The fashion industry is very good at establishing wrong stereotypes of beauty, which are far away from reality. If you have a look at fashion stores, most of the clothes sizes are tailored for ultra thin women. The effect is that more women try to do everything to fit into this false reality – on behalf of their health.
Spain’s government has put some effort into this subject and reached an agreement with fashion designers to standardize women’s clothing sizes with the aim of promoting a healthier image.
The program, designed by the Health Ministry, will also prevent those companies from using window displays featuring clothes smaller than a European size 38 (10 in Britain, 8 in the United States). They will have five years to phase in the change.
“It is not reasonable for a modern and advanced society to establish stereotypes of beauty that are far removed from the social reality of a community. It is everyone’s commitment that beauty and health go hand in hand,” Health Minister Elena Salgado said at a signing ceremony Tuesday.
To get back to reality, the Spanish population is being measured:
As part of the effort to standardize sizes, the ministry plans to measure 8,500 Spanish girls and women between the ages of 12 and 70 to determine the true shapes of Spanish women’s bodies.
It seems that “physical” items like clothes are a media – immersing you into the same wrong reality like – let’s say – television. Fashion items seem to pin down the shape of your dream body to a number: 34, 36, 38. “Form follows function” is outdated – “Flesh follows form” is the sad reality.
WOW
Vraiment intéressant l’intiative de l’Espagne.
J’aurais aimé avoir un standard de la sorte quand je travaillais au Gap (oui, j’avais vraiment besoin d’argent!).
Je devais habiller les mannequins féminins avec du XS. Et encore là, le XS était trop grand pour les mannequins. Alors nous devions resserrer le tout à l’aide de multiples épingles pour que les vêtements “paraissent” mieux dans la vitrine.
Du côté des mannequins masculins, la taille était medium (sans utilisation d’épingle).
Apparently, Chris made a research and found out that clothes sold on runaways have to be tailored to the womans who buy them – this process can take up to 3 months before you get to wear your nice new Chanel outfit made to fit normal human bodies… unless your made as a runaway model and you can leave with the outfit directly from the runaway…
Light has to be made on this topic, boycotting fashion magazines is not enough, i think as it is becoming a health problem (mental and physical), it might be a good things that governements take a step in this direction.