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Let's talk representation

An archetype I'm dying to address in my fashion magazine is the way in which high school girl’s fashion is portrayed. In many forms of media, for a high school girl to be considered traditionally attractive and accepted in their school environment, they have to have a very girly and feminine sense of fashion. You know the drill: short dresses, even shorter skirts, lots of pink. The popular girls are always portrayed as wearing the same outdated wardrobes that are simply not what we are wearing today.


InStyle magazine dissected some of Cher's looks from Clueless and I couldn't help but wonder "who actually dresses like this?" In all my years of high school, I have never seen anyone come close to this look. I get that there is a generation gap, but c'mon! I want to make it my mission to display fashion looks that people my age can actually relate to. Is that too hard to ask? 

An example of this archetype is in the movie Clueless through the main character, Cher. Cher is the popular girl at school, and her wardrobe is composed of mainly short skirts and dresses. She is looked to as a fashion icon, yet she lacks versatility in her clothing, as she is rarely seen in anything that is not feminine in nature. Even when playing sports like tennis, she is still seen in a short skirt which prevents a tomboyish side of her from being portrayed. Furthermore, in Mean Girls, the plastics, or the most popular girls in the school, are all portrayed as girls in short skirts and tight shirts. Their signature wardrobe color scheme is pink, which even further emphasizes their femininity. 

 I don’t agree with this archetype because it puts female figures into a box when it comes to them expressing themselves. Instead of portraying a diversity of fashion styles, women’s fashion is boiled down to girly skirts and dresses, which is not an accurate portrayal of the varying levels of female fashion in high school. In actuality, a girl’s popularity is not based on how short her skirt in or how preppy she dresses. The archetype encourages the notion that to gain acceptance, girls must dress for the approval of men rather than for themselves. In high school, girls actually have a variety of different styles and excel socially even if they have a unique style.


Vanity Magazine did their own article where they took a look at classic Mean Girls looks.  As much as it pains me to say it, this cult classic is guilty of the same crime of putting female characters in this fashion box. They are especially guilty of the pink plague that I discussed earlier in the article. While the color has become somewhat of an icon for the film, when you really think about it, it forces this concept of feminity onto the audience that all female characters don't have to comply with. We like other colors too! In my magazine, I plan on not making pink a necessary for my female models. Maybe I'll experiment with non-traditional colors like black and grey to challenge these stereotypes. 

In my magazine, I will address certain aspects of this stereotype by portraying some of the models in traditional girly fashion. However, I will also include teenage models in more unconventional stylings like more urban wardrobes and less feminine pieces. This will hopefully show the diversity in teenage fashion when it comes to girls and shows that you don’t have to wear feminine clothes to look good.

Sources:
Staff, InStyle. “12 Of Cher's Clueless Outfits That Are Still on Trend.” InStyle.com, InStyle.com, 2018, www.instyle.com/fashion/chers-12-best-looks-clueless.

 Rao, and Priya Rao. “The 10 Best Fashion Moments from Mean Girls.” The Hive, Vanity Fair, 29 Apr. 2014, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2014/04/mean-girls-best-fashion.

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In another world. . .

  1. Okay so I know I'm producing a fashion magazine here, but let's just pretend for a second that I wasn't. In an alternate universe, I believe a cooking magazine is the way to go, not only because of my love of food, but also I love the art behind visually orchastrating food spreads. It's an art form, I swear.
    Cooking/food magazine
  2. The content is very food based. It contains recipes for how to cook often complex and creative meals. Since no one wants a whole magazine on basic recipes they already know how to make, the food must stand out from other sources. The recipes are straight to the point and detailed, complemented by vibrant pictures of the food that look appealing and visually attractive. Some issues may contain guide-like articles on kitchen tips and advice for hosting food-related events. The pictures must be enticing enough to make people want to make the recipe and the recipes must be clear enough so that even beginners can follow along.
  3. The magazine’s cover focuses on the most appealing or creative recipe within the magazine. The picture is usually shot from a high angle so the audience gets an accurate scale of the food that they are making. Close-ups of the chefs' hands are included when demonstrating the cooking process. The colors are saturated to draw the readers’ eyes in and the food is often perfectly situated to an unrealistic standard for the sake of aesthetic. The focus is not on celebrity personalities but on the array of different food so the layouts and spreads of the magazine are centered around the meals.
  4. This food magazine Bon Appetit is very visually based, with the intention to be aesthetically pleasing. The pictures on the cover and within the spread or minimalist and often taken against black or wooden backgrounds, which places focus on the food. The recipes contain a twist that separates them from other recipes from other cooking books, which intrigues readers into buying this magazine rather than a similar one. The spread uses artistic technique that emphasizes the visually appealing aspect of the spread like bright colors in the photographs of the food. The writing is noticeably shorter in comparison to the pictures of the food, with concise instructions that are easy to follow.
  5. In allrecipes, the magazine mixes recipes with more conversational cooking advice. The magazine’s photos are less artistic, but still appealing to the eyes with a  relatively simplistic mise-en-scene. This emphasizes the food rather than what’s around the food, and the high angle shots give an idea of the measurements of the recipe. The recipes in this magazine are more simplistic and capable of being recreated by the average beginner chef, whereas the other example is a bit more advanced. Also, the cover page of this magazine contains tags as to what to expect in the magazine, which aims to draw readers in.

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