The Ever-Growing Link Between Fashion and Body Image
An undeniable aspect of the fashion industry as long as it has been active is body image. Consistencies in the type of model a majority of brands hire to promote their clothes creates a clear image of what they deem to be the ‘ideal’ appearance, but modern branding is slowly moving away from these norms.
Cover image credit: Alana O’Herlihy
“All shapes and sizes” is not a statement that was always used in the fashion industry. It is only recently that designers and all other personalities involved in fashion recognize the importance of size inclusivity, or at least the importance that the general public gives to size inclusivity.
Often, when one thinks about fashion shows, fashion advertisement, or even mannequins in stores, what one instinctively pictures is a model as tall as a skyscraper with a lean body. And this is something that goes for any gender; however, it is especially true for women. Throughout history, there has always been a specific set of features that women should have according to society’s standards. These concern the way women look, dress and even behave. Referring specifically to their looks, society leads women to believe that there exists an ideal body type to which they need to aspire and conform to. But what we today recognise as the “ideal body type”, namely tall and skinny, was not always the same.
Throughout different years or eras even, the ideal body type has changed significantly. As a matter of fact, according to an article on CNN, up until the early 1900s, the ideal woman was curvy and voluptuous, as it is reflected even in many artworks that precede that time. But at a certain point, probably in the mid-1920s, a shift in perception happened. In that time, women with slender bodies started to appear in fashion magazines in concomitance with what seemed like an epidemic of anorexia, as claimed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin in a paper written in 1997. Nevertheless, it was not a linear progression from 1920s until today, in fact around 1940s the tables turned again. At that point and until the 1960s, society moved back to consider a curvy woman the “ideal”, in fact figures like Marylin Monroe were praised by the general public.
As stated by fashion professor and curator Emma McClendon, from the 1960s the general belief that women were “freer”, especially thanks to the ever-growing feminist movement, spread universally. However, she claims that this was completely illusory, society’s standards still continued to apply. From that point on until the early 2000s, the ideal body type can be described in a simple sentence: the slimmer, the better. This is especially reflected in the rise of supermodels during the 90s, think of Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell for example. As the years went by and technological innovations spread, the desire to conform to the ideal body type strengthened even more. Being constantly exposed to the “ideal”, it comes naturally to think that, in order to be accepted, everyone should strive to be like that. This is something that is so embedded in our social conscience that it may take a bit of time to actually realise that there is no such thing as an “ideal body type”, it is just a convention that society “forced” upon us.
Fashion, throughout the years, has repeatedly contributed, if not led the way, to promoting the “ideal body type”. For decades, everywhere you looked in the fashion industry, the only body type promoted was thinness. In a fashion show, you could never find a model that did not fit in that category. More recently, namely from the 2010s the lack of representation of other types of physiques in fashion led to increasing protests. Many started to feel underrepresented and ashamed, because they’d never seen someone who looked like them in the fashion world. It seems, however, that the issue is starting to be addressed by a number of brands, even if probably only as a result of a kind of pressure that was put on them. One brand to mention may be Dolce & Gabbana, that has recently been including curvy women in a few of its fashion shows and has expanded the range of sizes they offer.
In a way, technological innovations like social media, which can be source of negativity and wrong examples, are also a place where people can come together. Seeing people accepting and loving themselves and their body may inspire others who struggle with their own image and feel like they do not fit in. The message that should pass on is that there is no need to fall into the expectations posed to us by society, instead we should embrace who we are and how we look and understand that everyone is different, unique and beautiful in their own way.
This article does not try to establish which “ideal” body type is better, but it does try to argue there should not be an “ideal”. The goal should not be to discard the skinny in favour of the curvy, but to ensure a correct representation of all types of physique, because fashion is for everybody! Everyone should be free to look as they please and shame of any kind, towards any body type should disappear in favour of embracing and accepting ourselves and those around us.
Written by Francesca Travaglio.
Sources used:
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/03/07/health/body-image-history-of-beauty-explainer-intl/index.html
https://medium.com/@hattiebanfield/the-fashion-industry-body-image-and-representation-5716e2123bc1
https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2019-ready-to-wear/dolce-gabbana/slideshow/collection
