The Views Above Cristina Gonzalez del Peso Market Research Diversity E19CC Year 3 BA Fashion Heriott-Watt University
The idea of diversity includes acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each human being is unique, and identifying our individual dissimilarities. These can be along the wide range of beauty and body ideals of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, size, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs or other ideologies. It is the journey of this diversity in an inoffensive, positive, and caring atmosphere. It is about being empathetic and tolerant to supporting and celebrating the depth of diversity held within each individual. I have been researching information online and in magazines and I can confirm that people do matter about the fact that fashion has become a restrictive and inaccessible world. It is a funnel and if you do not fit on it. Having white skin for instance, being skinny or tall, you have nothing to do with it; you are just out. Keeping diversity in fashion is a fact that many brands and designers are embracing. Break free from the barriers that have been built around these specific worlds. Looking back, it seems that social change and growth in androgynous styles often went together. The 20s was a characteristic moment. “The look for women was very gender neutral” “It was the birth of modernity, there were lots of young women entering the workforce and becoming independent.” The 60s saw another androgynous dressing for both women and men. When the Rolling Stones played in London’s Hyde Park, Mick Jagger wore a man’s dress. Yves Saint Laurent’s tuxedo for women was a mark in masculine chic. Saint Laurent told Women’s Wear Daily: “I thought the Smoking was more modern than an evening gown. It played with a certain ambiguity…. I created something that looked equally chic on men and women.” “It’s about the younger generation pushing against boundaries,” says Oriole Cullen. “But also it’s a reflection of where we are. There’s a new interest in feminism, you can’t ignore that, it feeds into fashion. Women are lucky that we’ve been able to adopt androgynous looks easily. And in society there is a focus on the trans-community now. And sexuality is no longer the big issue it was.” I have found many articles of what fashion does to maintain the diversity towards fashion. Like the Fashion Diversity wins of 2015 the most recent facts are in regard to diversity in fashion. “We’re looking forward to the day when stories celebrating diversity will be obsolete because the images we see will reflect the wonderfully unique world we live in.” Says Julee Wilson, Senior Fashion Editor at The Huffington Post. As one of the world’s most exclusive calendars, Pirelli is known for featuring the globe’s most dazzling supermodels.
But the team behind the calendar is taking 2016’s issue in a new way by featuring some of the world’s most inspiring women: from artists to athletes and even bloggers. The edition features Serena Williams, Amy Schumer and Yoko Ono.
Serena Williams
Amy Schumer
Yoko Ono
On September 2015 eight magazine covers were dominated by powerful black women. Serena Williams, Beyoncé, Misty Copeland, Queen Latifah, Ciara, Kerry Washington, Willow Smith and Amandla Stenberg are serving all of the black girl magic on their respective covers. It is a reminder that black women should not go unrecognised. The Fashion Spot collected data from 373 shows and 9,926 model appearances across the Spring 2016 runways of New York, London, Paris and Milan. They reported that “77.6 percent of the time models were white.” It is a slight improvement from the 80 percent they reported for Fall 2015, and 83 percent from the previous spring. That word, “inclusion” may be the most important talking point in this conversation. Inclusion can mean the difference between celebration and appropriation. “Black culture is often the inspiration,” said fashion editor Shiona Turini, “but black people aren’t part of the conversation.”
Vogue magazine
Dazed and Confused magazine
i-D magazine
Another admirable story is Madeline Stuart, an 18-year-old Australian model who has Down syndrome, a genetic condition that typically causes a level of learning disability and characteristic physical features. She worked on the runway at New York Fashion Week in Hendrik Vermeulen’s Spring 2016 presentation. “I think it’s amazing that she’s been given this opportunity, it’s a fantastic platform for us to get our beliefs across on inclusion and disability. As a model she’s treated the same, she goes to dress rehearsals, make-up rehearsals, does eight hours a day and is paid like everyone else. I think that’s amazing.” said her mother, Rosanne Stuart. In my opinion giving a disable person the chance to appear in front of millions of people in a catwalk is very inspirational and helps others struggling. She has shown the world how strong this young woman is and has also challenged society’s perception of beauty which is not restricted by race, shape, age, size or disability. Madeleine received help to spread the message of inclusion and diversity. No consideration of this fact would mean models with a disability were becoming a standard. On the other hand if she would receive a lot of attention, it means that the world is aware of this fact. So I think it is a win either way. I see the fact of having a disable person as a face brand has the purpose to help people that feel different. It makes them feel accepted in a society with so many discrimination and a very limiting modelling industry standard. Just the gesture of talking to people with disability makes them feel part of the society. “The first step to change is becoming aware and the second step is acceptance.” Rosanne Stuart said.
Madeleina Stuart
It should not be a screamer when a curvier woman hits fashion campaigns. Although sadly it is still an uncommon and rare fact. Plus size models are separate from the skinny ones even in different runways. Obviously there is a lack of diversity in the fashion industry once again. Only models that fit the criteria can show their bodies in a fashion show. Singer and plus-size model Beth Ditto walked in Marc Jacob’s Spring 2016 fashion show and nailed it. She has always been freely speaking about her size with no fear and high confidence. I believe that her moment in the public eye had an impact, as well as Madeline Stuart’s moment. In my estimation those moments are amazing although I still think there is so much to do to turn these moments of fashion into a standard. They are a better representation of the real woman on the catwalk. More people can feel identified with them.
Beth Ditto
I found the advertising campaign of & Other stories where they cast two transgender models Valentijn De Hingh and Hari Nefstylist. It was not just the models it was also the entire creative team who all identify themselves as transgender. It is another exciting decision for an industry that is much criticised for lacking diversity. “The fashion world is embracing transgender models and we think that is great. But we couldn’t help to ask ourselves how the traditional fashion gaze can change if we keep the same normative crew behind the camera. So we invited five amazing creatives, all transgender, to make our latest story.” & Other Stories’ creative director Sara Hildén Bengtson said.
& Other Stories
Los Angeles based label 69 worldwide makes 90s maternity denim, re-appropriated into unisex. They take androgynous clothing to a new level. It’s self-proclaimed “No-gender, No-demographic”. The informal set-up feeling of their AW15 collection is more like a group of friends hanging out than a fashion event. The brand’s fabric of choice took the form of draping halter-necks, super-sized shirts and swamping bucket hats. Oversized silhouettes on atypical models that are not bound to any age, race or gender. Another fashion label that celebrates diversity and androgyny is Vaquera. A New York based line with cut-outs and homoerotic references. For his most recent presentation, Vaquera not only replaced traditional models with friends, but he also staged the event in a busy underground subway station in NYC, exposing the collection to the general public.
69 Worldwide
The brand Star Styling created in 2000 by Katja Schlegel and Kai Seifried is another example of androgynous fashion style. Their clothes are fun, colourful with a hint of irony. Multifunctional, unisex pieces are based on an oversized t-shirt.
Star Stylling
A recent fashion campaign created by the retail giant Zara called Ungendered has generated many reactions. Is it a sign of bigger social tolerance of non-gender identities, or just an ingenious rebrand of the word unisex? The collection features unisex basics including t-shirts, tracksuits and jeans modelled by both a male and female and designed to be worn by both of them. In my opinion they did not add anything new. They just gathered the basics and put them together as a new range of ungendered clothes. Then they rebranded the collection using the topic of genderless designs. We are born, assigned a sex, and sent out into the world as male or female, to reference social and cultural differences rather than biological ones. Sexual anatomy is insignificant to who one is and what one does. I dream of an androgynous and genderless society where we can enjoy freedom from the male-female gender classification. Unfortunately we do not live in such a world, and gender remains the division of humanity. Inevitably there is a mark of biological diversity and even though it is the 21st century, society still positions people into classes. In my opinion fashion should not be predetermined by physical anatomy. Gender is the complex interrelationship between an individual’s sex and one’s internal sense of self. Fashion should be boundless and suitable for either sex. A way of expression. Androgyny includes dressing in way where one is unable to tell their gender identity. With my design I want to express a desire for the unconventional and the exceptional. Breaking the rules from the ordinary. Layering feminine and masculine clothes together makes an undetermined outfit. The pieces can be worn separately either for men and women although mixing them together makes the individual question which gender it belongs to.
Outfit 3
I am required to design an avant-garde fashion forward outfit that addresses and celebrates diversity, suitable for a range of gender clothes to be retailed through Selfridges. My garments are a part of a diffusion range from my main capsule collection. This has to be made using a strict colour theme in line with my main collection. The emphasis lies in strength, directional silhouette, proportion, volume and sophisticated and well considered attention to detail. Taking my inspiration from iconic sportswear garments to inspire an urban aesthetic and expand fashion beyond stereotypes. This is a competition Diversity Now! 2016 supported by the platform All Walks Beyond The Catwalk, which was created by a committed group of fashion insiders who think fashion practice offers an important place to create positive messages about body and beauty diversity. The first step to take in order to start the project was going to Selfridges to see what a diffusion line is. I found out most of the designers have an accessible fashion range inside their main line product range. It is usually cheaper, in that sense more affordable for a wider range of costumers recruiting younger consumers. As their prices are lower they reach more people who can pay for the clothes. Many diffusion lines are mass manufactured. The purpose is to develop the vision of a high end collection for a new audience. When you think of every single diffusion line, the name is shorter. And in my opinion that sounds less than the first line. It was a good experience going to Selfridges to see how companies try to keep the aesthetic of a brand within a product extension that has to be affordable without losing it’s taste and recognition. It was very useful to actually see the collections. Now I clearly know what they expect from me in the Diversity project.
Outfit 3
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