Beauty On The Runway
I recently watched a TikTok video highlighting the societal flaw in glorifying and reinforcing dangerous modern-day beauty standards. It did this by portraying how we react when there's an underweight model on the runway as opposed to an underweight dog. The text that overlayed malnourished dogs asked questions such as 'Would you clap if this dog walked out on a runway?', 'Do you think this dog is fat?' and 'Could it stand to lose a few pounds?' This intelligent way of framing the sickness interlaced with society's beauty standards allowed me to understand with greater gravity than I ever have, just how cruel and devastating eating disorders are. After the video I saw, I am inspired to spread what education I've learnt, continuing the powerful message: Is there 'beauty' on the runway?
Sometimes it seems like the models that are the most successful and adored are the thinner ones.
I'm left to wonder if I will be more successful and adored if I'm thinner.
It's hard not to wonder that because the more visibly sick the young male and female models are, the more the audience oggles, cheers and applauds. They're beautiful, we're taught, their faces and their bodies. As the ones we perceive to be the most beautiful display haute couture, groups of individuals consistently sit back, observe and smile. But how accurate is this beauty story that's spun to us? If a dog with the same skeletal body were to parade the runway, the audience would undoubtedly rush to the stage, desperately concerned, pleading with or offering them food and help. It wouldn't be beautiful, it would be horrifying. So is what we commend really just a facade of something that beneath, is ugly, obscene and absurd? I think society has it wrong. I think we're fed a lie.
I think we've become so enthralled by the beauty that's taught to us that questions, such as 'What do I believe to be beautiful?' aren't even asked anymore.
But we need to ask questions now more than ever because it's becoming scarily apparent the effects these beauty standards are having on our society: Eating disorders, body image issues, mental illness and most troublingly, death. And whilst my singular opinion may be insignificant, it doesn't mean that in numbers, it can't be significant.
Two weeks ago, I had a beautiful day with my talented cousin. Since she majors in art and I have a passion for fashion, she invited me to the Iris Van Herpen exhibition at the QAGOMA. The art was exceptional and though we were in awe, later when I watched that video, I noticed how every one of her delicate, creative haute coutures were shown on mannequins that bestowed society's ideal 'beautiful' body. I don't believe the fault lies at the hands of Van Herpen herself but rather it was her abiding by a faulty (in my eyes) pattern that has repeated throughout fashion history for decades.
Would we have been in awe if her designs were portrayed on bigger mannequins?
Would her work be as successful if exercised on medium-sized mannequins?
Would I believe her talent to be 'exceptional' if the models on the runway weren't thin?
I honestly don't know the answer to these questions and I believe my answer lies within that truth itself: We're never granted the opportunity to appreciate or not appreciate artwork shown on an array of different-sized mannequins and models because art galleries and runways rarely, if ever, portray fashion designers' works on anything beyond a very narrow spectrum of sizes.
I want to dream of a world more intelligent than the one we know, a world where malnourishment is marvelled at on one species and damned on another. I want to dream of a world where individuality is the form that art is expressed in. I want to dream of a world where one's perception of beauty is personal and not mainstream.
Kisses,
COS x
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