Jimevil2000
Active Member
I have an art degree and did a lot of freelance work over the years, including fashion design and consulting. What I’ve discovered is the majority of the weight bias in media and society comes from the fashion industry as a whole.
Through my own experience this is due to two reasons. First, it’s more difficult to force a shape into a large woman. These waifish models can wear padding or forms to basically fake a shape to fill out clothing or to make them drape/fall correctly. It’s much more labor and concept intensive for a designer to work with a certain body type or shape and make clothing to exemplify the wearer. So laziness is a factor.
Second, not to offend anyone’s sensibilities, but the majority of the fashion industry is run by gay men. While there are gay men that are FA’s, the majority prefer thin lean men. Hence the modeling industry adopting the androgynous model. They are designing for the body type they are attracted to.
I expect that as more women gain prominence in the field this will change. Slowly of course, because there is also pressure to conform to succeed. Hopefully we will begin to see more prominent designers make bold moves.
Through my own experience this is due to two reasons. First, it’s more difficult to force a shape into a large woman. These waifish models can wear padding or forms to basically fake a shape to fill out clothing or to make them drape/fall correctly. It’s much more labor and concept intensive for a designer to work with a certain body type or shape and make clothing to exemplify the wearer. So laziness is a factor.
Second, not to offend anyone’s sensibilities, but the majority of the fashion industry is run by gay men. While there are gay men that are FA’s, the majority prefer thin lean men. Hence the modeling industry adopting the androgynous model. They are designing for the body type they are attracted to.
I expect that as more women gain prominence in the field this will change. Slowly of course, because there is also pressure to conform to succeed. Hopefully we will begin to see more prominent designers make bold moves.
