COM 300: Beauty and Diversity in Fashion Media

So I should probably lead on to the courses that have been consuming the majority of my time this semester...Why I have not done that before, I'm sure is because I was being consumed by my courses. :]

For each new blog post starting with this one, I will talk about one class in particular and my final project for each.


Today's class topic: COM 300, Beauty and Diversity in Fashion Media
College: Newhouse School of Public Communications
Curriculum: a requirement for the Fashion and Beauty Communications Milestone, with VPA and Newhouse

Brief description: Learn and discuss about certain controversial topics in fashion media, for example: diversity in size and skin color, ethnic issues, body modification, the 'fashion police,' models of course, child beauty pageants, and more.

Everyone makes presentations on a selected topic, we've had guest speakers (like a tattoo artist and owner of a parlor on Marshall Street), read articles and books (like one entitled "Feed Me," authored by Harriet Brown, a Newhouse professor...really a great one that you should pick up), and make weekly blog posts on topics.

My blog post for this week is on Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Models (or the lack of diversity). Fashion designers' relationship with models of certain ethnicities is imbalanced and leads to controversy from those in and outside the fashion world. Many designers use only white models in their runway shows, while some include only one token black or asian girl (hispanic models are so rarely hired for high fashion), almost as a pathetic way to be politically correct or say "Look, I'm not racist!"

My opinions on this can view both sides of the argument: one being in defense that designers have the right to design their perfect look and/or cater to their specific customer which might in fact be a majority of white women. While on the other hand, I acknowledge that this sends a specific social message that every other race is inappropriate and not as beautiful as the white race.

One side of my opinion in regards to ethnic diversity with models is as follows:


This is such a difficult to topic to voice an opinion that doesn't obliterate or offend an entire group's opinions on the topic. For one, I must pose the parallel between artists and designers beautifying their canvases. If painters begin every single work with a plain, white canvas--it is likely safe to say that the absence of color is the best and most efficient starting point for that artist to create whatever work they desire, as they are not limited by a previous color or texture already taking over the canvas. So if a designer, a palette of fabric in hand, needs a blank canvas with which she can display her work without any previous looks or colors or textures already present, wouldn't she go with a canvas that is white, or not colored? Wouldn't she select a model whose hair and skin and shape didn't already speak of some other look, because the features were too bland to do so?

If it is our place to tell a designer that she should use a certain model of some certain color or hair type, is it also acceptable to demand artists stop discriminating against white canvases and branch into starting with those already painted? Surely, you think it is ridiculous to tell a painter to purchase a canvas that already has paint on it when it is their job to apply each drop off paint in their particular method themselves! Why? Because in order for them to record all the information their work is to entail, they cannot have any paint previously applied get in the way of that message.

I understand, now, on specifically just the aesthetic level, why designers choose the pale-skinned, light-haired models on which to drape their clothing. Because these features speak not of sun exposure or country or history which carries its own connotations--the features are simply blanks to be filled in.

The terrible and controversial element of all this, however, is that the message designers send in result of choosing all these blank canvases is not that of their roles as an artist who chose the proper foundation to showcase their work, but the message to all the people witnessing is that if they are ethnic or of any color richer than white, they hold a history and a connotation that is not pure enough for high fashion.

The fashion world's need for white models isn't just to create a monotonous look among each girl walking the runway, but it is to create blanks that fully conform into the meaning of the clothes. This makes sense if you look at through an artistic perspective, but to those just looking at girls walking on the runway in the latest trends, it seems a social message of conformity, supremacy, purity, and beauty exist in their truest forms in white skin.

Stay tuned for the reveal of my final for this class!