The Ugly Side of This Industry.

The ugly side of this industry.

  A recent survey in 2014 revealed that 94% of women said that weighing 10 stone or more was undesirable and unattractive, however its completely possible to be drastically unhealthy or at peak fitness at this weight. Other studies showed more worrying results about how women have been effected by the supposed ideal body that most swimwear and lingerie brands are helping promote. Results show that women feel the least confident when shopping if they were looking to purchase a bathing suit. Another study made half of the participants take a math test in everyday clothing and the other half in swimwear.  Results showed that women in everyday clothing did significantly better as the women in swimsuits were too pre-occupied on how they looked rather than how they performed. With swimwear and lingerie being the most revealing clothing available in the fashion industry, surely we are going to be seeing more delicately marketed products. However, against all the criticism the fashion industry has taken over model sizes, this seems not to be the case.

  The most recent case against the intimate apparel industry is from an Australian model, whose story was shared all over social media sites in August. She had participated in a shoot for the newest collection of Fella Swim’s beachwear, only to see when the pictures were released that the photo had been drastically photo-shopped. Her naturally slim size 8 body had been skimmed to a very tiny size 4. She took to instagram with before and after pictures showing her disgust in the editing that had taken place. She wrote that she thought it highly unacceptable for people to see these pictures of her and think that they are realistic. After all, she had a beautiful body in the first place so why did that have to change? The story went viral and Fella swim were forced to apologise and remove the edited photo from their site, however this doesn’t take away the principle of their editing in the first place.

  I was also shocked to find that a similar situation had occurred to more prestigious celebrities. Beyoncé is well known for her beautifully toned and curvaceous size 12/14 body. However her swim campaign with H&M last year had similar troubles as the H&M editing team tried to slim her body and tone down her curves for the campaign posters. She was absolutely outraged when she found out and disallowed them from changing her shape and size, forcing them to use the original photos.

  Beyoncé was highly criticized for her decision to stay on with H&M for the campaign, but why should she give it up? This should not make her give up the campaign just because of her size. By staying and forcing the company to use the original prints taken, the summer campaign was represented by a woman who is naturally gorgeous in shape and reflects a positive body image to millions of teenagers. The spokesperson for H&M released a statement after the incident stating that they were very pleased to have Beyoncé involved with their campaign as they wanted to market the brand towards women with all body shapes. This seemed like it would be a positive outbreak in high street fashion and one step closer to more realistic models, however they compromised this the following year and have returned to using unhealthy looking models for their 2014 swim collection.    

  This was furthered again earlier this year as H&M featured a woman who looked to be a size 10/12 in their magazine as a plus size model. This sparked outrage, and although H&M insisted that the model was in fact a size 14 there was still room for criticism. After all if the plus size range provides for sizes 16+, why is it being modeled by someone who doesn’t fit into that size range?

It isn’t just the models brands choose that is giving the industry a bad name. La Perla were criticized in May this year about the mannequins that they featured in their New York Soho window. The mannequins were baring ribs on their skeletal frames as well as having indents between their chest and around their hips and stomach. La Perla use very slim models in their campaigns anyway such as Cara Delevigne in last years swim campaign; therefore they should be more careful about the image that they are projecting. With the fashion industry at present is very much blamed for encouraging a slender and anorexic physique, so brands should be more aware of what they are advertising behind the clothes. Some customers commented on the Vogue article reguarding this issue that some people are naturally skinny and that sometimes this look is not about being unhealthy. However there are certain considerations that need to be made when looking at what kind of body image they are promoting to the younger generations. There is a line, and in a lot of cases perforated ribs are not deemed healthy, but a sign of an eating disorder.

  However this isn’t the first run in La Perla have had with their mannequin sizes. 7,500 people signed a petition against their Florida branch when a mannequin with appallingly stick thin legs appeared in the shop window. With the fight against model sizes being more prominent in the industry than ever, brands like this really need to be looking at how actions like this will cause their brand to be perceived.

  Although, more recently some brands have been neglecting the use of regular skinny models that we see day to day. A recent brand Dear Kate have released a collection promoted by normal New York women. The collection is named after the supposed world first computer programmer Ada Lovelace which works perfectly with the collection that is modeled by women who work within technology and have absolutely no modeling experience.  The lingerie is made for purpose and is meant to be the comfiest everyday underwear around, working perfectly with these normal, but beautiful women that you would see on a day to day basis. Unfortunately there was a lot of criticism that surrounded this campaign relating to the models that were used. One critic showed concern that these women featured in the campaign may not be taken seriously by male colleagues when they return to work when they have been privy to the photos of these women in underwear. Why should this make a difference? There is absolutely no reason that a women cant be independent and smart as well as confident enough to show off her beautiful body. Another critic also suggested that this campaign is a set back in the fight for women to be seen as more than objects. How this objectifies women in any way more than a regular lingerie campaign where women lounge about in a sexual nature I couldn’t tell you. If anything this is promising for the reduction of objectifying women; it shows  that women should be comfortable whatever shape and size they and can wear lingerie without being a typical sex object. Ada model Arikia Millikan also pressed a very good point. Why should she turn down the opportunity to go to a photshoot and flaunt herself about in beautiful lingerie because she looks and feels the best she has in years. All in all, it really shouldn’t make a difference.

  Aside from this negativity from the press, some high street brands have positively supported the fight against the ‘ideal’ woman. Debehnams and Aerie lingerie have announced that from 2014 onwards they will not be photo-shopping their lingerie models as well as Debenhams being the first department store to promote their clothing on size 16 mannequins. Its changing the little things that will have a massive impact on the fashion industry. So why are we not using models of all sizes all the time? After all, isn't it the figure that a lot of men claim is desirable? And I think most people would definitely agree that it is a more healthy look that will leave a much better impression on the younger generations who are brainwashed into thinking that they need to be the size of these unrealistic models. I applaud Dear Kate, Debenhams and Aerie for their new campaign featuring these beautiful women, more brands should definitely be following suit.