Fashion Models Research Articles

Cloak or Flaunt? The Fashion Dilemma

There exists a dichotomy in the communication strategies of fashion firms—some firms purposefully cloak information on the tastefulness of their products, whereas others openly flaunt their tasteful or “it” products. This divide in communication strategies cannot be explained by existing wealth signaling models of fashion. In this paper, we offer a model of fashion that explains the above dichotomy. We model fashion as a social device that plays the dual role of allowing people to both fit in with their peers and differentiate themselves by signaling their good taste or access to information. In this context, we show that a fashion firm faces an interesting dilemma—if it restricts information, then only sophisticated consumers buy its products and use them to signal their taste. Cloaking thus preserves the signaling value of its products but reduces the number of social interactions enabled by them. In contrast, flaunting undermines the signaling value of its products but increases the interactions enabled by them. Given these trade-offs, we derive the conditions under which cloaking occurs. We also show that, in equilibrium, the most tasteful product endogenously emerges as the fashion hit or “it” product.

On First Ladies and Passing at the Equator: Madame Sarkozy, Madame Michelle, Maman Chantal

On First Ladies and Passing at the Equator:Madame Sarkozy, Madame Michelle, Maman Chantal Marie Lathers (bio) "Bonjour!" The young man smiled full in my face as I moved toward the water. "Bonjour." I vaguely grinned back, sunspots bouncing off my retina. I waved to my daughter, Linden, who romped in the waves with Elvis and Geraldine, our Anglophone driver and cook who formed part of our Cameroonian family. A literature professor in the United States, I was on a Fulbright grant to teach in the French-speaking part of the country. It was October 2008, and we were on vacation at Seme Beach, in the South-West Province, Mile Eleven from the town of Limbe and mere hours from the equator. He paused; I wondered why. Was he one of the local men who frequented the hotel in search of middle-aged white women to wine, dine, and hand the check to? I had seen a few such couples, and I had seen their mirror images: young, beautiful black women with old white men clinging to them. In the hotel restaurant Geraldine had recognized one of her high school friends hanging onto a large white man: "Look what has become of her, Mum. She was always thinking she was special—but now she is not special at all." I scolded myself for being suspicious of his motive for greeting me, in a country where greetings were routine and where in one month men had treated me with more respect than I garnered in the United States over the course of a year. But he followed up with something that startled me. "Vous n'êtes pas Madame Sarkozy?" I hesitated and then giggled like a girl. "Non." As I walked on, my feet kicked up bits of black sand that stuck to the backs of my calves—residue of Mount Cameroon, the active volcano nearby. From behind I looked like a Dalmatian. I squinted at Linden, Elvis, and Geraldine as Elvis called out, "Mum, Mum, come in!" That was me, Mum. Not Madame Sarkozy—Mum. I'd heard of hard of hearing, but was this man hard of seeing? [End Page 53] Admittedly, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and I were both white, but in all other respects I was hardly her separated-at-birth twin. Where could a person be blinded enough, sun in his eyes or not, to take me, fifty-ish Mum, for the French president's main squeeze, the former fashion model, direct from Italy to the Champs-Elysées? Where but in the wake of Mount Cameroon, where equatorial rays intense enough to make anyone's sight falter beat down twelve hours out of every twenty-four. As it turned out, my moment as Mme. Sarkozy was just one of several moments I experienced during our year in Africa that jarred me into pondering the notion of identity and the possibility of being mistaken for, of "passing" as, another. This vacation anecdote, along with my wide-eyed ten-year-old's insights and my students' comments in the African American women's literature course I taught at the University of Dschang, brought a complexity to my understanding of racial passing, which, until then, had been unnuanced. The novels included on my syllabus, by Toni Morrison, Nella Larsen, and others, provided narrative background and evidence for a reassessment, in part by suggesting that for women race and passing are entwined with gender and its markers, including age, clothing, and hair, as well as skin color. I also began to reconsider the ability of women to "pass" in light of my thoughts about the US presidential election, which took place while we lived in Cameroon. The election brought up the issue of first ladies, a category of women who are often made by the media and the public to pass as other than who they are. At Seme Beach Linden and I shared a room with Geraldine; Elvis bunked with our good friend Guy, who had helped us navigate through many surprises since our arrival six weeks previously in Yaoundé, the capital city. I was ready to teach, but faculty strikes had delayed the opening of universities. I had...

The Transformation of Japanese Street Fashion between 2006 and 2011

The emergence of Japanese street fashion in the 1990s in young girls has created a notion of generation identity and new fashion styles. Although Japanese street fashion was studied by scholars from multiple-disciplines, little research has been carried-out on its evolution overtime. This paper aims to examine its transition over a five year period from 2006 to 2011, and to explain the factors that led to these changes. In order to follow the transition of street fashion, survey questionnaires were distributed to a total of 1,094 female college students in Tokyo between 2006 and 2011. Further, fashion magazines were studied and surveyed to understand their evolution and the influence on their readers. The findings showed that economic recession in 2007, the fast fashion business, and the fashion models played a significant role in shifting the popularity of each style, and Casual style became the most popular style throughout the years of the study. In addition, fashion styles have merged and became difficult to differentiate by their appearances. Many fashion magazines also added Casual style to their publication. Finally, this paper suggests that teens created their own styles by combining several fashion elements, and as a result new styles such as Ageha and Mori girl were observed in the fashion scenario.

Fashion World – models and backstages

The ethics of encouraging young girls to aspire to unrealistic and idealized models of femininity exemplified by the 'fashion model' has been discussed both in academic and public debate. What is less known is how the beauty system moulds and affects the models themselves. Those models who appear as the epitome of glamour also have a shady side away from the limelight where different ethical dilemmas loom large. As a psychoanalyst, I know about the human cost paid by the very individuals who are commodified into objects of desire.

Aesthetic (dis)orders: Styling principles in fashion modelling

Building on previous research on the cultural history of models, this article explores a variety of ethical issues concerning modelling. The study of the social construction of beauty and models' social personas, as well as the codes underlying visual representation in fashion advertising, raises ethical issues concerning the promotion of extreme beauty ideals of perfection, the need to fit a very narrow range of definitions of these ideals, and the adverse effects on the models themselves. Based on qualitative data obtained from in-depth interviews with former fashion models and agents, as well as on some auto-ethnographical reflections, I address these ethical questions. More specifically, I examine how these expectations affect the way in which models experience their bodies, their ways of feeling, and how they critically reflect on their modelling career, body self-perception and the performance of beauty. By exploring the forms of symbolic violence that shape the experience of being a model, I highlight an aspect of ethical fashion that is frequently overlooked.

The Study of Female Fashion Model’s Basic Walking Posture

Perfect walking posture has been of enormous significance for fashion model. Models with good walking postures can convey the fashion design to the audience clearly and further attract them. This paper studied and analyzed the basic walking postures of famous female fashion models by methods of video and image analysis. Through analysis of measurements from videos and images, some basic principles of walking posture were acquired. At last, this paper fabricated a virtual model with a group of standard walking postures in a gait cycle by using 3D software.

Disciplining Corpulence

In this ethnographic study of plus-size fashion models in New York City, I build on previous research that has only examined the staged performance of fat and, instead, focus attention on the “backstage” aesthetic labor process. Using participant observations and interviews, I document an intensive aesthetic labor process, whereby these models continually developed their bodies according to the demands of their fashion employers. Their actions, as part of an aesthetic labor process involving affective, emotional, and physical labor, only served to reify normative imperatives involving female bodies. As aesthetic laborers subject to fashion’s gaze, they engaged in a range of bodily disciplines that relied on thin aesthetics. Consequently, their bodies became both subjects and objects, managed through self-surveillance and corporal discipline. I draw on these findings to highlight a nuanced aesthetic labor process that, rather than challenging discursive constructions of fatness to create a new “fat aesthetic,” reproduced normative imperatives involving female bodies that further perpetuated their sense of disembodiment.

Waif goodbye! Average-size female models promote positive body image and appeal to consumers

Despite consensus that exposure to media images of thin fashion models is associated with poor body image and disordered eating behaviours, few attempts have been made to enact change in the media. This study sought to investigate an effective alternative to current media imagery, by exploring the advertising effectiveness of average-size female fashion models, and their impact on the body image of both women and men. A sample of 171 women and 120 men were assigned to one of three advertisement conditions: no models, thin models and average-size models. Women and men rated average-size models as equally effective in advertisements as thin and no models. For women with average and high levels of internalisation of cultural beauty ideals, exposure to average-size female models was associated with a significantly more positive body image state in comparison to exposure to thin models and no models. For men reporting high levels of internalisation, exposure to average-size models was also associated with a more positive body image state in comparison to viewing thin models. These findings suggest that average-size female models can promote positive body image and appeal to consumers.

Management Insights

Management Insights

Intellectual property rights on creativity and heritage: the case of the fashion industry

Recently, as different projects aiming to define and reinforce property rights in the fashion industry have been elaborated and discussed, a lot of papers have been dedicated to the question of property rights in this industry. Our paper considers the problems from a specific point of view; it focuses on the relation between property rights and creativity. If property rights allow the allocation of the majority of standard industrial goods without any special difficulty, however, when they are applied to creative goods, new problems arise. Then, for us, the persistence of a low system of IPRs in the fashion industry does not mainly derive from its efficiency but from the characteristics of the inputs that are used in the creative production process. They constitute strong constraints for defining, entitling, legitimating, enforcing, valuating and exchanging property rights. Thus, the different economic actors develop different kinds of strategic behaviour in order to obtain earnings and can try to protect copyrights, trademarks, new assets, old assets (heritage), private or collective assets, and so on. The institutional characteristics of this specific industry—such as the models of management, the type of ownership, the size of the firms, … lead to different historical models of management through IPRs. Peculiarly, the financial groups that integrate fashion into the new luxury industries currently try to implement new IPRs and to move towards a stronger system of IPRs but the management model of the street fashion puts an obstacle to this project.

You can’t always get what you want: Unsustainable identity projects in the fashion system

This paper extends the literatures on both fashion systems and marketplace identity projects by investigating the identity trajectories experienced by women who strive for successful careers as fashion models. It argues that while end‐consumers in a symbolic field such as fashion may experience nearly limitless postmodern potential for identity play, those individuals who strive for positioning in the production systems of such fields have more limited scope for identity construction so long as they remain within the field. Unless they possess or can acquire significant symbolic and social capital, actors low in power within a field, such as aspiring fashion models, will typically face limited success in sustaining the identity they strive for. The analysis thus traces an arc from identity emergence to identity abandonment. It identifies two routes to identity re‐construction, both of which invoke cultural discourses of authenticity to cope with the abandonment of the identity project within the fashion system. The paper contributes to the marketing literature on fashion systems by focusing on how structured systems of social position matter to individual actors struggling to achieve a certain standing within a symbolic field. At the same time, it furthers our understanding of marketplace identity quests by shedding light on how market actors cope when confronting unsustainable identity projects.

Race and Advertising: Ethnocentrism or “Real” Differences in Physical Attractiveness? Indirect Evidence from China, Malaysia, and the United States

Implicit in the concept of ethnocentrism is the idea that people will consider members of their own race or ethnic group to be more attractive than members of other groups. If so, one would expect advertisers to take advantage of such preferences by choosing “local” models when promoting clothing fashions and other products. A contrary view is that judgments of physical attractiveness are to a substantial degree neurologically “hard-wired” and evolved similarly throughout the world. With the assumption that fashion models and manikins are considered highly attractive, the present study recorded the race of models and manikins publically displayed in city malls in China, Malaysia, and the United States. Caucasian (white, European) models were found to be mainly utilized in all three countries, especially in regard to clothing fashion displays. Even advertisements for cosmetics and fashion accessories were “Caucasian-biased” in China and Malaysia although less so than in the U.S. and less so than advertisements for clothing fashions. Findings call into question the relevance of ethnocentrism in determining the choice of fashion models used in advertising, and are instead consistent with other evidence of universal standards of physical beauty that advertisers rely on to help promote their products.

Effects of Photographs of Lower– and Higher–Body Mass Index Fashion Models on Body Dissatisfaction of Young Women

Social comparisons with the “ultra-slender ideal” female body types may be contributing to the rising incidence of eating disorders. Research regarding the effect of slender models in media on body dissatisfaction of women is contradictory. This study examined the effect of viewing recent, professional-quality photographs of either low– or high–body mass index (BMI) models on body dissatisfaction of young adult women (n = 415) of differing races, BMIs, and disordered eating risk. Viewing low-BMI fashion models’ photographs reduced body dissatisfaction among women overall, healthy weight women not at risk for eating disorders, and white women at risk for eating disorders. Viewing high-BMI models’ images reduced body dissatisfaction among women overall, especially among healthy weight white, black, and Asian women and healthy weight women in the upper-BMI median.

Composição corporal, gasto energético e ingestão alimentar em modelos brasileiras

The objective of this study was to compare body composition, resting metabolic rate (RMR) and food intake between adolescent fashion models and non-models. Thirty-three models and 33 non-models ranging in age from 15 to 18 years and matched for age and BMI participated in the study. Body composition was evaluated by plethysmography. RMR was determined using an indirect calorimetry method and food intake was evaluated based on three-day food records obtained on alternate days. No significant difference in mean body fat percentage was observed between groups (p>0.05). However, when the adolescents were classified according to body fat percentage, none of the models presented a body fat percentage lower than 15%, whereas 15.2% of the non-models presented a low body fat percentage (p<0.05). RMR values (kcal/day) were similar in models (1367.22) and non-models (1309.43) (p>0.05). Mean energy intake was 1480.93 ± 582.95 kcal in models and 1973.00 ± 557.63 kcal in non-models (p=0.001). In conclusion, most models presented a body composition within the limits considered to be normal for this phase of life. RMR was similar in the two groups. However, energy intake was lower among adolescent models compared to non-models.

Percepção da Autoimagem Corporal de Adolescentes Modelos: Dois Estudos de Caso

It is known that different factors affects the individual’s perception of body image. In the specific case of adolescents fashion models, it can be considered that their body are their main worry. In this context, the present study aims to investigate psychological aspects related to the perception of body image of adolescents who work as professional fashion models. It presents two case studies analyzed in a psychoanalytical perspective. Data were collected by the application of the test FID (Drawing of the Human Figure), Machover, and a semi-directed individual interview with two adolescents, 16 years old, that work in a fashion model’s agency in the ABC area, in Sao Paulo. Data analysis revealed conflicting feelings related to their bodies, as self-depreciation, insecurity and difficulties in social contact. It can also be observed a state of ego weakness and different strategies to deal with adolescent’s sexual conflicts.

From Haughty to Nice: How British Fashion Images Changed from the 1950s to the 1960s

Along with rock ‘n’ roll, fashion and its visual representations epitomize 1960s “Swinging London.” The 1950s look of aristocratic, haughty grandeur—where the models looked 30, even if they were 20—gave way to the demotic, nice, young look of the 1960s. The models ride, run, jump, and climb in the 1960s photographs, whereas the top British fashion photographer of the 1950s, John French, required a handful of static poses of his models. Yet, the idea of a radical break in the late 1960s is simplistic and unhelpful as a way of thinking about the history of fashion, photography, the media, and society in postwar Britain. Drawing on oral history interviews with fashion models, photographers, and editors, this article argues that the stars of the Swinging Sixties, such as Bailey, Shrimpton and Twiggy, were able to build on innovations from the late 1950s made by John French and Norman Parkinson, along with their models, and the “Young Idea” section of British Vogue. This article draws on research funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust, for Conekin's next book, Pretty Hard Work: A History of Fashion Modelling in PostWar London and Paris .

Radical Fashion and Radical Fashion Innovation

This is a study of the related concepts of radical fashion and radical fashion innovation. Radical fashions are defined here as those that may never enter the market at all, and exist primarily on runway shows, in exhibitions and in publicity; by contrast, radical fashion innovations may be very successful in the marketplace. Radical fashions represent a clear break from the old designs, as opposed to incremental fashions, which are defined as an extension or evolution of the old designs. Using this definition, radical fashion seems to be at odds with the definition of marketable fashion. Nevertheless, while most radical fashions do not enter the market at all and live only in runway shows, exhibitions, and museums, there are many examples of radical fashion innovations successful in the market. Accordingly, a series of questions rise: What is radical fashion? What is radical fashion innovation? What are the differences and similarities between these, and how are they connected? This study seeks to address these questions, using a foundation developed in the radical product innovation literature. Fashion innovations may be in terms form or function, or style, and can be radical (involving the breaking down of old ideas) or incremental (involving the evolution of new ideas from old ideas). We draw from the radical product innovation literature to build two related models. The first is a model of radical fashion and radical fashion innovation that illustrates the components of both concepts. The second is a model of radical fashion innovation diffusion, drawn from the general product innovation diffusion literature, which explores the evolution of and the connections between these two concepts from the beginning (i.e., the radical fashion) to the end (i.e., success in the mass market). Radical fashion may result in designs that are more suitable for the runway, catalogues, or even museum display, than for actual wear. Radical fashion has sometimes been called “new ideas before their marketing phase.” Radical fashion may successfully enter the market, however, and gain wide acceptance among consumers. The transition from radical fashion to radical fashion innovation is not too different from the transition from invention to innovation, which is familiar to researchers in product innovation. Notable in this transition process is the fact that, for many product innovations, what drives the first customers to purchase (the “Visionaries,” to use Moore’s terminology in his “crossing the chasm” model of innovation diffusion) may be very different from what drives the rest of the market (the “Pragmatists.”). If this “chasm” or divide between the two market segments is not recognized, the innovating firm may find that their product stalls during the diffusion process and never effectively reaches the mass market. In the case of fashion products, visionaries (such as celebrities and the fashion press) prime the market and create favorable word of mouth; yet, at the same time, less-radical, wearable designs may be seen on the runway, or may be manufactured for the mass market and sold through department stores, specialty clothing stores, or even discounters. The most successful worldwide designers instinctively know this, and can continuously produce radically innovative fashion which also usually transitions to the mass market successfully. They recognize the need to reach the visionaries successfully to generate sufficient publicity and word of mouth, and also to use product design, promotion, and distribution strategies, as well as appropriate price lining policies, to reach the mass market (the pragmatists) effectively. We conclude with generalized findings and managerial implications for firms in the fashion industry. We attempt to bring the radical innovation literature, and its understanding of the process of radical innovation diffusion in the marketplace, to the expanding discussion of fashion marketing success strategic development.

African and Caucasian body ideals in South Africa and the United States

African women are often thought to be protected from developing eating disorder pathology because they experience less cultural pressure to be thin. Yet, to our knowledge, no previous study has quantified the African body ideals portrayed by the media. We determined the African and Caucasian body ideals portrayed by the media in the United States (US) and South Africa (RSA), by calculating the average body mass index of male and female fashion models in the respective countries. The African female body ideal was significantly heavier than the Caucasian body ideal in the US, but significantly thinner than the Caucasian body ideal in RSA. The African male body ideal was significantly thinner than the Caucasian body ideal in both countries. Findings indicate that the body ideals portrayed by the media parallel the previously reported eating disorder pathology for both sexes, and in both countries.

Honorable Style in Dishonorable Times: American Gangsters of the 1920s and 1930s

You don't need to be ordering fancy duds, Frankie Rio advised his boss as a tailor took measurements of Capone's swollen physique at the Lexington Hotel. You're going to prison. Why don't you have a suit made with stripes on it? hell I am, Al shot back. I'm going back to Florida for a nice long rest, and I need some new clothes before I go. In this irrationally jaunty mood, he ordered two new lightweight suits and made plans for an extended stay at his Palm Island hacienda. (Bergreen 485) This excerpt from Laurence Bergreen's biography of Al Capone informs the reader of the gangster's criminality and potential jail time, but it also says much about the lifestyle of this infamous crook. Planning a tranquil retreat in Florida while being fitted for a made-to-measure suit in a highend hotel, Capone appeared to be a man who lived a life of wealth and leisure and who chose to flaunt his affluence through an expensive wardrobe. However, that he preferred clothing as a means to indicate his financial success was not an unusual practice among mobsters. Rather, stylish consumption defined the public enemy (Ruth 63), and the image of the Prohibition-era gangster, rising through the criminal ranks in his three-piece suit, fedora, tie, overcoat, and polished shoes, has become ingrained in the collective American conscious. These hip fashions not only reflected the mood of urban America in the 1920s and early 1930s but also expressed gangsters' anxieties and ambitions as they staked out their place in the country's newly formed metropolitan society. Similar to the flappers' short and unshapely dress, which signaled the newfound liberation of many women in the 1920s, the gangsters' fashions echoed the historical forces at play in the early twentieth century. Their attire spoke to the rampant growth of organized crime in major American cities during the Jazz Age. Much of this crime hinged on the passing of Prohibition in 1920, and many gangsters made good money from bootlegging and racketeering for over a decade, as Prohibition was not repealed until 1933. The gangsters' business-like garb reflected their aim to legitimize their status as businessmen, marked their rise from destitute pasts to wealth, and positioned them as a model of the new American ideal for the urban working class. At the same time, other elements of gangster dress, combined with the mobsters' extreme materialistic consumption and penchant for ostentation, unveiled their illicit activities and exposed them as imposters and corrupters of the American dream. Al Capone, who became one of the most notorious crime lords of the 1920s and 1930s, epitomized the Prohibition-era gangster figure. Typically dressed in pinstripe suits, fedoras, and fancy neckties, he served as a model of underworld fashion. Like Capone, many well known criminals of the time wore sharp suits, hats, and accessories. Other signature items of gangster fashion included overcoats, spectator shoes, watch fobs, and jewelry. The multitude of photographs and historical documents that depict gangsters sporting these styles supports the notion that fashionable, yet flashy, business-like apparel served as typical gangster garb. While these sartorial elements portrayed gangsters as formally, though sometimes ostentatiously, dressed, gangsters' style carries greater significance when examined within its historical context. The 1920s witnessed a major shift in American urban life and culture. This era saw optimism and the possibility of a better American society transform into deflated hopes and disillusionment, and gangster attire simultaneously represented both ends of this spectrum. Widespread feelings of idealism had materialized before the turn of the century with the rapid industrialization and urbanization of America (Dumenil 16). Opinions on how to improve society varied, but citizens with optimistic attitudes were united in their general belief that society could and would progress (Goldberg 1). …

Feeling body dissatisfied after viewing thin-ideal pictures is mediated by self-activation

The present study sought to investigate the influence of self-activation on body and weight satisfaction in restrained and unrestrained eaters, after exposure to thin-ideal images. Restrained eaters ( n = 39) and unrestrained eaters ( n = 40) were randomly assigned to a self-activation manipulation versus a control manipulation. After the manipulation, all participants were exposed to eight thin-ideal images. Measures of state body and weight satisfaction and of social comparison tendencies were assessed throughout the experiment. Self-activated restrained eaters showed a significant decrease in body and weight satisfaction after exposure to thin-ideal images, compared to restrained eaters who were not self-activated. In unrestrained eaters, the self-activation manipulation did not have any effect on body or weight dissatisfaction. In conclusion, exposure to fashion models only had a negative influence on women's self-evaluations when two conditions were met: (1) the participant was ‘self-activated’ and (2) the participant classified as a restrained eater.