What Designer Labels Should Be Representing...

As a 19 year old female, I believe designer labels should be representing the 'average' size woman at 9 stone and above, not these 'skinny' size 0 models. 

If magazines were to advertise fuller woman, on the front pages modelling designer clothes, I will be more likely to buy them. This is because I am not made to feel insecure by seeing 'thin' girls, wearing them better than me. Also I would have more of an idea on how the clothes would look on me.

Research on this came from a poll at London Fashion Week. With 79% of the public voting, that if fashion designers were to use more average-shaped women in their catwalk shows, it would help them sell more clothes! Fashion labels should listen to their consumers, who are all different shapes and sizes, buying their clothes. Designer labels need to be representative of the whole population of women, not just the minority.

By seeing 'fuller' women advertise designer clothes, I see myself being represented. And fashion industries would receive more consumer loyalty.

I also believe that designer labels should be representing more of an multiultural society. This can be explained by post-colonialism. Post-colonialism is an era which has existed since the middle of the 20th century. It was developed after colonialism, this is when colonial countries became independent.

You can still see in today's society that the majority of models, are white. This reflects the old idea of white people as being more superior. Which was widely circulated into the 20th century, of course this is not true! However it seems that fashion industries, may still find this idea quite potent today.

In 2013 New York Fashion week, statistics found that....

This shows that nearly 80% of models at one of the biggest fashion catwalk shows in the world, are white! Using only 10.1% asian, 8.1% Black, 1.9% latina and 0.5% other. This is not very racially diverse, and thirteen companies in total including Calvin Klein, used no models of colour at all!

I am left thinking, why does such huge global brands like Calvin Klein. Whose multicultural business model depends on people from all over the world wanting to buy their clothes, appear to care so little about racial diversity in fashion?

This causes many negative effects on the models themselves, and the consumers. It forces models of colour to compete against each other for very limited spaces, and industries are less likely to hire non-white models, because they have fewer opportunities. It also affects consumers because we see these white runaway models being promoted to do magazine covers, television commercials, etc. That girls all over the world cant help but grow up consuming that designer labels are promoting the idea, as beauty means having white skin.

Racial diversity in fashion is a large and complex one, it seems high end fashion agencies prefer white skin. And racial diversity in the fashion industry, and outside of our own cultural ideas about what, and who gets to be beautiful, needs to be broadened. However there is also age, sexual orientation, and, most obviously, size, that needs to be worked on too.

I hope one day that the fashion industries will be able to sort all of these issues out, and finally be able to represent the majority of the population worldwide, instead of just the minority. This is what designer labels should be representing!