She. THE CAPSTONE PRODUCTION PLAN
Created by Taylor Dziedzic
The Topic
The fashion industry is forcefully fuelled by the female consumer. Women account for much of enrolment in fashion schools, and dominate the sales floor in retail stores. Yet, this female-focused industry still seems to be a man’s world. Women are winning at achieving university spots and entry-level sales jobs, so how can it be that there are so few women in high power leadership roles?
The Question
Why is there a lack of women in high power positions within the Canadian fashion industry?
Theoretical Framework THE GLASS RUNWAY The glass runway is the theory that within the feminized fashion design industry, male designers are able to receive more awards, publicity and praise while being viewed as creative geniuses. The term was created by Allyson Stokes.
FOURTH-WAVE FEMINISM Fourth-wave feminism regards the deeply rooted inequalities faced against women, such as wage gaps and the inequality of leadership, while using intersectionality feminism to advocate for the rights of marginalized women.
FASHION DESIGN INDUSTRY
Research Areas
The fashion design industry has historically been dominated by female fashion designers, such as Coco Chanel, Elsa Schiaparelli and Stella McCartney. However, of the 92 shows on the Paris Fashion week womenswear schedule, fewer than 30 have female creative directors (Twigg, 2017). For many years within the 90s, Angela McRobbie studied fashion design students and discovered the challenges women faced while being interns, freelancers and employees (McRobbie, 1998). The fashion design industry is the start of the fashion cycle, and therefore sets the bar for the inclusion of women.
FASHION COMMUNICATION INDUSTRY The fashion communication industry, as in the media and creative based side of the industry, is a new and currently evolving industry. The ways in which women have been presented within the media is due to patriarchal capitalism, however with the rise of fourth-wave feminism, women have used social media to go against the beliefs of the patriarchy (Byerly and Ross, 2008). Men within the creative fields are often regarded as ‘creative geniuses’, while women’s artwork is expected of a female anyways.
INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM
Research Areas
Intersectional feminism is a term coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, regarding to how people have multi-layers making up themselves, through one’s social and political identities. The many layers of a person, including gender, race, sexuality and class alter and affect a person’s entire life. In relation to women in fashion, Showunmi, Atewologun & Bebbington (2016) found that minority ethnic women working in the fashion industry described current ethnic barriers affecting their leadership identities.
The Creative This creative research capstone will be presented in a 100-page coffee table book, exploring the lives and personal experiences of women working in the fashion industry in Toronto. The book will consist of a number of personal interviews held with women in the Toronto fashion industry. The book will be divided by each interviewee and will feature photographs taken of them as well. The interviews will be transcribed and questions asked will be explicit to their personal experiences of being successful women within the fashion industry. To create consistency, the book will be heavily typographically driven and will incorporate hand drawn details throughout to create visual interest.
While still searching for a photographer, I hope to achieve an effortless, high quality appeal to the images. Some photographers I am interested in are @ maridadii, @jacbeale and @ nillynillynillynilly, and I will be attaining a photographer over the break. As well, I am hoping (with permission from my interviewees) to give them all a disposable camera for a period of time, to allow them to take photos of whatever they please— in hopes of making the imagery within the book represent the women as they truly are.
Interviewees • Britt Barkwell, founder of Trouvaille Online. A blog that helps on the go women discover and define their personal style. • 437 Swimwear, founders Hyla Nayeri and Adrien Bettio. Swimwear company intended on making women feel confident in swimsuits made for any and all body types. • Metier Creative, founder Erin Kleinberg. An all female creative and branding agency based in Toronto and NYC.
Interviewees • Mary Young, founder Mary Young, a Canadian company empowering women to celebrate their natural shape in intimates. • Laura deCarufel, editor-in-chief of TheKit, a Canadian digital magazine company answering beauty and fashion questions and keeping up with all the fashion trends. • Aritzia, Regional Vice President for Canada East, Marnie Lipman. Aritzia is a Canadian company with 80% of all employees being female.
Pagination
Pagination
Pagination
Week 1: January 16 • Process with Rebecca • Process submission • Ethics documents & Image Release forms sent to Rebecca Week 2: January 23 • Support Paper work on structure • Interview & shooting period begins • Transcription of interviews
Timeline
Week 3: January 30 • Support Paper with sources and main arguments finished • Interviews & shooting • Transcription of interviews Week 4: February 6 • Support Paper Draft Due • Interview & shooting • Transcription of interviews Week 5: February 13 • Interview & shooting • Showing Rebecca process of book • 50 pages complete Reading Week: February 20 • Will be in Cuba
Week 6: February 27 • Interview & shooting • Transcription of interviews • Working on book • 75 pages complete Week 7: March 5 • Last week for interviews & shooting • Transcription of interviews • Working on book • 100 pages complete • Last week of reshoots (if needed) Week 8: March 12 • Meeting with Rebecca to show final draft of book • Any last minute design changes for book Week 9: March 19 • Full editing of book • Checking spelling and technical • Send book out for print Week 10: March 2 • Designing capstone presentation display • Work on Support Paper Week 11: April 2 • Capstone Creative Due • Work on Support Paper Week 12: April 9 • Support Paper Due • Begin Presentation Prep
References Academic Byerly, C. M., & Ross, K. (2006;2008;). Women & media: A critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Pub. McRobbie, A. (1998). British fashion design: Rag trade or image industry? Routledge. Showunmi, V., Atewologun, D., & Bebbington, D. (2016). Ethnic, gender and class intersections in brit ish women’s leadership experiences. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 44(6), 917-935. doi:10.1177/1741143215587308 Twigg, M. (2017, May 5). Why the fashion industry still has so few women at the top, despite some recent high-profile appointments. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/ fashion-luxury/article/2093000/why-fashion-industry-still-has-so-few-women-top-despite
The Creative Page Beale, Jackie. [@jacbeale]. (2019, December 16). Screenshot of her instagram feed. [Screenshot]. Retrieved from https:// www.instagram.com/jacbeale/ Ellen, Sarah. [@sarahellen]. (2019, October 13). YES i am daring. [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https://www.insta gram.com/p/B3jjRF4omyf/ Ellen, Sarah. [@sarahellen]. (2019, July 9). Neuro-euphoria. [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram. com/p/BztP26_AUnv/ Ellen, Sarah. [@sarahellen]. (2019, June 16). When something feels in sync… [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https:// www.instagram.com/p/BywePoAgUhj/ Ellen, Sarah. [@sarahellen]. (2019, November 14). Felt cute or whateva. [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https://www. instagram.com/p/B43UT0CgBYG/ Nadia. [@maridadii]. (2019, November 14). @allegrashaw for @unclexstudios. [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https:// www.instagram.com/p/B43bjDngPPi Nadia. [@maridadii]. (2019, November 11). Sandra in the Linen Tunic & The Tote for @unclexstudios. [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/B4vjIZOgfnl/ Realisationpar. [@realisationpar]. (2019, December 12). What are you dreaming of right now? [Instagram photo]. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/B59jDVsJAp5/ The Interviewee Page Barkwell, Britt. [Digital Image]. (2018, October 10). Retrieved from https://www.beyondfashionmagazine.com/fashion/ online-shopping-made-easy-meet-trouvaille/ deCarufel, Laura. [Digital Image]. (n.d). Retrieved from https://thekit.ca/kit_team/laura-decarufel/ Kleinberg, Erin. [Digital Image]. (n.d). Retrieved from https://trouvailleonline.com/lifestyle/something-lovely-with-er in-kleinberg/ Lipman, Marnie. [Digital Image]. (2019). Retrieved from https://wearearitzia.com Nayeri, Hyla & Bettio, Adrien. [@hylanayeri]. (2019, October 26). Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/B4GH BlTBYLM/ Young, Mary. [Digital Image]. (2016). Retrieved from https://29secrets.com/style/canadian-lingerie-design er-mary-young/