Final major project The feminine beauty ideal Report by Molly White What are the impacts of this ever-shifting ideal upon the fashion industry and what steps can“ the industry take to become more inclusive? “ 1 04 06Introduction 08 Executive PART 1 - summary The feminine beauty ideal 26 36PART 3 - 52Case studies PART 2 - Influencers Social media 72 84 104 PART 4 - PART 5 - PART 6 - Models Covid-19 Moving forward Table of 114Conclusion 116Reference list 130Appendix Contents2 3 Executive Summary This report critically investigates the ever-changing feminine beauty ideal and its impact upon the fashion industry. Feminine idealism is explored including what and who has influenced shifts to this concept over time. Influencers portraying the beauty ideal and their control over social attitudes, consumption habits and retailers are discussed. There is a particular focus on contemporary, powerful influencers and how they have disrupted traditional marketing models. Throughout history there have been various methods of marketing the beauty ideal. The influence upon consumer attitudes and the impact on consumer mental health with traditional marketing and then the evolution of social media and inclusive marketing are scrutinised. There is an in-depth analysis of how the shifting ideal impacts both internal and external industry players including retailers, consumers and models. The report highlights how COVID-19 will impact the fashion industry in years to come and what opportunities and challenges this might bring. Solutions are proposed as to how retailers can attempt to overcome challenges presented by the pandemic whilst simultaneously considering societal shifts towards the perception of beauty. There is a retrospective view of inclusivity in the 21st century, looking at how far the industry has come and what it can do to progress further. The report concludes with recommendations for how the industry can best conform to idealism for business prosperity, workplace equity and consumer well-being. 4 5 IMAGE 1 Authors own (2020) 1 Authors IMAGE Introduction Throughout history idealism and expectations Recent introduction of social media platforms The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has of feminine beauty have put profound societal such as Instagram have had an overwhelming decimated the fashion industry indefinitely. It pressure on females to conform to the ideal impact on body image, fashion consumption is an unprecedented and uncertain time for all of their time. The idealized body type has and fashion retailers. Traditional marketing in stakeholders and will certainly act as a catalyst remained important to consumers; as a fashion has largely shifted to social media and for change. It is imperative for the industry to society we are infatuated with size (Howard, now a variety of beauty ideals are accessed investigate how the crisis will impact social 2018). Solomon (2018) explains that the pursuit and promoted on these online channels attitudes and what the ramifications of this of beauty borders on obsession for many (Kyriacou, 2014). There is paradox between are with regard to consumer behaviour and women. We will always concoct versions of body celebration and body shaming on social perceptions of feminine beauty and idealism. perfection – and aspire to remake ourselves platforms, indicating the complexities for Retailers must prepare carefully for the future in their image (Kunitz, 2017). social media marketing and its impact on the as the impacts of the pandemic unfold. consumer. For centuries the ever-shifting ideal has been The methodology for this report is found in portrayed to females through a variation of As the ever-changing ideal continues to appendix A. means including sculptures, artwork and influence female consumers and their figurines (Howard, 2018). The pendulum consumption habits, consequent impacts on is always moving as cultural changes the fashion industry may be questioned. The modify the ideals of beauty that dominate past decade has seen a colossal societal shift at any time (Solomon, 2018). In the modern towards diversity and inclusive marketing world celebrities, models and social media that has challenged the concept of idealism influencers appear to hold an increasing itself. This has been both disruptive and influence over female perception of beauty. opportunistic for industry players and proved Arguably, as powerful influencers of their time that it is extremely important for the fashion promote an ideal many women will adapt their industry to stay on top of ideals, just as image to meet it, perhaps at the cost of their consumers are. 6 well-being. 7 The Feminine Beauty Ideal HE FEMININE BEAUTY IDEAL HE FEMININE BEAUTY T 1.1 A definition 1.2 History of the feminine beauty ideal 1.3 Traditional marketing of the ideal 1.4 Traditional marketing and mental health PART 1 PART 8 1 9 The feminine beauty ideal is defined as ‘the Referring to the ideal, McClendon explains socially constructed notion that physical that ‘what remains is the notion that in order attractiveness is one of women’s most for your body to be truly fashionable, you had important assets, and something all women to probably change it in some way’ (Howard, What remains is the should strive to achieve and maintain’ (The 2018). The ever-changing ideal has formed a “ Beacon, 2018). complex history throughout art and fashion with somewhat damaging impacts on women notion that in order History proves that beauty standards are attempting to conform in each era (Howard, constantly changing; what constitutes beauty 2018). for your body to be in any given era is complex. Faces and figures go in and out of style yet there is a link between The ideal varies between cultures; it is fashion, politics and society that seems to multidimensional. Ethnic groups have truly fashionable, determine beauty standards of a given time different standards for judging attractiveness, (Romm, 1987). illustrating the relativity to some aspects of you had to probably beauty (R. Cunningham et al, 1994). Cultural representations of beauty often result from change it in some stereotypes held by media gatekeepers, whose choices reverberate throughout “ popular culture (G.Englis et al, 1994). It is true way that beauty is personal, yet it is also universal; there are international beauties who have HOWARD 2018 come to represent the standard (Givhan, 2020). A definition 10 11 Feminine beauty - A timeline. 12 13 PREHISTORY - 1900’s 1950’S A FOCUS ON FULL-FIGURED SILHOUETTES CURVES AND HOURGLASS Ideal ‘curves and voluptuous figures’ By mid-century the hourglass figure was were portrayed through the 17th and 18th popularised by stars such as Marilyn Monroe. centuries. Women were told their primary goal was to catch a man and thus dressed in order to be sexually alluring. FIGURE 1: TIMELINE TO DEMONSTRATE RECENT HISTORY OF FEMININE IDEALISM See appendix B for in-depth timeline. 1920’S - 1950’S 1960’S - 1970’S A CHANGING BUST TO HIP RATIO SLIM AND LEGGY In this era there was a shift to a thinner body, The 1920s flappers reflected a shift to a slim, led by influencers such as Twiggy. Women boyish physique. As slender bodies became became obsessed with being rail thin; eating desirable, there was a rise in eating disorders. disorders were on the rise. 14 15 1980’s 2010’S FIT AND AEROBIC EMBRACING DIVERSITY Emphasis on strong, athletic and toned Shift towards embracing diversity with bodies. Women were expected to maintain curves being celebrated in the fashion a certain weight yet still appear toned and industry. Women’s bodies are desired to not too muscular. be particularly curvy whilst maintaining a slim waist. TIMELINE ADAPTED FROM HOWARD (2018), BAKUTYETEE J (2014), ROMM (1987), UKU A (2010) 2000’s STRONG AND SLIM Women are supposed to be strong and powerful yet also sleek and thin. Distorted body image in many young people and eating disorders on the rise. 1990’s HEROIN CHIC Models such as Kate Moss dominated and there was a shift back to wafer thin models. The 90s saw not only rising anorexia but also obesity. 16 17 IMAGE 2 - 5 Twiggy ( Graffland, 2016) Marilyn Monroe (Westmacott, 2020) The timeline in figure 1 demonstrates how the feminine beauty ideal has changed in recent history. What and who influenced these changes is investigated along with the impact If I had been around of this on fashion and the consumer. when Rubens were Figure 1 suggests that as the ideal has shifted painting, I would have throughout history, fashion has generally “ adapted to align with these shifts offering been revered as a styles that best accentuate the dominant fabulous model… ideal. Body types appear to weave in and out of fashion with body parts seen as fashionable Kate Moss? Well, she or unfashionable commodities (Brinkhurst- would have been that Cuff, 2017). paintbrush It is certain that these ideals will continue to evolve in the future, influencing fashion DAWN FRENCH 2015 production and consumption in the process. It could be said that women become dissatisfied with their bodies once they’ve moved away from the ideal. As the fashion industry becomes increasingly diverse, however, this becomes more unlikely. 18 “ Kate Moss (Fashion Model Directory, 2012) Cindy Crawford (Pinterest, 2020) 19 Reasoning for the existence of such beauty standards is largely down to the influence of media and what is displayed from advertisements (The Beacon, 2018). J. Smith (2020) explains that in the nineteenth century print became ubiquitous, influencing an integral shift to a modern society where consumer goods became tied to perceptions of self. Methods of marketing hold great responsibility for negatively impacting body image in consumers. Greenfield (2018) explains that often the goal of traditional advertising is to convince consumers that their level of attractiveness is far from the ideal portrayed. Such Traditional Marketing marketing methods can be sinister; manipulating our deepest fears and insecurities to influence investment into products (Petter, 2017).