Melinda Byam | The Culture of Fashion

Tansy Hoskins piece “Is Fashion Racist” is an exploration on the many exclusionary practices within the fashion industry. Hoskins methodically analysis how different aspects of the fashion industry are systemically racist often through the guise of “Fashion” as something that is innately exclusionary. In Simmel’s Fashion (1957) he explains that “the very character of fashion demands that it should be exercised at one time only by a portion of the given group”(p. 547) Whereas the Fashion discourse has moved past Simmel in many way, there are strands of this concept that are still prevalent. These exclusionary practices manifest themselves through the lack of diversity when hiring of models, and then the lack of cultural sensitivity in advertisements and editorials. It also manifests itself in the appropriation of other cultures for the use of Fashion while at the same systemically hindering the growth of Fashion within non-Western countries. Despite this systemic racism, Fashion has a way of putting a veil over it, ignoring the racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic actions portrayed by designers, brands and magazines, highlighting the luxurious aspects and ignoring the discourse around the ugly.

Questions:

Tansy Hoskins “Is Fashion Racist”

The production of fashion is a highly lucrative business. (p. 129)
In August 2008 Vogue India ran a ‘Slum Dwellers’ shoot, …. (p. 132)
It would be easy to reduce all fashion race-related stories … (p. 134)
In eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cotton-weaving town like Manchester… (p. 135)
Many feminists in 1968 could not understand why the black community … (p. 135)
Beauty is a site for political resistance, though a problematic one. (p. 136)
This merging of cultures could be taken as a sign of progress… (p. 138)
Fashion’s penchant for imitating cultures reinforces the idea that cultures … (p. 139)
The second response from the fashion industry is a strengthening of its racist … ( p142)
Should artists be judged by their political beliefs? (p145)

In Clothing Fit Issues For Trans People, Reilly, Catalpa and McGuire “surmise that transgender people will critique their ‘look’ based on their interaction between their apparel and their bodies in the context of social-constructs of gender presentation.” Looking at the Function, Expressive and Aesthetic Consumer Needs Model, and interviewing members of the trans community, they deduced that the RTW mass market was falling short in providing clothing that met the function and aesthetic, the fit and design needs of a trans person. I see Rihanna’s latest Savage x Fenty fashion show not as a fix to the problem but perhaps as a step in the right direction. Rihanna opens the show explaining that, “every woman deserves to feel sexy. We are sexy, we are multi-faceted and I want women to embrace that to the fullest.” These are not just words, but a value that she laid out in the casting of the show. The Savage x Fenty show showcased women of all different shapes, and sizes including notable women from the LGBTQ++ community, Richie Shazam (gender non-binary), Laverne Cox (trans woman), Isis King (born in the wrong body), and Acquaria (drag queen). Rihanna is showing the world that her line of lingerie is for everybody, that it has been designed using the functional-expressive-aesthetic model, functional pieces that fit a wide range of sizes and body shapes, expressive with their inclusive, self-loving, everyone is sexy messaging, and aesthetic, by positively influencing the way women embrace their bodies. NY Fashion Week is not new to male-to-female trans models, but what is progressive about the Savage x Fenty show, is that it is an affordable RTW lingerie line, it is not couture or a luxury brand where the fashion show is not realistic to what will be presented to the masses. When you look at the brands website, the diversity that was presented in the show is apparent, not only through the models, but through the wide range of styles and sizes offered at the retail level. The hope is that as Savage x Fenty, and other gender inclusive brands and companies, claim the spotlight that other brands and retailers see the need to consider trans women not only as models but as consumers, and that this realization will increase the options that we all have on the retail floor.