The American woman of today can never be too thin or too pretty. In most cases today, thin equates beauty, so the present ideal is a thin, fit, radiantly healthy woman. In magazines stuffed with models and advertisements, billboards on the highway, and actresses on TV, the message of what women should look like is everywhere. From the "sweater girl" of the fifties to the scantily clad Britney Spears, the media has directed the flow of fashion trends, and the inescapable presence of these images in effect shapes the image of women today. Depending on the time period, different body types are in and out of style. What was considered "sexy and voluptuous" is now considered "fat", while what was considered thin and unhealthy now projects the ideal of self control and power. In the developed world the preoccupation with the body and with beauty is intensifying, and the beauty industry, despite nearly thirty years of feminism, is a multi-billion dollar year industry.
It is unfortunate that the media influences American society to the point that it defines the "ideal woman". One reason media is so influential is that advertising is a 130 billion dollar a year industry. The average American watches thirty hours of TV a week and spends one hundred and ten hours a year reading magazines. That adds up to an exposure of up to fifteen hundred ads daily. Advertising is a powerful educational force in our culture due to the simple fact of exposure. .
Economics is also a significant factor in the development of the ideal image. There is a wealth of businesses that depend upon the American desire for thinness to survive. Exercise and diet companies are an example. In order to create a market for their product, they attempt to make women feel inadequate about their own bodies through advertisement. According to Naomi Wolf, author of the book, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women, "the diet industry has tripled its income in the past ten years from a $10 billion industry to a $33.
The fashion industry is rapidly changing daily with new trends and recurring ones. ... Fashion approximately began around 500,000 to 100,000 BC. ... Fashion design became very simple and less compelling. ... Within the last century, fashion has changed incredibly than in the past. ... Much of the fashion was trending to be more relaxed. ...
Fashion is a right-brained business. ... Fashion is very hands-on and serious. ... A fashion designer needs to be able to lead his or her teams and take responsibility (Fashion Designer). ... All these schools specialize in Fashion or Art Design (Fashion Design Colleges). ... I am also interested in fashion. ...
In this paper I will dig into the role of the fashion/textile industry regarding climate change and the energy budget, the how's and whys of its energy use and most of all, the amazing innovations taking place in high fashion that still aren't accessible to the mass markets and their impact on the environment. ... Likewise it was during this time when the fast fashion and obsessive consumption for clothing was integrated into the society's subconscious. Yet, as society's needs and wants have developed, the fashion industry has evolved to meet the requirements of its consu...
This was the moment when fashion appeared. ... It is not about people serving fashion; it is about fashion being a slave of people. ... Fashion is compared to art. ... Men and Fashion Throughout the history starting with the middle ages men's fashion has changed a lot. ... Analyzing men's fashion is like dealing with a complexity. ...
The fashion world is built around the fabrications of beauty because advertisements in fashion magazines try to paint a picture of what they believe beauty is. ... Diversity in fashion magazine ads is virtually non-existent. ... Exclusion in the fashion world can lead to separation in the real world. ... In addition to this, if diversity is not shown, fashion ads will dissuade diverse consumers from grouping together destroying the purpose of fashion being a common interest. ... The more different people that enter the fashion world the less different it will be. ...
Fashion is a fascinating study for anyone interested in culture. ... The main fashion breakthrough was, of course, the mini. ... Punk was one of the biggest stories in fashion in the 1970's. ... It was a fashion of minimalism. ... However, the buzzword of high fashion was individuality. ...
In the fashion business, designers compete with ideas. ... A fashion designer should be artistic and full of imagination and ideas. ... Fashion designers work the hardest when it is right before a deadline or a fashion show. ... The best location for the fashion industry is in the European countries. ... The fashion business is fun and gives me the opportunity to be imaginative. ...
Fashion was becoming less flashy and less formal. ... The average persons fashion sense became more sophisticated. ... In 1926, the fashion concept known as the flapper first appeared. ... This dress was created by the Women's Fashion Institute in 1926. ... To suit the new fashions, ladies undergarments had to be modified. ...
The models that pose in the fashion magazines have a body proportion that most women can not achieve. The measurements for a "fashion model are generally 5'9" to 6' tall and [the] very thin size [of] 4-6. ... In this way fashion magazines could be considered just another of one of a woman's friends. ... It tells a woman different ways that they can shape themselves to the fashion magazine's standards. ... The images of thin models in fashion magazines make a woman think about her bodies. ...
- There is an always present desire in fashion to push against the dominant, and journey to the extreme. ... As long as there is a need for self expression through fashion, there will be an endless number of buttons to push, and people will always try to be noticed. ... However more and more these days what was considered "unique- is now "cliché-, and you are considered a conformist if you try to rebel against mainstream fashion. ... I think there are two roads that fashion could take. ... I believe fashion will regress and we will jump back in time, continuing the never-ending cyc...
