I attended a talk by former fashion editor and co-editor of ID magazine, Caryn Franklin. She discussed 'All walks beyond the catwalk' the campaign that she co-founded with Erin O'Connor and Debra Bourne. The award winning campaign promotes diversity and actively encourages a range of size,shapes,ethnicities and ages in fashion imagery.Caryn came to talk to us to inform us a bit more about the campaign as this is the industry we are hoping to one day work in and we can fight against these unrealistic ideals that are dictated to us.
She showed us examples of fashion imagery, that in no one way promoted the product they were supposedly selling, but did have strong references to drugs, violence, were overtly sexual and many showing vulnerable women being restrained by dominant men, implying gang rape(such as the Dolce and Gabbana ad below). She also talked about how the industry is saturated with these white, thin, young models and the lack of difference in size, ethnicity and age. We're so used to seeing this kind of imagery, we are now normalised to it, and the more we are exposed to it the more normal is seems.
This is all too familiar to Caryn, who has been working in the fashion industry for over 30 years, has seen how much fashion imagery has changed over time. From the strong powerful women we used to have as supermodels to the emaciated, caucasian blondes we are now bombarded with on a daily basis. Caryn explained how, at the beginning of her career fashion was only really featured in magazines, almost as though you had to go looking to find it, it was never on television. Nowadays it's all over television and right at our fingertips because of the internet. The next generation has grown up with this, and it can only have negative effects on their self esteem, we live in a world where a size 12 is considered 'plus size' and where pretty much every image we see has been touched up and air-brushed to the extreme. It's no surprise that 8 out of 10 women in the Uk are unhappy with their body.
In 2009 All Walks teamed up with Rankin to create the event 'SNAPPED' at The National Portrait Gallery. Rankin created nine portraits of regular women, to promote the more diverse ideals of beauty. These images were positioned next to paintings of historical female figures including Elizabeth the first and Queen Victoria. I particularly loved Daphne Selfe who is 83 and is fond of leather trousers!
Daphne Selfe
Something I definitely thought about was the fact that the consumer is diverse, so why is fashion still aimed at young, thin girls? Older women of today have four times as much money to spend on luxury goods so it makes no sense as to why the products and advertising are not aimed at them. I really do think the fashion industry should cater to older women more, perhaps taking a leaf out of Vivienne Westwood's book.The designer stars in her own shoots, and doesn't use any post-production tools to enhance herself.
I found Caryn's talk very interesting, I have thought about this topic before a lot, but never in the depth that Caryn made me think about it. We're constantly bombarded with unachievable and unrealistic imagery that makes us feel like there's something wrong with us, when really it's the images that are forced onto us that are wrong, and it's time that this changed. Thanks to the All Walks Beyond The Catwalk campaign we're on the right track.
