In the historical process and social context, the body has always had an important position, and especially after 1980, the body has become a subject of research. According to body form, social aspect and cultural content; It has been influenced by factors such as belief systems, politics, religion, economy, art, and fashion, and has been shaped in parallel with the norms and changes in daily life practices. With the developing society, individuals’ bodies have changed and adapted to the developing conditions. Many top fashion design colleges in Nashik offer futuristic programs that teach students the need for body positivity in the fashion world.
Although the ideal body form has changed and transformed according to periodic characteristics throughout the historical process, its ideal image has preserved its existence, and its meaning content has generally been based on values such as healthy, virtuous, goodness and beauty. The anti-ideal meanings attributed to the body include negative codes such as ugliness, disease and evil. At this point, the body, which has turned into an object of consumption, has caused a great economic cycle that feeds the sectors from different angles.
Preconceptions
The discourse of beauty is in constant change. While the overweight female body was once presented as beautiful through discourse, now the thin-looking female body is presented as beautiful. These discursive policies regarding the body impose on men that they must have a muscular and sporty body. With the changing and transformed perception of beauty, women and men are instilled with the idea that consuming constantly will only make them happy. In this way, the body, which was once a symbol of pain and sin, is now the object of pleasure and desire. Because in the consumer society, being desired has become a basic need.
There is a body construction here, because in the economic system based on property and profit, even the body is something to be consumed. The way to dominate the body is to ensure the circulation of discourses through mass media and to create uniform and constantly consuming bodies in the consumption-oriented world order. The Body Positivity Movement is one of the most debatable examples of making the body a field of resistance, with the aim of making visible all body types that are outside the ideal, opposing the perception of the ideal body, and making people accept and love their bodies. The Body Positivity Movement tries to save the body from the wheels of the consumer society by positioning the body outside the ideal boundaries.
Body positivity is related to the idea that not everyone has a size 0, as well as the value a person has outside of their shape and body. This is also not limited to individual learning what a healthy body is, and appearance is not the only important characteristic of an individual.
The Concept of Fashion and the Relationship between the Body
The female body has been shaped under the influence of a dualist view for centuries, and social structures and cultural norms have created a uniform standardised body perception by determining the adjectives and ideals that define the body through fashion. However, since the second half of the twentieth century, with the development of body consciousness, there has been a break in this perception and a change has occurred in the field of clothing fashion with the blending of masculine and feminine codes as a critical attitude. Although clothing fashion discourses exist on different levels and contexts, they are sometimes implicit and often explicit, primarily through the female body.
In the history of fashion, the female body has been evaluated as an aesthetic object and has been defined with certain body forms, accompanied by ideal beauty criteria specific to the periods. The fashion hierarchy has taken place within a system that presents ideas about what is beautiful and ideal, and these parameters presented by individuals regarding their appearance have been effective in shaping bodies. Emphasising the diversifying social roles of women, whose primary aim of fashion has been to ensure the continuity of consumption; It presented images that were beautiful, well-groomed, strong, successful, happy, socially accepted and associated with values such as belonging.
The body positivity movement has called for representing a variety of body types and different body sizes, rather than the single body type traditionally idealised by the fashion industry. Fashion brands are now adopting a more inclusive and representative approach by preferring mannequins and models with various body types and different body sizes. Brands such as Aerie, Madewell, Mango and ASOS have supported the body positivity movement by choosing models that reflect various body types and real bodies.
Conclusion
With body positivity and inclusivity increasing globally in most aspects of daily life, the fashion industry and marketing strategy is undergoing a tremendous shift in what is being noticed, seen and evaluated by consumers. Body positivity is something consumers have always wanted to see in fashion marketing, and what was recently an option available to brands has turned into market demand.
As of today, without body positivity and inclusivity in business strategy, consumers are turning away from businesses-brands whose values do not align with their own. In this case, it has become an important problem for the fashion industry, one of the largest industries in the world, and the most important issue affecting the chances of success in the market for businesses in the sector. In this context, the fashion industry as a whole has only recently begun to change its approach. Pursuing a B.Sc. in Fashion and Apparel Design can help you cater to the body positivity movement in the fashion industry.
For a long time, the industry has used mostly white, young, thin models to advertise clothing as well as brand ads on television and elsewhere. When it comes to fashion industry standards, sample clothing size is usually between 0 and 4 (US size), which does not correspond to the average body size. As Humann (2021) stated, when studies and statistics began to emerge showing how these factors negatively affect people, brands began to re-evaluate the current situation.