We are back, baby!
We are so far back that we have ended right in the 90’s. SuperModels are icons once again and
there is this gray cloud looming over all of our heads, the lightning is the flash from a young
girl's phone filming a body checking video for TikTok and the thunder is the voices of young
women preaching pro ana rhetoric from SuperModels past. The storm is brewing.
During the past few decades of the 2000’s there was a certain shift around what became the
standard for beauty, a necessary birth of diversity and inclusivity within the fashion industry.
Although, there has been change within the fashion world, one could say that efforts are done so
begrudgingly, to appease the outcry of those who were being genuinely affected by the
negligence. From the recent revival of viciously thin models headlining major campaigns, as
well as celebrities using prescription medication (not for its intended use) to lose weight– to
websites posting articles titled “Bye-bye booty: Heroin chic is back, posted by the New York
Post in 2022– I have to pause and think, has the fashion industry ever really made any progress
at all, ever?
I could not help but to think about those who were actually in the modelling industry, watching
these terrible, dare I say, trends take place in real time all while they’re posing in front of the
camera.
My curiosity led me to Aisha South, a 23 year old plus-sized model who is based in Toronto and
Montreal. Over coffee, South recalled how she felt about the industry before she entered it, “It
felt glitzy and glamorous.” she chuckled, “but it’s really quite awkward.”. She let me know that
there were things that went unsaid during shoots that eventually you learn to pick up on, for
example, when you are doing well and the photographer is happy with the work they will
reassure you. However, when the photographer is not happy with the work being done they will
get quiet, and the studio becomes an awkward environment. South states “If it’s quiet, you’re
bombing.”
Production for shoots and campaigns are collaborative work environments, photographers,
stylists, models and other crew should all be on the same page for what they are expected to
deliver. Sadly, this is just not the case. South brought up the issue of styling, and how some
stylists– although they have the models exact measurements– bring garments that will simply
just not fit the model. “I’ve worked with stylists that have been in the industry for 20 plus years,
they should know what they’re doing, and some just don’t seem to care to have the correct size
for you.”. The bare minimum for fashion shoots is for the clothes to fit but South states that, “I
think they [stylists] just want to say they’re inclusive.”
One shoot in particular that South looks back on with ill regard, is one she did for a well known
Canadian plus size clothing retailer (name left out intentionally). Where she was asked to
purchase her own padding to bring for the shoot in order to fit some of the clothing she would be
modelling. While on set she overheard people talking about how the company did not hire
someone who fit their description because their rates were too high.
When she mentioned this, the reality of extreme elusiveness in the industry really set in.
There seems to be a disconnect between the conversations the fashion industry says they are
having– with the actions they are actually committing. There can be talk, talk, talk, about change
but it will only happen when words are implemented by action.
This leads me back to where I started on my journey. Is the modelling industry not really willing
to change and is that the reason we have so swiftly returned to the danger zone of past decades?
It is no secret that the fashion space is one that is polarizing; a place where people get to express
themselves and have creative freedom, that’s why we are all here, isn’t it? But toxicity is still
rampant, we have to be cognisant of the space we are entering. How can we, as future designers,
store owners and fashion industry workers see the missing pieces and work to change vital
wrong doings in our own industry.
While young people, like South, show up to do their jobs, those behind the scenes at agencies,
clothing companies, photographers and stylists should equally show up and do theirs, and do it
properly. When plus sized models are made to feel like the company they are hired to do a shoot
for doesn’t truely want their clothes to be plus sized, it is making these spaces undesirable for
young people to go out and pursue these endeavours.
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