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Cover Story
The Copenhagen Post cphpost.dk
1 - 7 February 2013
Hate the game, not the player Part I: The problems with image
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Danish Fashion Institute
Ukrainian models Valeria Lukyanova and Olga Oleynik have become Internet sensations after cosmetically enhancing their looks to mimic the blonde-haired Barbie Doll Model Alliance / Fashion Law Institute
Eva Kruse, CEO of the Danish Fashion Institute: Fashion is “a dream world”
Pop star Marina Diamandis: “The more driven we become to achieve that ideal view of beauty, the uglier we start to feel” East2west news
ashion is the stuff of dreams. It promises glamour, beauty and adventure. Like a desert mirage, fashion promises to fulfil the desire for stylish uniqueness, but more frequently it leaves consumers thirsting for a self-image that is unhealthy and largely unattainable. This merchandising of illusion is a problem that Eva Kruse, the head of the Danish Fashion Institute, and its subsidiary Copenhagen Fashion Week, is particularly aware of. “Almost every woman I know is constantly on a diet of some form or battling her weight,” Kruse told The Copenhagen Post. “The fashion industry plays a role in how women see themselves, and we need to show people that it’s okay to have curves.” However, glamour and dreams – not curves – sell copy. With tabloids and fashion magazines consistently promoting images of slim celebrities and diet routines, it seems that any attempt to change industry practice in this regard faces an uphill battle. “It takes time and teamwork,” Susan Scafidi, the co-founder of Model Alliance, an NGO designed to help protect models, said. “And that’s why we, as an organisation, have chosen to work and try to help develop our own fashion agencies, rather than aggressively point the finger at others.” But it’s not just models affected by the obsession with youth and beauty. It pervades the entire entertainment industry. Singer-songwriter Marina Diamandis, who performs as Marina and the Diamonds, was told by her label, Warner Records, that the company had delayed the released of her video because she was “too ugly” in it. “My ex-manager told me the video needed more ‘beauty work’,” Diamandis, who is half Greek and half Welsh, told The Copenhagen Post. “My skin tone wasn’t right, for example. And I mustn’t have shaved my armpits that morning, I guess.” “The industry wants you to look a certain way, and that in turn has pushed the standards of beauty to an extraordi-
narily high level,” she continued. “You have to be perfect. Like a doll.” Diamandis, who herself sported dyed blonde hair for several years, says that she is strongly against the notion of “botoxing” her own appearance to please the industry. However, she admits that the battle is a compromising one. “The whole blonde look didn’t come out of nowhere,” the 27-year-old singer admitted. “I knew it would make me more palatable and open me up to a larger audience. And it did. Sadly.” This superficial obsession is nothing new to Scafidi. “Being thin and beautiful has become a real sign of wealth,” Scafidi explained. “If you look good, it indicates that you have the money to put effort into your appearance. And that’s why people strive to emulate models and celebrities.” However, Kruse says it is not productive to scapegoat models and entertainers as the guilty culprits for society’s unhealthy obsession with image. Hate the game. Not the player. That is the increasingly emphatic message from fashion insiders. However, is it enough to simply point the finger whilst simultaneously feeding the media machine? “Getting people to join our cause has been very difficult,” Scafidi explained. “Models are expected to be seen and not heard, and we see our job at Model Alliance as giving those professionals a voice in the industry.” Diamandis, on the other hand, does have a voice and has used her career as a platform to question the notions of image in modern media. And while songs like ‘Primadonna’ and ‘Teen Idle’ are critical statements of the industry, the fact that Diamandis still allowed Warner Records to “botox” her video is proof that the war is far from over. “The irony is that the more driven we become to achieve that ideal view of beauty, the uglier we start to feel,” she said. “But I don’t think about that anymore. I’ve grown up.” The question remains whether society will grow out of it, too.
Warner Music
Bjarke Smith-Meyer
Susan Scafidi (black skirt) co-founded Model Alliance to fight for better treatment for women in the fashion industry
Jessica Hanley Part II: Goals and expectations
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he injustices of the fashion industry don’t just affect the professionals, they impact the lives of everyday women. While many in the industry are speaking out that something must be done, tackling the obstacles and finding an all-encompassing solution to the myriad of problems is proving difficult. According to Eva Kruse, the head of the Danish Fashion Institute, that solution starts with changing our standards – both the ones society assigns to the female image and the literal standards that govern the industry. It’s an effort that, for Kruse and Copenhagen Fashion Week, begins with a charter of concrete rules that govern how Danish agencies treat models. The rules range from age requirements for models to mandating that they be served sufficient meals on the job. But, Kruse says, regulations can only go so far – what’s more important is the fundamental message that the charter conveys. Treating models fairly, she suggested, should communicate the idea that they are worth more than just their looks. That’s why she always makes sure to have nutritious food available at fashion shows and shoots. “The symbolic value of healthy food servings is about showing them that we care and that they are respected as humans,” Kruse said. Susan Scafidi, who has fought for better treatment for women in the fashion industry, agreed. Through her work with Model Alliance, she has fought to ensure that models receive fair treatment, such as breaks and meals at work, and that the models aren’t exploited or abused. The underlying idea, she said, is that if the industry put more work into empowering models, ideals might begin to change on their own. However, the efforts of Model Alliance have had mixed success. “It’s had some big successes,” Scafidi said. “Vogue
International, responsible for 16 publications, agreed to stop hiring models under the age of 16. Hopefully we can push that number up to 18.” The under-16 measure was violated within a year, however, but Scafidi largely attributes that to models lying about their age. According to Scafidi, good intentions can only go so far, and rules and conditions alone aren’t enough to change the industry. Scafidi says the bigger issue is society’s obsession with physical beauty, which places insurmountable pressures on women. “Obesity is rife within society, and that’s why we’re becoming all the more obsessed with being thin,” she said. “If we were famine thin, then being curvy would be the popular thing.” “No one player can change the system,” she continued. “That’s why we’ve chosen to work with agencies rather than simply hold banners and shout slogans. That might bring attention, but it’s short-lived. We’re in it for the long haul.” Likewise, Kruse hopes that Copenhagen Fashion Week’s charter will challenge the traditional notions of beauty. “We hope that the charter will promote more natural and healthy beauty ideals,” Kruse explained. “It’s important that young people don’t believe all the images they see in magazines to be real. It’s a dream world where all the available tricks have been used to make the perfect image.” While Kruse felt that Danish fashion is on its way to promoting a greater range of images, she agreed that the industry as a whole has a long way to go. “On the international catwalk, you sometimes see female models who almost look like boys, as well as more curvy women. We’d like to see that even further expressed and have more diversity in the looks,” she said. But Kruse also pointed out that hiring curvier models isn’t enough. Like Scafidi, she feels that the problem transcends the models themselves. The greatest challenge, she said, is for the fashion world to open the lines of communication about the reality of the ideals they promote. “What we aim to work on is to open the discussion about beauty and health and show people that the fashion world is an illusion,” she explained. At the end of the day, creating charters, enforcing rules and shouting slogans are all well and good, but a discussion of image is still imperative. Perhaps a lasting solution will only arise when society begins to address what underlies the diets, music videos and fashion magazines: the human image as a product for profit. If the public stopped watching the game, perhaps the players would be forced to rethink their approach.
Online this week Minority pays to support majority as employment plummets
Police Museum pulls victims’ exhibition after criticism
Danes work less than previously thought
The number of councils with a majority of residents in work has fallen drastically, according to a study by the municipal policy research group Kora. The study found that only three of Denmark’s 98 councils currently have a majority of employed residents. In 2009, 59 councils could boast that a ma-
Copenhagen’s Police Museum has closed their now-notorious exhibition of 12 murdered women after intense criticism from victims’ relatives and politicians. The museum set up the exhibition, entitled ‘Kvindedrab in memoriam’ (Murdered women, a memorial), without first asking permission from victims’ fami-
Danes are working about three hours less a week than previously thought, according to new, more precise calculations from Statistics Denmark. While it was previously thought that Danes worked about 37 hours each week – still less than most other EU coun-
jority of their residents were in work. According to Kurt Houlberg, Kora’s head of research, it is the rising number of senior citizens and unemployed residents that poses the biggest threat. “These are the greatest problems facing councils both in the short and, even more pressingly, long term,” he told DR News.
lies. The museum’s administrators say they deliberately chose not to inform the families in order to protect their own freedom of speech. But now the museum has decided to take down the exhibition, writing on its website that the hefty media debate has irreparably compromised the exhibition’s original intentions.
tries – the new numbers reduce the working week to just over 34 hours. “We have discovered that we have significantly overestimated the number of hours that Danes are working,” Sven Egmose, the head of Statistics Denmark, told Politiken newspaper.
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