpick models like Jodie Kidd and Kate Moss are what most designers look for and what most fashion magazines love to fill their pages with.
Even store window mannequins are modelled on the popular models of the time, so at the moment, the ultra-skinny mannequin is big business. In Spain however, the sight of wafer-thin manniquins or models like Esther Ca?adas on the catwalks could soon be a thing of the past.
Amid mounting concern about so-called slimming diseases, surprisingly it is the bosses of Spain’s biggest fashion companies, who are putting an end to the ultra-skinny look.
With the apparent backing of the Spanish fashion industry and designers, the Spanish Government has begun to move away from what it calls the “dictatorship of size 36” (about an 8 in UK measurements) by exploring ways to avoid images of emaciated women.
Part of this proposal includes the withdrawal of smaller-sized clothes from shop window displays. From now on, models and shop mannequins in Spain will get bigger, as what is being labelled a ‘responsible’ new wave sweeps the skinny look aside.
“Our mannequins are skinny and we usually try not to go larger than a size six when dressing them. If we do have to use a bigger size piece of clothing, then we will almost always pin it back,” says John Thompson, visual merchandising manager at Saks 5th Avenue, Burjuman Centre.
Thompson explains that a skinny mannequin is not to promote the ideal figure for a woman. The mannequin – like a model – just represents what particular designers like.
Skinny models are not used to mislead anybody, but many people strongly disagree. Fashion has long been cornered as the evil culprit in the rise of eating disorders.
And those that tag the fashion industry with this blame, are now asking it to change its ways and take responsibility for making women feel bad about themselves.
Maybe women would indeed like to see fashions on mannequins a shape closer to the average women’s figure – but is it really right to go as far as saying that the images the fashion industry presents actually lead to extreme cases of anorexia and bulimia?
This sounds more like a severe case of conveniently finding a scapegoat for a deeper-rooted social problem. First off, the fashion industry is a business, like any other business.
How the fashion industry operates is ultimately down to supply and demand, and at the moment, clients demand skinny models. Painters often depict horrific violence and blood shed, yet they are not blamed for wars or crime.
So why is the fashion industry blamed for eating disorders? “It is not the fashion industries fault that there is a rise in anorexia and bulimia in women,” says Rasha, a confident size 12. “They are just being used as a scapegoat. The fashion industries job is to create beautiful clothes and if those clothes are modelled better on skinny women, so be it. It is just your average marketing story.” Leni Renton is the head booker at the Dubai model agency, Bareface Productions. She manages a host of skinny girls and assures they are all healthy and that none suffer from any sort of eating disorders. “Over the last twenty years models have become much skinnier, simply because most designers prefer to use a skinny girl to model their clothes,” says Renton.
Renton explains that a majority of designers in the fashion world are male and that they don’t really design with an average woman’s body in mind. For many designers a skinny model is just a starting canvas for the designer to create from. “A lot of designers are men and they don’t see women’s bodies the way the majority of them are,” says Renton. “Take Alexander McQueen for example, his clothes are always angular designed and therefore cut to be modelled on skinny women.
But then you’ll find a female designer like Donna Karen is the opposite of most male designers. She always designs more curvy fashions with real women in mind.”
The fashion industry at the end of the day is a business and it will promote its latest fashions in whatever way it believes is most appealing to consumers. In the same way a fizzy drinks company will package its product with bright colours and interesting graphics to attract consumers.
Granted, the fashion industry does have some social responsibilities in its line of work, but it isn’t entirely to blame for a rise in eating disorders and it definitely isn’t solely responsible for teaching ethics. “Fashion and fashion magazines are not produced to teach morals, you should learn them at home. If you have a solid upbringing, then you will realise that your weight doesn’t determine how beautiful you are,” says Rasha.
Skinny models are not used to mislead anybody, but many people strongly disagree. Fashion has long been cornered as the evil culprit in the rise of eating disorders.
And those that tag the fashion industry with this blame, are now asking it to change its ways and take responsibility for making women feel bad about themselves.
Maybe women would indeed like to see fashions on mannequins a shape closer to the average women’s figure – but is it really right to go as far as saying that the images the fashion industry presents actually lead to extreme cases of anorexia and bulimia?
This sounds more like a severe case of conveniently finding a scapegoat for a deeper-rooted social problem. First off, the fashion industry is a business, like any other business.
How the fashion industry operates is ultimately down to supply and demand, and at the moment, clients demand skinny models. Painters often depict horrific violence and blood shed, yet they are not blamed for wars or crime.
So why is the fashion industry blamed for eating disorders? “It is not the fashion industries fault that there is a rise in anorexia and bulimia in women,” says Rasha, a confident size 12. “They are just being used as a scapegoat. The fashion industries job is to create beautiful clothes and if those clothes are modelled better on skinny women, so be it. It is just your average marketing story.” Leni Renton is the head booker at the Dubai model agency, Bareface Productions. She manages a host of skinny girls and assures they are all healthy and that none suffer from any sort of eating disorders. “Over the last twenty years models have become much skinnier, simply because most designers prefer to use a skinny girl to model their clothes,” says Renton.
Renton explains that a majority of designers in the fashion world are male and that they don’t really design with an average woman’s body in mind. For many designers a skinny model is just a starting canvas for the designer to create from. “A lot of designers are men and they don’t see women’s bodies the way the majority of them are,” says Renton. “Take Alexander McQueen for example, his clothes are always angular designed and therefore cut to be modelled on skinny women.
But then you’ll find a female designer like Donna Karen is the opposite of most male designers. She always designs more curvy fashions with real women in mind.”
The fashion industry at the end of the day is a business and it will promote its latest fashions in whatever way it believes is most appealing to consumers. In the same way a fizzy drinks company will package its product with bright colours and interesting graphics to attract consumers.
Granted, the fashion industry does have some social responsibilities in its line of work, but it isn’t entirely to blame for a rise in eating disorders and it definitely isn’t solely responsible for teaching ethics. “Fashion and fashion magazines are not produced to teach morals, you should learn them at home. If you have a solid upbringing, then you will realise that your weight doesn’t determine how beautiful you are,” says Rasha.
3 comments May 9th, 2006
As reported 