It’s a tricky topic, one that is rife with misdirected well-meaning, mistakes and divisive opinions. Beneath the smoke and mirrors of the fashion industry is the very real problem of body image, eating disorders and how this painful reality fits in with the fantasy, aspiration and bottom line of fashion.
Supported by the Victorian Government, the Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF) held a “Fashion the fits” forum to start the conversation on body image. Speakers included outgoing LMFF director, Karen Webster, Cleo Magazine editor, Sarah Oakes, Sportsgirl strategic brand manager, Prue Thomas, Chadwick Model Management executive, Matthew Anderson and Eating Disorders Foundation Victorian representative, Naomi Crafti. Facilitated by The Circle’s Gorgi Coghlan, the forum covered familiar territory – what constitutes “healthy,” the commercial pressures involved in fashion and editorial decisions, the responsibility of industries in making changes – with the idea being to start talking about what happens next.
Karen Webster, says that she had “mixed feelings” on the forum.
“The positive of it is that is a conversation that had to be had. But it is really only the beginnings. I would have loved more solutions. We’re all optimistic and want to solve things immediately. All we really did was unearth there are lot more conversations to be had.”
Webster, who says that she has“100% respect" for health professionals, doesn’t believe that the efforts of the fashion industry (plus size models gaining prominence, plus size editions of magazines and so on) are token. Webster is of the opinion that it is all part of a “journey” to making real change. She likens the progress in tackling body image and diversity of body shapes in the fashion industry to the approach that UK store Marks & Spencer made with issues on sustainability.
“They argued that 10% was better than nothing. That 20% was better than 10%,” she says.
“It is a journey with body image…10% is better than yesterday. I believe the forum has done that.”
Outcomes from the forum included that there needs to be a more rigorous and tangible way of defining what is “healthy,” that healthy does come in different shapes and sizes and that there is more to be done to achieve a cultural shift towards positive body image.
Hayley Hughes, Melbourne stylist and blogger (and one of The Vine’s own!) is also part of the plus size blogging community. She hopes that the efforts of the fashion and magazine industry to embrace diverse shapes and sizes are part of a real shift towards promoting positive body image and acceptance.
“I think action is coming,” she says. “ I do hope that it’s not just a token issue that happens every year. Otherwise its pointless, do we only exist once a year?”