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Fashion Marketing and Negative Body Image: From Love Island to Photoshop…
Marketing is one of the most important aspects of fashion – without it, the products wouldn’t sell! The fashion market is extremely competitive, with new youth-targeted fashion brands constantly launching online with the biggest challenge being to stand out. As a result, brands are looking for new ways to engage their target audience through more creative advertising techniques, however these are not always positive in the eyes of the consumer, leaving us feeling inadequate when it comes to our body image. Love Island is a huge marketing success story Why do marketers care about Love Island? Around 58% of viewers are female More than 50% viewers are ages 16 and 34 (also known as…
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Body Neutrality: the Freeing Mindset?
Our toxic, image-based society teaches women to value themselves and others in terms of kilograms and pounds. Shouldn’t we work towards finding peace with our body, without the Instagram standards of beauty looming over our consciousness? Body neutrality is a middle ground between the pressures of body-hate and body positivity. A newer, progressive stride towards inclusivity, it moves the mental energy away from body consciousness and self-criticism to reach a personal harmony. But is it a workable ideal? Body Positivity & the cycle of self-Sabotage Body positivity seemed like the answer to the immense pressure of finding self-worth in appearance. It existed within a ‘Fat Acceptance’ movement that accelerated with…
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How do we define the perfect body?
As we all know, Victoria’s Secret is a women’s brand famous for its sexy beauty products and perfect body models. However, it seems this brand breaks its own ‘rule’ this time. In October 2019, Victoria’s Secret hired its first size-14 model – Ali Tate-Cutler. Cutler posted photos of herself modelling the Bluebella lingerie and announced she has made history as the brand’s first size-14 model on her Instagram. In that picture, Cutler’s hair falls softly on her chest and confidence is brilliantly shone in her eyes. With her flawless skin and lace jumpsuit, clearly, she is following the footsteps of the convention for Victoria’s Secret. Her body, however, does not…
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Underrepresented: diversity in fashion
I never considered myself to be “model material,” and up until my mid-teens, I never questioned that. The people I saw in magazines and in commercials looked nothing like me, and I simply accepted that as the status quo. Nonetheless, as my self-awareness grew, so did my curiosity and I began to wonder why the fashion industry was not promoting diversity and using people who looked like the average person. Wouldn’t they sell more products if people related to the model who was wearing it? Or was the idea that if the model was someone with unattainable characteristics, wearing an attainable product, people would feel compelled to buy it because…
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Fashion & Body Image
Over the years the fashion industry has come under increasing pressure surrounding its expectations of models’ physiques. A number of models have highlighted this topic in the media. Many deem the industry’s expectations regarding body image, to be detrimental to their physical and mental health. Therefore, the industry should be held accountable for this and change has been necessary for a number of years. In light of this, the industry has experienced a clear change in its attitude towards more diverse body types during the past few years. Consequently, there is larger acceptance in the industry towards plus size models, and those that don’t necessarily fit societal norms. As a…
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Transgender representation in fashion
The transgender community is one of many that suffers a lack of representation in the fashion industry. The good news is that times are changing. 2019 saw the first casting of openly transgender model, Valentina Sampaio by industry giant, Victoria’s Secret, just one year after British Vogue featured it’s first transgender woman, Paris Lees in their February 2018 edition. These turning points represent a long-awaited shift in inclusivity of the trans community, but aside from these headline events, how inclusive really is fashion? In honour of LGBTQ+ History Month, Mindless Mag investigates the truth behind the headlines. Times are changing Over the past couple of decades, the fashion industry has…
