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297DOI
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSIVITY AS A GROWING TENDENCY IN FASHION IN 2022
P. A. Gavrikova
Saint-Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design, 191186, Saint-Petersburg,
Russia
The article provides a short historic background on the topic of inclusivity in fashion: from the «Battle of Versailles» show in 1973 to our time. It describes and contains the analysis of all the main fashion shows and campaigns on the subject of diversity from the Spring-Summer 2022 season to Resort 2023. Methods of how designers and companies implement this tendency within their runway shows and e-commerce platforms are given. It has been shown in the article how the presence of models of different ages, skin colors and physical condition help designers to convey different narratives or draw attention to a problem of any kind. Main figures to be the driving force behind this movement are determined. Attention is also paid to investigation of inclusivity in Russian fashion industry both in mass-market and local segment.
Key words: fashion, diversity, inclusivity, representation, plus-size, ageism, model management, minority УДК 7.06
МНОГООБРАЗИЕ И ИНКЛЮЗИВНОСТЬ КАК РАСТУЩАЯ ТЕНДЕНЦИЯ МОДЫ В 2022 ГОДУ
П. А. Гаврикова
Санкт-Петербургский государственный университет промышленных технологий и дизайна, 191186, Санкт-Петербург, Россия
В статье представлена краткая историческая справка по теме инклюзивности в моде: с показа «Версальская битва» 1973 года до нашего времени. Она содержит описание и анализ всех основных модных показов и рекламных кампаний сезонов Весна-Лето 2022, Осень 2022 и Круиз 2023 на предмет разнообразия внешности моделей. Описаны методы и способы, с помощью которых дизайнеры и компании реализуют эту тенденцию в своих показах и в интернет-продажах. Выявлено, как присутствие моделей разных возрастов, цвета кожи и физического состояния помогает дизайнерам донести различные нарративы или привлечь внимание общественности к какой-либо проблеме. Определены основные фигуры, составляющие движущую силу этого растущего движения. Внимание также уделяется исследованию инклюзивности в российской модной индустрии как в масс-маркет сегменте, так и среди локальных брендов.
Ключевые слова: мода, многообразие, инклюзивность, репрезентация, размер-плюс, эйджизм, модельное агентство, меньшинство.
Introduction
The fashion industry is in constant and sometimes hardly unnoticeable change. In order to stay relevant in the field professionals need to stay aware of all the slightest tendencies. And the changes in the way fashion represent its products are the easiest to notice, as it seems from the first glance. Nowadays, it has become crucial for every fashion company to work on the topic of inclusivity as it was a serious issue previously. So it seems necessary to determine where we stand in that direction in 2022.
Despite the very widespread social debate on the problem not much of scientific research on the topic was noticed, that is why this exploratory research is of particular interest. The main aim of the research is to investigate into the minorities representation in the fashion field over the last few seasons both on runway and in photoshoots. In order to archive the aim, the following objectives were stated: to analyze the data and previous research on the topic; to study the last seasons collections and social media discussions; to track the progress and define to what extent different-looking people are represented and finally to determine the directions for future studies on the topic under consideration.
The general scientific methods such as analysis and synthesis of available research data and theories were employed in this study. The desktop analysis of scientific literature on the topic was conducted. The content analysis of both scientific and non-scientific sources of information was done to investigate into topic of inclusivity in the fashion industry.
Main part
Fashion industry is still on its long path toward inclusivity. Specialists speculate on the exact timeframes of this way, but it cannot be determined for sure. But a lot of them point out to the 1973 Battle of Versailles show, which was held in the palace's theater and forever changed the course of fashion history. The main idea of the
event was to feature both French and American designers and the selection of them was spectacular: American side consisted of Oscar de la Renta, Stephen Burrows, Anne Klein, Bill Blass, and Halston. The French representatives were Yves Saint Laurent, Emanuel Ungaro, Pierre Cardin, Hubert de Givenchy, and Christian Dior's Marc Bohan. By many accounts, the fact that American designers included Black models like Pat Cleveland, Billie Blair, and Bethann Hardison was what put them over the edge. Their presence was not expected then, and that's how they stole the show. [1] After that show European fashion designers caught the trend and started to implement it in their shows. Through the next decade and later on Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano and Jean-Paul Gaultier explored this trend of so-called "ethnic" or "exotic" models (this is how they were referred to then) [2]
The beginning of the 2000-s became the time when the real sights of awareness about the lack of diversity in fashion emerged. As Susan Bordo mentions in the 2004 edition of her book "Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body": "Today's fashionable diversity is brought to us, after all, by the same people who brought us the hegemony of the blue-eyed blonde and who've made wrinkles and cellulite into diseases". The author points out that over the decade since she first published that book in 1993 many things in this field has changed: Yes, there are much more representation of different "skin tones, noses, mouths....and black male models and toddlers are allowed to have locks". [3] But there were still many issues and racist codes to be worked on. She also states that she finds this trend to be another way for capitalism to search for new markets and generate new desires in consumers.
As the industry greatly progressed in terms of racism and colorism, there are still many questions left around tokenism, ageism and size-ism in fashion. As Vanessa Friedman, fashion director and chief fashion critic for The New York Times, mentioned in her article in September of 2021: "Indeed, though on the runways of New York there were some efforts to expand the definition of beauty to encompass the true spectrum of body types, in Milan the models are once again very young and very thin" [4]
It is remarkable that the size-ism problem, which caused such awareness on anorexia among models and body-image problems among millions of people around the globe, seems to be resolving faster than other ones. Of course, there can be only one middle-sized model in a whole show or a photoshoot as an example of tokenism, but now it is becoming more of a norm to have people of different sizes representing brands.
We can clearly see from the latest shows that it became important for many brands from both massmarket and luxury segments to demonstrate their products on people of many body types. For example, a poet and a model Destiny Adeyemi wore a Chopova Lowena dress for a W Magazine Shooting. Also it was noticed that there are more examples of plus-size male models in high fashion shows nowadays than ever before. Maryam Nassir Zadeh chose relatable models for her Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear collection in terms of size and age to better demonstrate garments on the real brand's target audience. And Vivienne Westwood's Fall 2023 photoshoot contained many paired looks with different sized models. That showcases a lot of garment's advantages and wearability. (fig.1)
Fig. 1. Destiny Adeyemi in Chopova Lowena for W Magazine (2021), Maryam Nassir Zadeh Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear, Vivienne Westwood Fall 2023 Ready-to-Wear [5]
Some mass-market companies, for example Swedish brand Monki from H&M Group, is constructed around feminist narratives. The brand uses body diversity and feminist statement as part of its identity. They were advocating for women's empowerment and claimed that as their brand values. [6] There are some questions to the brand about their feminist nature, because many people claim that their mass-market production profit from a cheap underpaid workforce, therefore some women cannot be empowered while others are enslaved. But they
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actually work in the body diversity direction. Their social networks are full of customers' real photos and a woman of any size can get on their page. But most importantly, the online shop's photos demonstrate garments on different bodies to fit the sizes which the line provides. Also, stretchmarks and other "imperfections" are visible on photos and that is important. (fig.2)
Fig.2 Monki's Summer 2022 Swimwear collection items [7]
Latest season provided many opportunities to see people of different ages on runway or in look-books. Having more representation in terms of age can help a designer to tell interesting narratives through their collection. The main idea of the latest runway show for Thom Brown Resort 2023 was to have women who have lived "interesting lives" to model there. Thom Brown collected many of his muses on the show: actress Marisa Berenson, French documentary filmmaker and former model Farida Khelfa, French-American artist Anh Duong, photographer Cate Underwood and Russian-born model Sasha Pivovarova. [8] Those women are in between their 30-s and up to 70-s. And all of them represent that fashion industry does not require women to be exclusively young anymore. (fig.3)
Andreas Kronthaler also chose several middle-aged models for the Vivienne Westwood Fall 2022 Ready-to-Wear show. What seems interesting is that designer does not discriminate those models in terms of "age appropriate" silhouettes. They wear quite revealing and bold garments on the runway. (fig.3)
New York-based fashion label Ducky Brown, which was founded by Steven Cox and Daniel Silver, has their own unique style of producing the look-book photoshoots. All of them during the last 6 seasons were shot on designer Steven Cox himself. Fall 2022 Menswear collection didn't become an exception: each and every garment was carefully shot on this remarkable and enchanting man in his 50-s, who demonstrated the collection at its best. (fig.3)
Fig.3 Marisa Berenson in Thom Brow Resort 2023, Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood Fall 2022
Ready-to-Wear, Duckie Brown Fall 2022 Menswear [5]
Being the largest minority in the world disabled people continue to be the least served and represented group in fashion industry nowadays. Not having the access to many real-life shopping opportunities they usually
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tent to look forward on e-commerce platforms. Online shopping can be challenging for anyone different from size 0, but for disabled people it is becoming a much bigger problem. Also, as Emily Fara wrote in her Vogue article "This Is What's Missing in Fashion's Inclusivity Movement": Despite fashion's rallying cries for inclusion, our understanding is pretty limited: We apply it to race, gender, sexuality, age, size, and religion, but rarely to one's abilities. [9] Designers only started working on this problem seriously by the end of 2010s and especially after the Covid pandemic. There are some small brands which provide such services with great care: Chromat, Christian Siriano and Collina Strada. But with bigger companies we only got to see several projects - Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive collection and Nike FlyEase. So the examples of both adaptive fashion designs and models with disabilities on runway were noticeable over the last year.
Aaron Philipp has become a very important fashion phenomenon recently. She is widely known to be the first ever black, transgender, and physically disabled model to have a contract with a major modeling agency. She is now represented by the agency - Community New York, which has become a pioneer in terms of inclusive model management. Aaron has already participated in several Vogue shootings, was spotted on the cover of V magazine, but her last remarkable appearance was on New York Fashion Week within Moschino Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear fashion show, where she demonstrated a bright yellow outfit. (fig.4)
After years of backlash and being called out for having zero inclusivity in every term and especially sizes, which promoted the impossible body standards, Victoria's Secret finally decided to make a major shift in their positioning. In February 2022 they launched "Love Cloud" collection, where they had a really inclusive casting: a model in a wheelchair Miriam Blanco, who posed with crutches, a female firefighter Celilo Miles and a model with Down's syndrome - Sofia Jirau. (fig.4)
Lauren Wasser, who is known as a "girl with the golden legs" in the fashion world has made a great modelling career after losing both her legs because of Toxic Shock syndrome. She was invited to the front row of many shows during Fall 2022 season and appeared on Louis Vuitton 2023 Resort runway wearing silver shiny outfit. (fig.4)
Fig. 4. Aaron Philipp for Moschino Spring 2022 Ready-to-Wear, Sofia Jirau for Victoria's Secret "Love Cloud" collection, Lauren Wasser for Louis Vuitton 2023 Resort [5]
As for the situation on inclusivity on Russian fashion market, it is still about a few years behind the most progressive tendencies. Most of what Russian brands usually do is just include people of color in their shootings and catalogs, as a minimalistic brand- SHU Clothes, for example. Eco-brand from Saint-Petersburg NNEDRE launched a beautiful underwear line from bamboo at the end of 2021. Their campaign featured 4 beautiful women different in size as well as skin tone. One of the biggest mass-market brands on the Russian market named BEFREE, launched a summer campaign back in 2020 called: "Fashion means Diversity". "Multi-culture, inclusion, appreciation of individuality and a person's right to be in harmony with one's own body, age, outlook, figure, color of the skin, a bunch of thick hair or without it at all - this is the essence of the spectacular befree campaign" - was written in their manifesto [10]. The shooting got many different people involved, including a girl with a prosthesis and a gorgeous grey-haired lady. (fig. 5)
Fig. 5. SHU Clothes Catalog Photo, NNEDRE Underwear line, BEFREE "Fashion means Diversity" campaign
[10]
Conclusion
Overall, it is clear that the presence of usually unrepresented people in fashion has significantly grown. Diversity and inclusivity are slowly becoming a new norm, but it is important to mention that this path is far away from its final destination and a lot of things still need to be done. This work just captures the process in 2022. In point of fact, many companies still do very little in this direction: Chanel being the most influential fashion house in the world still has predominately young and skinny models on their shows, Dolce & Gabbana and Givenchy face the same problem. Some speculate that all of the inclusivity is happening just for the sake of pure business or that it is a PR Stunt. It is clearly true for some cases, but either way a lot of people are in need of those changes so companies' motives melt into the background. It is a crucially important issue for future research in the field of fashion studies, so hopefully, further investigation will mark the significant progress in this sphere.
References
1. Donohue, Meg. "How the 1973 Battle of Versailles Changed the Course of Fashion History." Town & Country, Town & Country, 2 Nov. 2021, https://www.townandcountrymag.com/style/fashion-trends/a36388021/battle-of-versailles-fashion-show-true-story/. (date accessed: 15.07.22)
2. Kent, Sarah. "Fashion's Long Road to Inclusivity." The Business of Fashion, 19 Nov. 2021, https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/fashions-long-road-to-inclusivity/. (date accessed: 15.07.22)
3. Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. 10th anniversary ed. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2003. Print.
4. Friedman, Vanessa. "Fashion Is Not Only for the Young and Skinny." The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Sept. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/style/tods-missoni-milan-fashion-week.html. (date accessed: 17.07.22)
5. "Fashion Shows: Fashion Week, Runway, Designer Collections." Vogue, Conde Nast. https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows. (date accessed: 18.07.22)
6. "Behind Feminist Clothes" Ekho, https://ekhostudio.com/Behind-Feminist-Clothes. (date accessed: 19.07.22)
7. Shop Swimwear. Monki, https://www.monki.com/en/clothing/swimwear.html. (date accessed: 19.07.22)
8. Yotka, Steff. "Thorn Browne Resort 2023 Collection." Vogue, 22 July 2022, https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/resort-2023/thom-browne#review. (date accessed: 4.08.22)
9. Farra, Emily. "This Is What's Missing in Fashion's Inclusivity Movement." Vogue, 27 Aug. 2021, https://www.vogue.com/article/whats-missing-in-inclusivity-movement-adaptive-fashion-disabled-community. (date accessed: 1.08.22)
10. "Fashion Means Diversity." Melon Fashion Group, https://www.melonfashion.com/news/fashion-means-diversity/. (date accessed: 5.08.22)
