Fashion’s Influence On the World

The article, “MFA Boston dissects the coded language of gender-bending fashion,” by
Danna Lorch, expresses how much of an impact fashion has on one to express themselves.
Throughout the article, Lorch discusses the advantages that fashion presents in the culture of
feminism and the LGBTQ community. Fashion being an incredible form of art, especially to
aesthetes, holds and sends a strong inspiring message to anyone who has the opportunity to
witness it. Museums are more proactive in including this form of art out in display. There are
plentiful types of styles within the fashion industry, and overall the evolution of it has been
extraordinary.
The credible author, Danna Lorch, writes an intriguing article on the effects fashion has
on our society. This credible author has a vast amount of knowledge on design, fashion, arts, and
more. In this case, her writing displays her knowledge on fashion, as she targets readers who are
a part of the LGBTQ community, the arts, and who have an interest in museums. She writes,
“Just inside, viewers are given a definition of gender-bending and wall texts offering a crash
course on relevant terms such as agender, gender queer and transsexual” (MFA Boston dissects
the coded language of gender-bending fashion). Lorch uses an informative and enlightening tone
to describe the fashion show in the Museum. She states, “The exhibition design succeeds in
making the show immersive but also risks trivializing its content, which thoroughly examines
how controversial clothing choices (such as 20th-century women daring to “cross dress” in pants
Bossio 2
and breaking the law at times to do so), have played out amid shifts in how Western society
regards gender and sexuality, patriarchy and power.” (Lorch). In this piece of writing Lorch aims
to share how the culture of fashion has evolved over the centuries, with this one in specific being
a huge change in the fashion industry. As stated in the text, “The image shows how, even in the
West, the idea of a dress as feminine is a new construct, and how clothing’s coded language
somersaults over time” (Lorch). When she says, “clothing’s coded language somersaults over
time,” Lorch expresses the all of a sudden “flip” of gender fashion. The genre of this piece of
work is in a newspaper called, The Art Newspaper. It includes multi-column layout, black text,
white background, headline and excerpts, categorization, and more. The medium of this genre is
an online newspaper. This paper was released on March 28th of 2019, which was during the
same time as Spring’s Fashion Season. Sometimes, high end fashion companies will host their
fashion shows in art institutions to make it more dramatic and memorable for their audience,
hence where this show took place. Throughout the article, Lorch mentions, “the brocaded pink
dress from the Spanish designer Alejandro Gómez Palomo’s 2017 collection that “turned heads”
when it was worn by a male model in heels and makeup,” (Lorch) and I couldn’t help but think
what perfect timing for this article to be released. Culturally, the expectations Lorch has when
one is reading the article is to educate the reader on the latest fashion trends as well as
normalizing the idea of gender-bending. This is known because she states, “The show’s mood
borders on self-congratulatory—implying that after much political struggle, women wearing
pantsuits, men wearing dresses or anyone wearing whatever feels right for them is increasingly
applauded both on the runway and the street,” (Lorch). Lorch writes this piece with the stance of
being one to acknowledge these grande changes within the fashion industry. “Still, for those who
don’t live in a bubble of privilege, the message may come across as more aspirational than
Bossio 3
realistic,” (Lorch) Whilst acknowledging the fact that not everyone has the opportunity to truly
be themselves, she understands these tough realities.
Another acceptable author known as, Kevin Almond writes an online academic journal
article report, “An analysis of the shoulder pad in female fashion,” about how a specific part of
the clothing’s fashion industry has evolved. This writer aims for his readers to be working or
interested in the feministic side of the fashion industry. He studies and examines the
embracement of the shoulder pad pertaining in western women’s fashion. Almond educated
himself on the anatomy of the shoulder including the differences between what the historical part
of what the shoulder meant to both men and women. “The square shoulders of the 1940s during
Second World War represented a hard, militarized look. Coats, jackets and dresses were
influenced by masculine styles and pads became larger, positioned at the top of the shoulder. In
the 1980s, shoulder pads were a major fashion statement and defined the term Power Dressing
(Entwistle 2000). This described the female drive to establish authority in a professional
environment traditionally dominated by men, conferring an aura of rank and prestige onto those
who wore them.” (An analysis of the shoulder pad in female fashion). He shares what shoulder
pads initially meant and who they were meant for in society during one the U.S.A’s most
patriotic time periods. Directly following with, the evolution of fashion’s feminism by the
change of what these shoulder pads started to represent in the later 1900s. This helped with
encouragement for women in terms of rightful and equally so being to hold power professionally
and later lawfully. Almond does a superb job at conveying his goal across to his audiences. “By
tracing a period in fashion history from the 1930s to the present, I aim to explore how the
shoulder pad has evolved in female fashion. I also consider how it has been appropriated as an
armature of female authority…“Male and female shoulders have evolved differently. Throughout
Bossio 4
history the male shoulder has been exaggerated and extended in military clothing and
fashionable attire…’Men’s shoulders are a cultural signifier of resilience and perseverance; broad
shoulders indicate an ability to carry emotional and psychological, as well as simply physical,
burdens’…In female fashion, the square shoulder of the late 1930s emerged at a time of political
upheaval, when women began to adopt more traditional masculine roles, and this was reflected in
their appropriation of the masculine shoulder line” (Almond) He voices his thoughts on the
progress of the meaning for shoulder pads with an eager, fierce, and informative sense of tone,
which definitely helps with the contributing of Almond’s attitude towards this topic.
The next article, “Whole body shapes and fit problems among overweight and obese men
in the United States,” by Eonyou Shin (Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource
Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA) and
Elahe Saeidi (Adidas North America, Portland, Oregon, USA), speaks of how the fashion
industry hasn’t expanded enough to being open about body shape sizing. The authors clearly
direct this research paper to fashion companies, as the purpose of their study was to find out what
the sizing issues are in the ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) according to the
problems that most overweight or obese people have within the fashion industry. “The purpose
of this study was to explore body shapes among overweight and obese men and examine fit
issues based on the current ASTM sizing standards related to the categorized body shapes.” Shin
and Saeidi stand for the people with different body types and obesity/overweight rather than
agreeing the sizes of what a “standard body type” size would provide. These authors share a
sympathetic and diverging tone. “Despite the notable increase in the US population that is obese,
apparel companies have tended to use a limited sizing system developed from a standardized
body shape…Because the current apparel industry provides a satisfactory sizing system for
Bossio 5
particular body shapes (Song and Ashdown, 2013), those with other shapes have experienced
issues of ill-fitting attire.” (Shin and Saeidi) Most fashion companies make their clothes sizes
based off of body shapes that are not supportive of some body shapes corresponding with people
who are “plus-size.” This goes to show the attitude and the perspectives that Shin and Saeidi
have in the research of what sizes matter in the fashion industry. They even provide a possible
solution to the problems of clothing sizes. “To reduce the fit problems, better designs for
plus-size consumers require understanding their body shape (Buttnet et al., 2019). Song and
Ashdown (2013) found that fit issues related to body shape. The problems of clothing fit among
overweight and obese male consumers in the United States provide a starting point to explore
how their body shapes look and what fit issues they have experienced based on the current sizing
system.” (Shin and Saeidi) What size you fit into is evidently very important within fashion, and
the fact that most fashion companies don’t offer different sizes that can fit all body types is
insulting. This is something that the fashion industry can work on as the authors of this article
have made it very clear.
In conclusion, all of these articles discuss what problems the fashion industry has faced
or still faces, and how fashion is such a beautiful way of art. Fashion and the industry has a grand
impact on how we go on in our day to day lives as it can be seen everywhere. This form of art
goes into allowing one to express or find themselves. These writers incorporate advantages as
well as disadvantages that have been faced. It’s critical that we acknowledge fashion as a style of
art, especially being that it can be seen in places such as museums for inspiration, historical
context, confidence, and proactivity for us all. Overall the evolution of fashion has been
exceptional, due to how it has changed lives and the life of feminism

This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.