victoria from 5 to 7 | fashion, film, lit, more

With the passing of recent fashion weeks, there's been a definitive upsurge in nudity on the runways and, with it, an increased volume of news sources "writing" about fashion as though they have a clue what fashion is . These articles, however, do clarify how the function of fashion as a genuine artform is obscured from us and converted into a pornographic display of bodies (as fashion's function is to present the female body in an attractive light to a male audience).  For example, the New York Daily News, writing on 'The naked runway: the most outrageous non-clothing fashion designs' , wins the medal for most thinly veiled excuse to exhibit pictures of half-naked runway models in history. In an attempt to make this "newsworthy", one of the captions, in absolute shock and horror, explains that 'at Lingerie London, racy designs ruled the catwalk'. At Lingerie London  models wore lingerie. Sexy lingerie. Who'd have thought.  For a...

Though the industry has been trending towards diversity and inclusivity of late, fashion has a bad habit of taking these steps for superficial reasons. Every time a fashion brand steps away from slim white models towards literally anyone else, media coverage erupts with excitement and creates an excellent chunk of free advertising for the company. No doubt, moving away from the rigid templates we expect from fashion (both high and high street) is always a welcome and positive change, how can fashion brands incorporate diversity into their selection of models without descending into tokenism? And how can brands incorporate activism in a way that isn't simply about making money? To briefly summarise: it's great when brands do nice things, but it sucks when they do these things for money rather than for the customer's experience or wellbeing and social change.  The great example of how to incorporate these steps towards body positivity and social change without them c...