The fashion industry is often criticized for their exclusiveness when it comes to the sizes that are produced for women in common shopping boutiques. Being so exclusive, the industry has labeled the average woman shopping’s size to be “plus sized” which just means that the size will not be available for purchase in the regular sections of the store, strange for the average woman, no? But the root of the issue really is not the stores, or the shoppers, but the base of the industry itself. Fashion schools have designers going through rigorous programs to ensure the young designer knows everything about the industry before stepping into the brutal world of the fashion industry. The one thing they do not teach the young adults in the program is how to design for the average size, size 14. In the article, “Why Plus Sized Fashion Doesn’t Have a Future,” the author explains:
“Fashion designers notoriously prefer to design for a “perfectly petite” size four – though most fashion models are in fact a size or two smaller than that. The late Karl Lagerfeld once notoriously said that the closer a model’s physical resemblance to a clothes hanger, the better. Larger women, the explanation often goes, are more complex and difficult to design for, and to ensure that the clothes look exactly as intended, it’s safer to design for the very slender.”
To be more specific, the instructors and professors at the award winning design school, FIDM: Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising located in Downtown Los Angeles, have over and over again been pressuring students to draw and sketch with almost stick like figures. On top of that, FIDM, along with every other fashion school requires all designs to be sized and pinned onto a dress form with measurements of a 25 inch waist, 33.5 inch bust, and 35 inch hip. This all aligns with the “perfect petite” size four, while the average woman has a 30.5 inch waist, 39.5 inch bust, and 40.5 inch hip… a size 14.
What does this say about the average woman? It says nothing about the average woman, but everything about the brutal unhealthy image of the fashion industry. The fashion industry is no place for the average size, yet everyone wants to feel confident in what they are wearing, and no one wants to have to go into a special section of a boutique labeled “Plus Sized” just to find average sizes.
Yes, fashion is a form of art and maybe not all designs can be taken literally and should just be exhibitions of art, but the sizing still does not change when mass produced clothing is sold in the stores for women and young adults. This is where the disconnect is, the form of fashion as art should not share the same measurements of the clothing in typical stores, yet all fashion students are learning is the sizing “appropriate” for fashion as a form of art leaving all our future designers to be creating for the “perfect petite” size four, without any knowledge or experience of how to design for the average consumer.
Hi Mia, I really enjoyed this post about the fashion industry! I myself almost went into fashion so this was a really read for me. I totally agree that there is a brutal unhealthy image of the perfect size in the fashion industry. Fashion is a form of art that may lead to an unhealthy image of the perfect body that may be very difficult to achieve. There are even some stores that I have shopped at that label that their one size fits all. Unfortunately I would have to disagree with them because some of their clothing seems to fit only for five year old children. This is a very real problem that many women face when they are…
Mia,
I had no clue this was going on in the fashion industry. I have always thought of the artistic community as one that is especially inclusive. The idea that designers need not completely change the way they practice, but instead keep the "perfect petite" in the studio and then produce clothes for all, is a great one.
Mia,
I talk about similar ideas on my blog and I think it's so so important to shed light onto the "thin ideal." Females are under so much pressure from the world's leading female industry -- conforming to these crazy standards is nearly impossible for most and to be able to fit into what is deemed "normal" is so unhealthy for most.
As college aged girls, we understand so much what it's like to feel these standards in our day to day lives. It's really hard to be a girl today, and some reform needs to happen in the fashion industry for the sake and safety of girls everywhere. It's getting far too dangerous, and far too obsessive, for women…
The fashion world is one of the most critical worlds on the planet in my opinion. My grandma was a model and she quit because she was told she was “overweight”... she weighed 120lbs at the time and was 5'9." Being a model was always an interest of mine and I am family friends with families like the Clausons and Hailey said do not model if you do not wanna hear you are too fat every day. I stuck with soccer lol. Hailey Clauson is one of the top models and she has always told me her stories and how the fashion world strives to meet such unattainable standards for most people. When you go for a fitting as a…