Cherrier

civilization is for squares

1. Dave 03.16.06 / 10pm

   So you’re suggesting the clothing industry take a hit to their profits for the sake of moral responsibility? Sounds great, but it’s entirely unrealistic.

   The fashion industry is not suffering at all, and got where it is today by fostering unrealitic expectations in young women, glamourizing a very specific and unrealistic body image and causing women and girls of all ages to prioritize efforts to look like that image. There’s a very real reason to not design clothes to fit real people: to keep women coming back to find some new article of clothing that’ll make them look thinner or younger.

   And there is almost no marketing done at men. It is easy for a man to find something affordable that fits, is comfortable, and is simultaneously as trendy as he needs it to be. As well, men’s clothing trends don’t cycle as quickly as women’s, so the clothes last longer. Plus, while there is a lot of anti-fat bigotry directed at men it is not nearly as severe as toward women, so you see XXL clothing along with the M (although S is not so common), while any women’s clothing over size 10 or 12 can generally only be found at specialty stores.

   So while I agree that the fashion industry should focus on dressing real people to look good rather than pushing an increasingly unrealistic ideal for people to vainly strive toward, it’s not going to happen until the industry has a motive other than profit, or until people are somehow freed from the current thrall of marketing.
2. cicatrix 03.16.06 / 10pm

   Oh, totally understood - but what I’m trying to say is that I think that it would generally end up increasing profits in the long run. Not that fashion or any other industry is likely to embrace this kind of ideology like, ever.
3. Dave 03.17.06 / 8am

   I don’t see how it would increase profit in the long run for the garment/fashion industry to clean itself up. In order for them to become anything close to what you and I would consider decent, they would have to drop prices on women’s clothing, pay their employees more, make their clothing more durable and on top of that sell patterns so hobbyists could get out of buying clothes in the store. I don’t see how that could possibly lead to increased profit.

   The thing with clothing is that everyone already wears it. Changing your marketing to target adults and normal-sized people is not like marketing computers to a non-technical demographic, where you can drop the price and profit on volume, or pretty it up and broaden the appeal. Right now people are buying clothing that costs more than they can afford and feeling like they are forced to replace it all every few months because fashions change and the stuff has really crappy quality. The current situation is probably pretty close to optimal in terms of profitability, and viable to boot.

   What needs to happen is people realizing they’ve been ripped off. Let me dream for a sec: If someone manages to start a clothing business that is decent, pays their designers and employees properly, designs clothes that look good on a variety of shapes and sizes of people, and makes sure the materials and fabrication last a few years, while still managing to keep prices reasonable… well, they’d start a revolution. They could start an informational marketing campaign all about how every other company out there rips women off because women have somehow been made to resign themselves to paying through the nose for everything. But I don’t forsee that happening.
4. Kathleen 03.17.06 / 2pm

   Both points taken into consideration, I think that hope lies in the proles here. Ella, you’ve brought up the point that crafting has enjoyed a swell of popularity, and if 43Things is any indication (and I’m not saying it is on a large scale), home sewing is on the rise as well. One possible snag I see in this is the liklihood of fabric becoming just as, if not more expensive than pret-a-porter/sweatshop pieces. Indeed, fashion fabric is both less interesting and nearly as expensive as store-bought clothing. Of course, a big enough rise in home-sewers would change that fact, though I’m not certain how dramatically.

   Dave, I think the fatphobic hurdle could be overcome in much the same fashion. We won’t see it happen in our lifetimes, but we won’t see the end of pollution in that timespan, either. Are we going to stop recycling? Of course not. So let’s have some faith in the indie designers, the hobbyists who insist on making attractive apparel for their own bodies, because they could very well change the status quo, if given enough time.
5. julien 03.17.06 / 2pm

   Dave: American Apparel started their business on the principles you just mentioned, though their marketing campaign was entirely different (closer to norms of fashion marketing than anything you mention, actually). It’s working pretty damn well.
6. Dave 03.20.06 / 6pm

   Julien: I was thinking about American Apparel when I wrote my comment, but didn’t mention it specifically because they are extremely guilty of promoting an unrealistic body image. This is evidenced by their advertising, their hiring practices and the sizing of their clothes. So hurrah for them for paying their employees more fairly than most places, but that’s all they have going for them.
7. jen 03.21.06 / 12am

   Just read this on a vague blog trek. Interesting! I find the observations quite reasonable. Yet, in all fairness, as Dave has pointed out, why would the industry bother when they seem to be able to sucker women of all ages and body types into buying fashions prescribed by the industry, overpriced by the industry, poorly made by the industry, and often age inappropriate? Just look at all the overweight women there are in the North American market. Have they succeeded in lobbying the fashion industry to stop portraying their fashions through stick-thin models? There are anomalies yes, but generally speaking, I think not.

   Today, I read a feature in our paper about how advertisers are busy altering the faces of models to exaggerate certain desirable features - not just the usual touch-up job. This is actually altering features to look dramatically odd, yet apparently alluring. The picture showed a model with abnormally large eyes. Bottom line? It sells. The model wearing that clothing will convince some women readers that they will gain positive attention if they buy the same edgy attire. Do women really want to see an average, aging model wearing loose clothing designed to hide her imperfections? Apparently, they do not.

   Ever read the children’ story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes”? He is convinced by unscrupulous tailors that he’s wearing a wonderful suit of clothes when in fact he’s butt naked. It’s all in the believing!

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