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A note to the fashion industry - diversity sells
by In a recent study, the results of which will be published in a few months, Canadian Ben Barry proves to fashion businesses that promoting a broader standard of beauty represents good news for their bottom line.
A PhD candidate at Judge Business School in Cambridge, England, Barry is researching international perceptions of beauty. He conducted a survey of 3,000 women in the UK, US and Canada using mock-ups of fashion advertisements and found that female fashion consumers are more likely to buy a product when it is modelled by someone who resembles them:
"The vast majority of women
significantly increase purchase intentions when they see a model that reflects
their age, size and race. If you speak to consumers on the street about my
research, nobody is surprised - consumers are light years ahead of the fashion
industry in that they want to see diversity." (The Guardian)
Barry is at the forefront of a shift in the
fashion industry, one which has designers questioning the glaring gap between
the size of the average runway model and that of the average consumer. He is
the founder of the groundbreaking HYPERLINK
"http://benbarry.com/" Ben Barry Agency, which represents modelling talent
that includes beauty of many shapes, sizes, ethnicities, and ages. In embracing a diverse clientele, the Ben Barry Agency has
enjoyed huge commercial success working with such brand giants as Armani, Coca-Cola, Nike, andL'Oreal. He is currently working with VAWK designer, Sunny Fong, a past
winner of the Project Runway Canada designer competition.
Barry brings hope to the fashion industry which has all but
refused to diversify the images in their campaigns in any meaningful way, even
with evidence that such campaigns promote eating disorders and self-loathing
among women. Mainstream fashion images remain largely out of reach for the
average woman (and even to the women in the images themselves, thanks to the
advent of Photoshop). Barry's research offers compelling evidence in support of
expanding fashion's beauty ideal as labels can no longer argue that broadening
the definition of beauty is bad for business.
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Comments (3)
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Tue Apr 19, 2011 - 10:06 pm
I completely agree. The fashion industry argues that we wouldn't like to see people who aren't beautiful modelling clothes because we are buying a dream, a lifestyle, a wish to be somebody thinner, somebody having more fun. But when I look at clothes, especially on-line, I always look for the reviews and try to find a review from somebody who has the same body shape and age as me. If they liked the item that gives me the confidence to try it too. I would love to see Levis show how their different jeans styles look on a pear shaped woman, an apple shaped woman, somebody big, somebody small, somebody with no bum etc. Maybe then I would dare to try on some Levis!Reply -
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Wed Apr 13, 2011 - 2:58 am
It's about time!!Reply -
1 reply, Last reply by Gigi (Ed.) on Wed Apr 13, 2011 at 5:32 pm
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