Throughout the history of a glamorous and exciting world called fashion, a dark cloud of negative body image has loomed. Being thin has always been desirable in the industry, but the grunge period of the ’90s brought that to a new level when Kate Moss introduced “Heroin Chic”. Suddenly we not only wanted to be thin, but would do so at any cost. It is almost as if anorexia was not a disease, but a blessing. Even after the death of a few models who gave their lives for fashion, designers still insisted on paper-thin girls.
In recent years, former model Tyra Banks made waves as she began to promote a healthier body image after being publicly scrutinized for her own weight gain. Though some progress was made, the industry still seemed in great favor of the waif. Several magazine covers were found to have digitally altered already thin women in an attempt to make them even thinner. However, there was a breakthrough when Marc Jacobs recently presented a Louis Vuitton show utilizing more voluptuous models. Still, nothing had really been official until now.
On June 27, 2010 the Australian Government announced new initiatives to promote a healthy body image among young girls. The new initiatives will attempt to build young people’s resilience to negative body image pressures and promote leadership within the fashion, media and advertising industries. Such strides being taken involve support of The Butterfly Foundation, which helps with troubling eating disorders and the creation of a “Body Image Friendly” symbol.
If other countries are able to learn from Australia’s great attempts, the fashion industry could soon become as beautiful on the inside as it is on the out. It could change the world.
Fashion Societé 