Topic: The Truth Behind the Fashion Industry Thesis: With the unregulated practices that goes on in the Fashion Industry, change is one notion that this abusive yet glamorous business have yet to see. The Fashion Industry can be described as a glamorous world with cameras flashing, beautiful models strutting down the runway, in stunning and grand designs. What really goes on behind fashion’s dolled up doors is only an illusion compared to what reality is. Beautiful people, stylish clothing and timeless sophistication all make up the illusion of the glitz and glam of the fashion industry, but behind the curtains countless of models and designers constantly fall victim to this industry’s ever changing wrath. Fashion can be defined as a popular trend especially in styles of dress, ornaments or behavior. A model is a person who poses or displays for art purposes, fashion or other products and advertising. Fashion models are used mainly to promote products focusing mostly on clothing and accessory. The two main type of modeling in the fashion industry is commercial modeling and high fashion modeling. High Fashion models usually work for campaigns, designer’s collections and magazine editorials for high fashion designers. Runway modeling also known as “catwalk modeling” is displaying fashions and is generally performed by high fashion models. In my research paper, my main focus will be the multiple effects on high fashion models based upon the industry’s unregulated standards. When you go to work depending upon the job you do, there may be complaints from an angry coworker or a frustrated demanding boss who have possibly had a bad morning. It is considered verbal abuse if your boss tells you that you are getting too fat or ugly to wor... ... middle of paper ... ...n Selby, J. (2014, March 7). Jourdan Dunn on Racism in the Fashion Industry: Designers Shouldn’t be Applauded for Having Just One Ethnic Model’. . Retrieved, from http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/jourdan-dunn-on-racism-in-the-fashion-industry-designers-shouldnt-be-applauded-for-having-just-one-ethnic-model-9176042.html St, Warren. (2004, April 17). Behind the Catwalk, Suspicion and Suits. The New York Times. Retrieved, from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/style/behind-the-catwalk-suspicion-and-suits.html Webster, G. (2011, October 9). Race and fashion: Still an issue?. CNN. Retrieved, from http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/07/living/fashion-industry-race/ Ziff, S. (2012, February 13). The ugly truth of fashion's model behavior. theguardian.com. Retrieved , from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/feb/13/ugly-truth-fashion-model-behavior
Berry, Hannah. “The Fashion Industry: Free to Be an Individual.” The Norton Field Guide to
With African Americans being apart of the fashion industry, they faced many hardships. However, they created a distinctive voice in the history of fashion. Throughout the early twentieth century, Blacks designers influenced the fashion industry in America, having, “a system and structure for maintaining their particular type of fashion.” African American fashion was very popular and caught the attention from the media. Department stores held successful fashion shows, screened fashion movies, and staged fashion pageants. Fortunately, African Americans were allowed to attend these events, yet they were not welcomed. Fast-forward to today, the fashion industry has opened up several doors for African American designers, stylist, and models. However,
Throughout time, bright designers, world-known magazines and famous models, where few are only African-Americans, had represented fashion. The fashion industry is one of the most demanding industries ever created. On one hand, designers have to be unique, professionals, consistent and most important, famous, to keep up with the industry. On the other hand, models have to be beautiful, with unique personalities, and most important, skinny. Before the Civil Right Movement, white Americans models and designers represented the fashion industry until famous models such as Naomi Campbell, and Iman Abdulmajid entered the industry. They were the most influential models in the 1980’s and 1990’s with their personal contribution on the industry. Beauty did not only brought goods and happiness; it also brought controversy and discrimination.
Fashion is a constantly changing industry; what is trendy one day is outdated the next. The 21st century has been a catalyst for a large movement in fashion. Paris, New York, and London are some of the main contributors to the fashion industry (“Fashion Capitals”). Along with being the main influences in fashion, they have significantly connected the world on a global level. Even on a local level, students and young adults indulge in fashion as a way to express themselves. Some people may argue that fashion helps express one’s imagination; however, fashion has become one of the major influences that promotes an unrealistic image of women that is detrimental to their bodies. This unrealistic image can lead to health problems, a negative body image, and a society based on appearances which is disadvantageous to our culture as a whole.
Steele, V., 1997. Fifty Years of Fashion: New Look to Now, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Available at: http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=xqEt6Dpb4TYC&pgis=1 [Accessed April 16, 2014].
The problem with this is that these unique designs are often inspired by different cultures. “There is still an issue of ignorance in our fashion world… I don’t even like to use the word racism — [they’re] ignorant. They just don’t want to budge. They just don’t want to change their ideas or be more open-minded, to just [book] a beautiful girl regardless of creed or color” (Campbell). Most of the time the new designs that are incorporated as the new trend of the year, are influenced by different cultures. Bryce Covert in the article, The Fashion Industry’s Race Problem: Models of Color Rarely Get Hired claims that it is rare when models of different races get hired. Covert supports his claim by telling how, many big fashion industries did not hire women of color at all. Furthermore, he said that 82.7 percent of the models were white. Black models were hired for just 6 percent of the “looks” presented to the audience. Latina models made up just 2 percent. The author’s purpose is to point out how even though fashion influenced by different ethnicities it is still modeled by people who do not belong to that certain culture. The author writes in formal tone for everyone involved or interested in fashion. This type of scenario shows how racial
Fashion models don’t need to be thin, they need to be diverse and healthy at whatever weight that is. Not everyone is supposed to be thin, some women are big boned and curvy, others are naturally slim and small boned, some are tall, others are short, some are light skinned and others are darker. So many diverse looks exist in the world today and the fashion industry need to change their perception of perfect. Body image in our society is out of control. We have young men and women comparing themselves to unrealistic models and images in the media and feeling bad about the way their own bodies look because they somehow don’t measure up. (Dunham, 2011) The struggle for models to be thin has led to models becoming anorexic or bulimic, untimely deaths, and inferiority complexes. Even worse is the fact that they influence a whole generation of young women who look up to these models and think “thin” is how they are supposed to be. They influence what we buy, how we eat and what we wear. Why has this specific group captured our attention so much? Why do we seem to be so fascinated in their lives, to the point where we try to look and act just like them? The media is largely to be blamed for this, many people believe the media has forced the notion that everything supermodels do is ideal. Others believe that the society is to be blamed because we have created a fascination with their lives. There are many opinions, and I agree with both of these specific opinions. We allow ourselves to be captivated by these people's lives, and the media portrayal of their lives seem to also enthrall us. (Customessaymeister, 2013) Despite the severe risks of forcing models to become too thin, designers, fashion editors, fashion brands and agencies still ...
Lock, Simon. “Rewiring Fashion Week” The Business of Fashion. N.P., 27 September 2013. Web. 21 October 2013
The future of women’s fashion is uncertain—in that shock value is harder to come by with each passing year. There is a concept in fashion that nothing is new, everything has been done before. This theory is coming closer to obvious reality, as fashion shows of recent years have visual throwbacks as late as the Victorian era. Although the direction is not yet decided, it is almost definite that women will use fashion as an important tool for expression and freedom in the future.
Peacock, John. The Chronicle of Western Fashion: From Ancient times to the Present Day. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991. Print.
Schiffer, Jessica. “Is There Still a Stigma Against Straight Men In Fashion?”. Who What Wear.
Clacking their six-inch heels down the runway, always having their photograph taken, and appearing to live the elite and glamorous lifestyle are the models of the fashion industry. When super skinny women are chosen to model high fashion designs on the runway and in magazines, adolescents are given the message that this is the ideal body type that they must strive to attain. This is an unrealistic goal because fashion models weigh 20% less than the average women, and since young women are tuned into a celebrity culture that is full of stick-thin women, most girls begin to believe they are fat at a very young age. (Dying To Be Thin, McPhee) The constant repetition of the models that we see everyday changes our opinion of what is beautiful. The Professor of Psychology at Westleyan University, Ruth Striegel, states, “The repeated exposure to a particular image teaches you to like that particular image … We have become so used to seeing extremely thin women that it makes us believe that is what beauty is.” (Dying To Be Thin, McPhee) Evidently the repeated exposure to these thin images has incre...
The world of fashion is an exciting one and people have become a part of it (Jennifer and Kim, 2010). Fashion is a word that can mean different things, to some people it means what celebrities or models wear on a public event. To others, fashion means the dressing style that people can wear it for their daily basis. Understand the definition of fashion is a basis of discussing the luxury consumption (Jennifer and Kim, 2010). Tortora and Eubank defined fashion as a way of behaving or some things and must be accepted by many members of group (Tortora and Eubank, 2005). For instance, the way of behaving include a wide variety of activities, such as the words people speak, the clothes people wear and the lifestyle people have. The majority of a
Over shadowing functionality, fashion is human’s next need for embellishment, followed by power or status.“Fashion is, in many ways, like a river.” -Elaine Stone. It is constantly moving forward and changing. Consequently, fueling the fashion business and allowing it to prosper.In other words if there is no change, then there will be no fashion, thus no bussiness. Over the decades millions of brands and designers have been trying to adapt to the rapid and ongoing change in fashion. Those who fail to attune with constant change tend to correlate to failure in business. However, those who do adapt to constant change in fashion have the tendency to succeed in business. Three distinct trend setting designers that have successfully adapted to change are Burberry, Vera Wang and Chanel.
The Fashion Industry can be described as a glamorous world with cameras flashing, beautiful models strutting down the runway, in stunning and grand designs. What really goes on behind fashion’s dolled up doors is only an illusion compared to what reality is. Beautiful people, stylish clothing and timeless sophistication all make up the illusion of the glitz and glam of the fashion industry, but behind the curtains countless of models and designers constantly fall victim to this industry’s ever changing wrath. Fashion can be defined as a popular trend especially in styles of dress, ornaments or behavior. A model is a person who poses or displays art purposes, fashion or other products and advertising. Fashion models are used mainly to promote products focusing mostly on clothing and accessory. The two main type of modeling in the fashion industry is commercial modeling and high fashion modeling. High Fashion models usually work for campaigns, designer’s collections and magazine editorials for high fashion designers. Runway modeling also known as “catwalk modeling” is displaying fashion and is generally performed by high fashion models. In my research paper my main focus will be the effects of high fashion models based upon the industry’s unregulated standards.