Radical Changes for Modelling and Fashion in Australia
Australia is to introduce new measures which may have long lasting effects on fashion and modelling industries there. There has been much written in the media over the last number of years about the ever-decreasing size of female fashion models and how this unattainable ideal creates pressure in the rest of the female population to somehow emulate that stick-thin, elegant look. This leads to negative body images - and in the worst-case scenario, eating disorders. While it is women that have an inordinate amount of pressure to look a certain way, that is not to say that men are immune from the onslaught of what the ideal man should look like. The male ideal now is increasingly muscular and perfectly groomed. The muscles seen on many men in the media are not obtainable unless you are a professional sports player, but for ordinary man to achieve the same look they must spend hours in the gym. At the moment, the most successful female models are very tall, extremely thin and most are Caucasian. Models with other skin-colours or ethnic backgrounds, while featuring at times in campaigns and on the fashion show runways, are still rare and tend to be used as novelty value. Much has been written in the media about plus-sized models, with one-off features in various magazines featuring models larger than the standard. However, as with skin colour and ethnic background, models larger than normal are used as shock value, rather than featuring regularly alongside their thinner counterparts. Male models too must fit either one of two ideals. Either the David Gandy look - tall, manly, muscular, or what is more commonly seen the androgynous, look where male models are incredibly delicate and thin looking.
As models have got increasingly skinnier, conversely the obesity epidemic in the Western World has boomed. Although the blame cannot fully be apportioned to the fashion industry, it does have a role to play - advertisements, films and television shows, the size of shop mannequins all take their cue as to the perfect body shape from fashion. Thus what is now considered ‘the ideal body’ is not only seen on runways, but also everywhere, in shops, on television, on the internet and in movies. As so much of the entertainment industry is bound closely with the fashion world the measures introduced in Australia may take many years to have any kind of impact as many fashion designers used to having the ideal human clotheshorse fiercely resist using models that are not incredibly tall and thin.
As regards the actual proposals, Australia’s youth minister is to introduce these measures: Fashion designers will be dissuaded from hiring extremely thin models; magazines are to gradually reduce the amount of advertising for cosmetic surgery and for dieting products; designers will be discouraged from hiring overly muscular male models; clothing labels will be expected to sell a range of sizes; any imagery that has been retouched to alter shape or reduce wrinkles must alert viewers to this fact; models modelling adult clothing must be 16 or older; models of all shapes, heights and sizes and ethnicities to be featured on the catwalk, magazines and advertising. There will also be an approval mark a ‘body image-friendly symbol’ which will be given to magazines, fashion labels and modelling agencies who follow the new guidelines.
While is it undeniable that clothes hang better on slimmer women, thus showing the product (the clothes) to its best advantage, the far-reaching impact of fashion’s beauty ideal affects all of us leaving many of us with a negative image regarding our own looks and bodies. Images of women of many shapes and sizes shown as being acceptable should particularly help vulnerable teenagers who are of a normal, healthy size. As has been shown in many studies, diets lead to weight gain, so stopping healthy-sized people dieting when there is no need for them to do this can only be a good thing. If the proposed measures have some impact on the health of Australians, other countries may follow their lead, but the fashion industry is set in its ways and it is likely to take some years for the fashion world to embrace a complete overhaul of the industry. It is more likely to be dragged kicked and screaming into a new more equitable era where a variety of colours, shapes and heights are also regularly shown as being desirable and beautiful.
