This time of year marks the beginning of Toronto’s much anticipated Fashion Week. This is a week to celebrate fashion at its finest.
It was on this occasion that aspiring fashion design students at Ryerson University had the privilege of attending the Diversity Now lecture by British fashion expert, Caryn Franklin. Caryn educated the young designers on the importance of including diversity in their fashion goals.
With several years under her belt in the fashion industry, Caryn possesses a wealth of knowledge in the evolution of modeling, marketing and design as well as how these things may skew the perceptions of consumers. Although a gradual change is evident, they still remain rather status quo given our more modern society.
Caryn addressed the issues which are most relevant in today’s fashion industry. One example used in her seminar was the common image we see of a stick thin model who looks like they may be suffering from a life threatening eating disorder. This has been an issue in the fashion industry for many years and has continued to become progressively worse. Fashion companies tend to cater to a very specific European young and slender look. This is due to the fact that companies sponsoring fashion shows with designer catwalks have a distinct preference for marketing their products with this particular look. Caryn goes on to explain how this doesn’t give other races the same chance to be a fashion show model. But it does not stop there. The fashion industry also offers less opportunity to individuals who are more average to plus-sized and basically provides no chance to anyone with a disability.
The essence of Diversity Now is that it cites the beginning of a change in the fashion industry as new campaigns take control of these issues. The new campaigns demonstrate that anyone can model and represent fashion. These campaigns feature a multitude of people from different backgrounds, body types, sizes and abilities. Since fashion is an art, it is important to give anyone who is passionate about this industry an opportunity to represent it and hopefully curb the industry’s idea of what beauty really is.
