Growing up, I was influenced by our world’s belief of how a woman should physically look; a long, skinny, toned woman. This female description has been told and portrayed everywhere in our society today. Unfortunately, this description influences the fashion industry to design female clothing mostly based on this description. Even models in runway shows and pictures of clothing represent this skinny “perfect” body figure that is almost impossible to have or maintain. This Barbie-like figure is a figure most women growing up are told to follow and use as a representation of how we should look like. What fashion companies might not take into consideration is how one size does not fit all. A great example of this would be Brandy Melville who sells all of their clothing in only one size.
Brandy Melville has impacted many teenage girls negatively in their body shape and obtaining the “perfect barbie look”. Even if some fit in these one sizes, it might not flatter them or make them feel comfortable. This is when a sense of insecurity develops and “perpetuates the feeling that midsized and large bodies aren’t supposed to be fashionable”(DeLallo, 1). Having tall skinny blonde models who starve themselves to look a certain way is not realistic and should be unauthorized. In the United States, the “average American woman wears between a size 16 and 18, but the “ideal woman” is only meant to comfortably fit within the constraints of a size zero”(1). I can’t even remember the last time I fit in a size zero. What companies like Brandy Melville need to understand is that a female’s “Genetics, diet, ethnicity and cultural norms all shape how our bodies look and grow”(1). Fashion companies, no matter if they are luxury or fast fashion, must have clothing that flatters all types of bodies and be shown through different body shapes.
The more companies promote this type of body image to fit into their clothing, the more disorders will be developed by women across the world. Disorders such as eating, associated, and anorexia nervosa have been developed by many women from these fashion companies’ negative impacts. Fatphobic ideals like skinny equals beauty are getting spread into society from these one-size clothing items and skinny models. According to an NYT article, “…young women weighing themselves and breathlessly calculating when they would lose enough weight to fit into the brand’s crop tops (Brandy Melville) and 24-inch jeans”(The MoCo Student, 1). This means females are willing to starve themselves or develop eating disorders just to be “skinny” enough to fit into this one size that is getting praised. How can such a known brand allow this kind of behavior by their influenced customers? This should be enough to show how unethical the company is towards body image.
Even living in the twentieth century, body shaming is one of the biggest criticisms in the fashion industry. This ethical issue needs to be fixed by the fashion industry before it becomes a norm for women to feel in competition with their own bodies from the day of their birth. Brands like Brandy Melville need to take a step back and evaluate their ethics. Re-evaluating their “one size fits all” can be an amazing first step in making the fashion industry a safer, friendly environment for all women today.
Sources
The MoCo Student. “Brandy Melville's One-Size-Fits-All Lacks Size Inclusivity.” The MoCo Student, 31 Jan. 2022, https://mocostudent.org/2022/01/brandy-melvilles-one-size-fits-all-lacks-size-inclusivity/.
Opinionsdesk, and Grace DeLallo. “Opinion: The Fashion Industry Hates Fat People and the Lower Class More than It Loves Money.” The Pitt News, 17 Sept. 2021, https://pittnews.com/article/167001/opinions/opinion-the-fashion-industry-hates-fat-people-and-the-lower-class-more-than-it-loves-money/.
This is a great post and honorable to mention. Establishing the thought in impressionable girls minds that they are too fit one size. It's crucial that as a society, we raise our young to accept changes within their body. As tough as society is already, the last thing they should worry about is if they're going to fit into the store everyone expects them too. As always, great post.
I agree with a lot of the sentiment that Madison expressed down below. I think that there's a sense of targeting that these clothing companies will aim for that are simply unattainable. Just based on having one size, Brandy Melville's sizing tactics not only push out certain body types but also even other races who may have naturally different body sizes. No one's body is the same, and having a system of one size fitting all completely ignores one of the most innate aspects of our personhood.
Places like Brandy Melville caters their clothing to the typical "preteen body" and I think that is a crucial reason for all these issues to arise. The preteen body is one that hits right before the bulk of puberty. It is typically thinner, leaner, and ultimately has a "skinnier" tone to it. HOWEVER, this changes exponentially after puberty fully hits a few months later. Therefore, by buying these clothes at such a niche period in young girls' lives/bodies, they are suddenly experiencing tremendous body image issues as their clothes they bought don't fit them anymore after a few months. The brand also maintains a certain employee stereotype with a strong social media presence of young teen models wearing their items.…