The Five Distinct Levels of Fashion and Manufacturing Process

The fashion industry is a kind of industry that serves to meet the demands for apparel among the trends and fashion oriented people. The fashion industry also determines and dictates the generation about what should be worn and what should not, to look exceptional among all. The current development in the fashion thirst among people has given rise to the five distinct levels of fashion (Alyson, p-250).  These levels include the haute couture, affordable luxury wears, luxury wears, discount clothing and mainstream clothing. The entire process of manufacturing the apparel product and handing it over to the person who purchases it, is divided into four basic sectors.

 The process starts from collecting necessary goods for the production of the apparel, creating the apparel, advertising and marketing of the apparel product and ultimately the selling of the goods. It is well known that the industry solely began in Paris holding the hands of single garments and turned gradually towards building boutiques aimed at catering to the tastes and desires of couture clothing. This type of apparels was mainly made by the famous dressmaker Charles Frederick Worth (Brewer, Gayle and Hunt p-34-40). The luxury wear and also the affordable luxury wears were developed from the haute couture clothing but could not match the standard of the uniqueness that couture clothing held. The mainstream clothing was comparably less marketed because it is a kind of ready-made casual garments also low in expenses. However, the discount clothing is the most popular and low price ranged clothing. Whatever be the quality, the low price definitely drives the purchasers towards buying these kinds of clothes.

It is well known that most of the fashions are made from textiles. In the 18^th century one of the most important accomplishments was the spinning and weaving of cotton, wool and other natural fibres. The 20^th century was the era of highly automated and computer controlled machinery. It has also been found that there is abundant use of natural fibres as well as the synthetic fibres to make beautiful clothes.  Recently a new term has become so popular, that is ‘sustainable fashion’.  It has raised the use of eco-friendly fibres such as hemp. No wonder, it is a huge industry because every member of the society especially the middle class to upper class people are highly concerned about the fashion trends of the contemporary world and acquire theme as soon as possible. It is true that appearing fashionable and trendy is essential for the formation of an attractive personality, but it is also equally important to know that the fashion world has so many negative impacts both on the body and mind of an individual.

 Being a huge industry, the fashion industry has undoubtedly increased the employment within the country. It is also helpful for a country to generate revenues by increasing the sales of the fashion apparels.  The country can earn huge profits by the help of exporting the products to other countries and making the products globally popular. Among the other indirect benefits, it is helpful in raising the profile of the country regarding creativity and can gain competitive advantage over the competitors (Gardetti, Angel and Torres). It is supportive of further foreign investment in a country when the country becomes familiar for its fashion industry. Fashion has been considered as a universal language known worldwide. It is well understood that when a fashion interested person meets another fashion interested person, there is an immediate bond established between those persons based on the common interest.  It helps the world to assert a sense of beauty and aesthetics. It is a means of personal discussion and highly valued as the highest form of art.  One of the best positive part of being fashionable is it builds the self-confidence.

Sustainable Fashion and Its Growing Importance

It is not that the fashion industry only brings advantages to the country as well as to the individual personality, there are so many disadvantages too, which are considered as the ‘problems’ of the industry.  First of all, it costs huge money to be fashionable. In the struggle to maintain the standard in the society, people gradually increase their cost of living since it is the most accepted view that their outer appearance plays a major role in determining the financial stats the person holds. It is also not unlikely that people get judged more based on what brand they choose or which style they incorporate.  The amount of being criticized as well as envied also gets increased. The fashion advertisings sometimes overwhelm people and divert their focus with endless marketing messages.

In the current society, the body image especially the body shape of people, and eating disorders are intricately interrelated.  It is often mis-constructed in the fashion industry. In the fashion industry the pressure of eating disorder is extremely prevalent because most of the models are forced to stay slim so that they match the beauty of the outfits they will be clad on.  The reality of the fashion industry is unexpectedly rough and perilous.  It has been found from a latest survey that, 62% off models out of 100% lose weight due to look as an ideal model.  According to the standards of the World Health Organizations, those models are considered underweight. More than 43 % of those models revealed that they won’t be employed if they do not maintain the slim figure. 215 of them were literally threatened that they would no longer be represented as the brand ambassador if they do not lose weight.

 One of the major contributor of such tendencies is television. Surveys have found that 80% of the American get highly influenced by the commercials, music, videos, movies who keep on portraying men and women under a specific light (Janssen, Denise and Paas). This is the main reason of growing low esteem or low confidence.  A perfect woman is always idealized in a way who fits in any size dress, with long hair and clear glamorous skin.  On the other hand, an ideal man is always portrayed as having strong muscles, perfect height. The low esteem generated by watching such visual works results in a sheer eating disorder, especially in those people who are born with a developing body structure genetically.  It is a wrong concept that the eating disorder affects only women. The truth is men are also equally affected by it. This eating disorder ends in diseases such as anorexia, bulmia and binge disorder.  The younger generation is the most influenced by such vague trend of staying slim and trim. The impact on them is so much that almost 35-57% of the adolescent girls start consuming diet pills, run through crash dieting, excessive fasting and tend towards self-induced vomiting.

 In this regard, the issue of getting g affected by Anorexia has to be discussed. It is a major result of endless proportion of eating disorder due to body shaming.  It has come up as a matter of concern within the society. The media and also the western society has elaborated the fact that thin people are the most accepted in society because they look the most attractive. The society does not concern about what impact it will put on the current generation who are the most sensitive and vulnerable.  The society does not concern about their physical health or mental statement; it just imposes the idealized version of physical stature.

Positive Aspects of the Fashion Industry

However, the modern world is changing. It is heading towards knowing and understanding the after effects of such idealization of the fashion industry.  It has been suggested that there is nothing wrong with having diet plan, staying cool and fit and looking beautiful. The problem is when people start taking it as a challenge and the physical health gets the most tortured on (Rodgers, Rachel et al. p- 284-292). Anorexia is a disease caused by eating disorder which is also known as Anorexia Nervosa.  It can be diagnosed at home because there is an excessive loss of body weight when someone is affected by this disease. Mental illness is also a part of Anorexia.

Bulmia, on the other hand is also caused by such eating disorders, often called bulmia nervosa.  It is far more dangerous than Anorexia so much that it is almost life threatening.  Those people who secretly binge or consume excessive amount of food gradually lose control over eating and exceed how much they should eat.  This extra consumption often leads them to purge.  This tendency is induced by the stress of releasing the extra calories in an unhealthy and unsystematic way (Zhang p-184-204). The fact is that; such disease is invited by judging own self harshly based on the physical structure as the society does ruthlessly. The most dangerous fact about bulmia is that, if it is continued for a long time, it can be hard to overcome.

However, it can be overcome by celebrating beauty in different forms. According to some expert fashion designers, who are doing amazingly coming from all different places, first of all the mentality has to be changed. Women have to be aware of promoting diversity among themselves. The propensity to imitate supermodels and look like them, leads them to destroy themselves one by one (Rudd, Nancy et al. p-30-38). Women, of all shape and size when learn to love their own body, own entity, their rights to live equally happy and free like others, starts resolving the issue. The fashion world is equally responsible for changing the perspective of the society. They have to become all embracing instead of giving chance to only the slim figured, skinny girls with white skin and ling hair they must promote the beauty of all. Every creation of the almighty is beautiful and the society have to modify its perspectives towards it.

 Recently, there are few fashion brands which have taken black models as their brand ambassador. These black women represent their company and their apparel products. Nowadays, one of the most effective platform is social media due to which such inherent issues are coming forth. The fashion industry has to use diverse models with their diversified beauty to voice the body shaming and related issues in an effective way.  The society have to learn to accept each member of it with all their beauties and forms. Those people then would not live under the fear of losing everything and fail in the journey of life and in the journey of making own identity. As per the view of some scholars, the models in the fashion industry are treated like machines. This is one of the darkest part of this industry. This industry, kind of regulates their body. They ask the models to lose weight or sometimes put on weight according to the dress. They regulate their eating habits, their likes and dislikes too, their whereabouts and many others. The models on the other hand are made to believe in the society that their skin color, age, appearance, size are the determinant of their career and identity (Elias, Sofia, and Gill p- 59-77). On a concluding note it can only be said that the sole problem of the fashion industry can be resolved by the industry itself.  The future generation has to receive a better view of life and women especially needs to know that their inner enlightenment can lit the world and not the outer physical appearance.

Date	Name of sources	Tool or Source Used (i.e., Library Catalog,  Expanded Academic ASAP, Environment Abstracts, etc.	Concepts or keywords, terms, phrases	Importance of the source	Citation
2015	Obesity bias and body image: How do fashion and retail students compare to other personal service majors?	Academic journal	Obesity , bias , body image	It provided authentic and detailed description of obesity and body image related to fashion world	Rudd, Nancy A., et al. “Obesity bias and body image: How do fashion and retail students compare to other personal service majors?.” International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 8.1 (2015): 30-38.
2017	Fashioning the feminine self in “prosumer capitalism”	Academic journal	Presumption , feminization of labor, social media , participatory culture	It is probably a rich source of information and the language of the author is easy to understand.	Zhang, Lin. “Fashioning the feminine self in “prosumer capitalism”: Women’s work and the transnational reselling of Western luxury online.” Journal of Consumer Culture 17.2 (2017): 184-204.
2018	Beauty surveillance: The digital self-monitoring cultures of neoliberalism.	Academic journal	Beauty, digital self-tracking, Foucault, gender, labour, neoliberalism, new media, postfeminism, subjectivity, surveillance	It is highly authentic and provides detailed view of beauty as a surveillance method.	Elias, Ana Sofia, and Rosalind Gill. “Beauty surveillance: The digital self-monitoring cultures of neoliberalism.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 21.1 (2018): 59-77.
2018	Haunted by Real Life: Art, Fashion, and the Hungering Body.	Academic article	Glamour, real picture of the fashion world.	It reveals the haunted truth of the fashion world.	Hoy, Alyson. “Haunted by Real Life: Art, Fashion, and the Hungering Body.” Canadian Curriculum Studies: A Métissage of Inspiration/Imagination/Interconnection (2018): 250.
2018	Exposure to the fashion industry: a design student perspective.	Academic journal	Body dissatisfaction , fashion , industry , student.	It is contributory of revealing what s body shaming and why it happens and affects the society.	Brewer, Gayle, and Carole Hunt. “Exposure to the fashion industry: a design student perspective.” International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 11.1 (2018): 34-40.
2017	Sustainability in fashion and textiles: values, design, production and consumption	Academic book	Fashion industry , value , textiles	It informs how to survive in the fashion industry	Gardetti, Miguel Angel, and Ana Laura Torres. Sustainability in fashion and textiles: values, design, production and consumption. Routledge, 2017.
2017	The thin ideal and the practice of fashion.	Academic journal	Fashion practices ,	It is highly authentic and provides detailed view of beauty as a surveillance method.	Volonté, Paolo. “The thin ideal and the practice of fashion.” Journal of Consumer Culture (2017): 1469540517717775.
2016	Social management capabilities of multinational buying firms and their emerging market suppliers: An exploratory study of the clothing industry.	Academic journal	Management capabilities ,clothing industry	It reveals the haunted truth of the fashion world	Huq, Fahian Anisul, Ilma Nur Chowdhury, and Robert D. Klassen. “Social management capabilities of multinational buying firms and their emerging market suppliers: An exploratory study of the clothing industry.” Journal of Operations Management 46 (2016): 19-37.
2017	Results of a strategic science study to inform policies targeting extreme thinness standards in the fashion industry.	Academic journal	Extreme thinness , standards of fashion industry	It provided authentic and detailed description of obesity and body image related to fashion world	Rodgers, Rachel F., et al. “Results of a strategic science study to inform policies targeting extreme thinness standards in the fashion industry.” International Journal of Eating Disorders50.3 (2017): 284-292.
2014	Moderately thin advertising models are optimal, most of the time: Moderating the quadratic effect of model body size on ad attitude by fashion leadership	Academic journal	Advertising models , model body size	It is probably a rich source of information and the language of the author is easy to understand	Janssen, Denise M., and Leonard J. Paas. “Moderately thin advertising models are optimal, most of the time: Moderating the quadratic effect of model body size on ad attitude by fashion leadership.” Marketing Letters 25.2 (2014): 167-177.

References

Brewer, Gayle, and Carole Hunt. “Exposure to the fashion industry: a design student perspective.” International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 11.1 (2018): 34-40.

Elias, Ana Sofia, and Rosalind Gill. “Beauty surveillance: The digital self-monitoring cultures of neoliberalism.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 21.1 (2018): 59-77.

Gardetti, Miguel Angel, and Ana Laura Torres. Sustainability in fashion and textiles: values, design, production and consumption. Routledge, 2017.

Hoy, Alyson. “Haunted by Real Life: Art, Fashion, and the Hungering Body.” Canadian Curriculum Studies: A Métissage of Inspiration/Imagination/Interconnection (2018): 250

Huq, Fahian Anisul, Ilma Nur Chowdhury, and Robert D. Klassen. “Social management capabilities of multinational buying firms and their emerging market suppliers: An exploratory study of the clothing industry.” Journal of Operations Management 46 (2016): 19-37.

Janssen, Denise M., and Leonard J. Paas. “Moderately thin advertising models are optimal, most of the time: Moderating the quadratic effect of model body size on ad attitude by fashion leadership.” Marketing Letters 25.2 (2014): 167-177.

Rodgers, Rachel F., et al. “Results of a strategic science study to inform policies targeting extreme thinness standards in the fashion industry.” International Journal of Eating Disorders50.3 (2017): 284-292.

Rudd, Nancy A., et al. “Obesity bias and body image: How do fashion and retail students compare to other personal service majors?.” International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education 8.1 (2015): 30-38.

Volonté, Paolo. “The thin ideal and the practice of fashion.” Journal of Consumer Culture (2017): 1469540517717775

Zhang, Lin. “Fashioning the feminine self in “prosumer capitalism”: Women’s work and the transnational reselling of Western luxury online.” Journal of Consumer Culture 17.2 (2017): 184-204.