Stuck in Rigidity
How the modeling industry is and isn’t changing
Fashion consumers have become increasingly vocal about race, body diversity and gender representation in the fashion industry. As the fashion world fumbles, consumers take on a critical role when brands release discriminatory or tone deaf campaigns and products. Articles come out voicing dissent for tasteless choices such as Gucci’s black face sweater or Burberry sending a noose down the runway, and consumers call for products to be pulled. For so long, the fashion industry has been a hyper-glamorized world and not a place to look at and see the average person. The consumer is no longer satisfied with this, as fashion must be a part of their lives, and they should be a part of fashion. In the social media age when criticism is constantly buzzing, the fashion industry is listening and changing. Often in response, companies pull products, issue apologies and sometimes company heads resign.
Brands are making moves to be more representative and to cater to more people. ASOS, for example, has an extensive plus-sized range. The brand Airie aims to showcase a more realistic representation of their customers by avoiding photoshop and featuring everyday people on their site. By encompassing a larger and more diverse representation of people, companies bring the fashion world closer to the actual world. As size ranges increase and consumers continue to pressure brands on their insensitive decisions, it seems that the fashion world and the actual world are becoming more representative and reflective of each other. Still, a crucial aspect of the fashion industry remains rigid: modeling.
Models are the face of the fashion industry. They wear the clothes you want, jet off to places all over the world and are the beauty that every eye beholds. The model is a near impossible standard to achieve. While consumers ask to be represented, the modeling industry remains firm in their strict standards of beauty by imposing a false depiction of perfection. It remains one of the most restrictive and repressive aspects of the fashion world, from a lack of diversity, to a strenuous life style and even to abuse.
ILLUSION
Many young girls aspire to be a supermodel. However, few working models live like Kendall Jenner or Gigi Hadid. Modeling is a strenuous and physically demanding job for most models. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, models working in New York made an average of $48,130 in 2016, while those outside of New York earned only $36,560. Even though they are often compensated with clothing from shoots, clothes do not pay rent or buy groceries. It’s difficult for young girls to fully understand the implications of a modeling career. The laws in place to protect underage models are lax at best. In 2013, New York extended protection initially in place for child entertainers to models. Even with regulations in place, girls as young as 13 and 14 are scouted and work within the very adult industry. These girls come of age in the rigid, restrictive and harmful standards of modeling agencies that tell them they need to lose weight. Some agencies even drop them when they start puberty. In order to work, models must fit a sample size, which ranges from a 0 to a 4, often falling at a 2. A straight size model is supposed to be 5 feet, 9 inches tall, 34 inches around the bust, 23 inches around the waist and 34 inches around the hips.Standards like these are engraved in the fashion industry. Increasing the diversity in body types on the runway and in editorial shoots requires a change in the idea of what a high fashion model looks like as well as changes to long-standing practices in the fashion industry.
“If practicality were truly the biggest issue, would a standard sample size of two be the most practical when the average American woman is a size 14? ”
Designers argue that models only appear to be one specific body type because that is the size they make for the runway. Designer Tom Ford, in an interview with Harper's Bazaar, argued that size diversity wasn’t practical in the modeling industry. He further stated, “Go to any era; models were a standard size, and the clothes were made in that size. And in today’s world, models are a standard size. You make your collection and the girls come in, they put them on, if they don’t fit the clothes, they don’t get the job.” Ford’s logic explains why a majority of models fall within the same measurements, but it far from excuses it. If practicality were truly the biggest issue, would a standard sample size of two be the most practical when the average American woman is a size 14? The modeling industry wants consumers to be drawn to the glamour of the job and not ask questions about diversity and representation.
REPRESENTATION
Representation continuously peaks and falls on runways. Events such as New York Fashion Week, arguably the most important fashion event of the year, show no steady growth in representation in regards to size and gender. The Fashion Spot, a site known for its diversity reports, reviewed 77 major shows. Racial diversity on the runway is consistently increasing; the Fashion Spot reported that 48.5 percent of models were women of color. Models of color in NYFW have more than doubled since 2015 when the site first started tracking model representation.
However, size and gender representation did not fare as well. Size diversity is one category that shows very little consistency in increasing representation. Fall 2019 fashion shows decreased in the number of plus size models walking the runway from Spring 2019 with only .69 percent of models being plus sized. According to Plunkett Research, a market research firm, 68 percent of American women are plus size or wear a size 14 or larger. Also disappointing is the decline in the percentage of models who are openly transgender or gender nonconforming. Spring fashion shows saw a record number of transgender and gender nonconforming models at 1.23 percent but dropped to .77 percent in the fall. Through undiverse casting, marginalized people are not being welcomed within the fashion industry.
A LOOK FORWARD
The modeling industry as its stands is not in a place of accessibility. Fashion has operated for a long time on a policy of exclusivity, granting access only to those of a very specific look. Yet, while the industry is far from perfect, change has started. Brands are slowly beginning to listen to consumers’ complaints. For many years, a plus size model would not get cast for jobs in high fashion and would only receive work in lower level brands. Amanda Brennan, an agent at Natural Model Management, said in an interview with Glamour, “We used to only book a Ross commercial twice a year, and this year we’ve also booked a Macy’s commercial, two national Target campaigns, and outside of fashion, a Vodka and a Ford commercial and more”.
Besides agencies like Natural Model Management that specifically work with primarily plus size and curvy models, many other big names in the industry are bringing in curvier girls and more racial diversity. Agencies such as Wilhelmina and Ford are specifically looking for plus and curve girls. Brennan continued saying for a long time brands wanted, “a blond, a brunette, and a light-skinned black girl; or they’d want a black girl, a white girl, and a girl ambiguous enough to cover the rest.” Now brands are interested in and showcasing a more encompassing portrayal of racial diversity. This progress is far from complete, but begins to show us what the future could look like if the industry allows itself to become a truly representative of all identities and bodies.
As always, there is the risk that a brand will cast token girls. They could only bring on one curvier model or model of color to absolve them from fault. Thus, fashion consumers must maintain a scrupulous eye when judging brands. This progress is predominantly occurring in commercial modeling. There are some new brands such as Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty making waves on the runway, but long standing meccas of fashion such as Chanel or Givenchy keep their runways and editorial virtually untouchable. Commercial modeling is what the most consumers come in the most contact with. These are the models we see on clothing websites, on brand’s social media and in ads placed inside stores. This increase in representation within commercial work has a lot to do with the increased vocality of consumers. Brands that market primarily with commercial modeling have a closer relationship with the consumer. They sell product directly to a consumer, and it becomes crucial for these brands to showcase what their consumers are looking for. That is why brands like Aerie can be seen making choices very much ahead of the curve when casting models, as the brand features a very diverse array of models in their Aerie real campaign. They also feature models with disabilities, which is a topic of representation that is just beginning to get attention.
High fashion doesn’t have the same sort of relationship in place. High fashion, in many ways, is very separatist. Through the high price tags and the star studded fashion shows they don’t just sell clothes. They sell exclusivity. The lack of diversity when it comes to who these brands have model their lines ultimately sends a message that certain people do not belong within that brand. It is not about selling the consumer what they want, but it’s more about selling the consumer what someone else can’t have.
These tactics and messages need to be taken out of the fashion narrative. Diverse models need to be seen representing major high fashion brands both in magazines and on the runways. Constructs of the “practicality” that Tom Ford argues need to be torn down. As consumers, we need to be mindful of the messages brands are sending and the kind of moral codes they are portraying when they decide who can represent them.
The modeling industry is one that is stuck in the past and slowly being dragged into the present by our current culture. If the industry can let go of its standards of beauty and treat models with the respect they deserve, it could be a wonderful means to represent the wide expanse of beauty there is to behold.