The fashion industry has come far from its ignorant mentality. This includes; age, gender, race, ethnicity, size, height you name it. They have been swayed by the new generation from their traditional criteria. “Standard of beauty: Tall, skinny and white.”
Thanks to the new millennial fashion stores taking over such as; Pretty Little Thing (PLT), Missguided, ASOS, Fashion Nova, Boohoo and many more online stores thriving. These are some of many stores that have broken barriers and rules to cater for everyone. These stores celebrate inclusivity in all shapes and forms including; size, race and ethnicity, shape, height, skin conditions and gender.
Ecommerce giant, ASOS has newly introduced ‘See my fit’ tool that enables consumers to visualise what a product looks like on a model that reflects your shape and size. Have you ever bought a dress online and thought “yeah I’m gunna look snatched” but then once you try it on it just doesn’t look the way you anticipated it to look? To make online shoppers lives easier, this tool gives buyers a reality of how the garment would look like on various body forms.
A Misguided obsession with perfection
Fashion brand, Misguided has stepped out and created a diverse range of mannequins featuring; different female ethnicities, stretch marks, freckles and vitiligo. These differences are viewed as imperfections, however, Missguided embraces all features. This brand sends out a message to their audience that they accept beauty comes in all forms.
The obsession with perfection has fuelled societal pressure to appear in a certain way.
The obsession with perfection has fuelled societal pressure to appear in a certain way. The rise of social media has allowed real women to celebrate real body types not just the bodies of supermodels. With that being said...Missguided could have presented some of these "imperfections" onto plus size models as well and not just demonstrating on a typical size 2 model. I mean they tried.🤷🏾♀️
Growing up,
There were only a few models that represented for black girls; e.g. Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks and Eva Marcille. In terms of shopping online I would never see models like me but once I started to it was refreshing and generated an expectation to see more. People of all races should be able to see a reflection of themselves and not cater to one. Till this day when I see black models across platforms, I would point it out and feel joy as I know it couldn't have been easy.
Oh Polly! You can do better than that.😒
Once upon a time, Oh Polly had the same model throughout their page. I felt this brand literally just targeted white girls and it even says it in the name. However, many females from different backgrounds consume and wear Oh Polly dresses. They have made a few changes in their marketing so I can’t disregard the fact they now have one black model and a petite range. So much for diversity.👍🏾
Femme Luxe has literally got the same model throughout 99.9% of their page. This is not very welcoming for consumers who don't look like that model. It can be difficult to just purchase clothes based off one model as it creates a limit and is simply boring.
This reminds me of how some tv shows have that one black character to try and keep us satisfied because it shows they’re being “inclusive”.
This reminds me of how some tv shows have that one black character to try and keep us satisfied because it shows they’re being “inclusive”. But y’all not ready for that conversation.
Thankfully, I can now say I see more colour, plus-size models and inclusivity across online stores, advertisements, fashion editorials and the catwalks. The transition is still in progress, but it has flourished across the years. We are far from what was the standard of beauty.
Comments