Image communication undergoes a U-turn in the fashion business. Branding is no longer perceived as some kind of magic wand able to make you thinner and sexier. Fashion models have stopped being role models, but rather women to be pitied for the harsh lifestyle they are subjected to. Women consumers increasingly want to see “real women with real curves” on the catwalk.

Advertising has long been accused of peddling ideals of beauty that are impossible to attain, with negative consequences on the self-satisfaction and self-esteem of young women, which can lead to eating disorders, in the worst of cases. Fashion, a potent driver in defining esthetic canons in contemporary society, has been pointed as the main culprit. Over the last months, the news have been full of references to the tragic deaths of two models due to anorexia. Organizers of fashion weeks the world round have reacted to the crisis by proposing ethical codes of self-regulation, setting limits on the models’ skinniness. Brands have in some cases reacted negatively. The preference for XS sizes has almost been institutionalized in the fashion business, cutting across stylists, casting directors, models’ agencies, and fashion photographers.

But how do female consumers see it? The most recent studies show that resorting to models who are either excessively beautiful or excessively thin, can engender a negative backlash in actually existing women, who, after all, are the ones determining the relative success of a fashion brand. When a woman looks at an ad featuring a chokingly beautiful model, two responses are possible. A possible reaction is narcissistic, with women aspiring to imitate the model’s beauty, and thereby responding positively to the brand. But another response is becoming increasingly apparent, which fashion brands would do well not to underestimate: the model’s beauty can be considered “fake”, “plastic-like”, “photoshopped”. And the model could get commiserated for the sacrifices she had to make to get there: “She never had fun in her life”, “She’s is constantly starving”, “She doesn’t have a real life”. The message thus gets deconstructed and the brand is negatively targeted: “They want you to believe that by wearing a pair of jeans you turn into a goddess”, “They just want to get rich by making us feel fat and ugly”. And time seems on the side of this increasingly negative view of thinness in fashion.

Some brands have realized this and are swimming against the industry’s tide, by featuring “real women with real curves” in their advertising campaigns, and thus promoting an ideal of beauty which is less invasive and less insulting to those who do not have perfect bodies. Fashion professionals would do well to heed this new approach and reflect upon the unintended effects of traditional fashion marketing. In today’s advertising, “real women” and “next-door girls” are winning role models, both from an ethical standpoint (feminists will be pleased) and a business point of view.


                                                                                                                 by Diego Rinallo,
                        Professor at CERMES, Bocconi’s research center on industries and markets