Pandemic Trends: Should Fashion Magazines Continue Using Ordinary People as Models?
A fashion magazine is not just a magazine. For the longest time, fashion magazines represented the coveted lifestyle of luxury, beauty, and affluent style. All the while, high-end products, placed strategically next to gorgeous models and celebrities, sold the product designed to showcase what a luxury lifestyle can offer. But before the consumer flips through the magazine, it has to entice the reader with its glossy cover, representing life full of excess, a sort of illusion created to be desired and sought-after by readers, all the while promising lavish comfort and luxury. Sometimes, it might serve as a form of escapism to the readers, not only to know the latest trends dictated by the most elite fashion designers but a yearning to bask in the visually illustrated abundance.
But when tragedies and hardships shake the world, it can become difficult for this type of business to distinguish and navigate the delicate lines of being mindful, tactful, compassionate, and respectful when crises result in pain and extreme financial difficulties that are widespread across society. In 2020, when the pandemic began, it revealed how easily day-to-day life can get disrupted almost overnight, plunging many industries and people into the unknown. Suddenly, it became all too precarious for a business whose innate purpose was to project a lifestyle revolved around opulence and models clad in luxury goods to adhere to its traditional content parading these embellishments in the eyes of crisis-stricken people.
When 2020 was nearly halfway through, and when the concept of lockdowns was all too familiar, it had become increasingly challenging to navigate this new environment and yield a constant influx of readership. Especially when magazines and print had an ongoing struggle long before the pandemic, one can assume that for this type of industry to survive, whilst the priorities and views of the audience are ever-shifting, the industry needs to consider a change.
Because of the pandemic, employees from various sectors across the globe were finally officially classed as essential workers, even though I believe government officials should have deemed workers vital in those particular sectors long before this pandemic. From doctors, nurses, and hospital staff to grocery shop workers, public transport drivers and many more, it became apparent how vital these groups of people are for society to keep functioning, especially in times of crisis.
That was when we could observe a shift. The magazine covers looked different than usual. The reader could notice a face previously unfamiliar to the public, gracing the cover of one of the leading fashion magazines. A position that was once reserved for only models and the most elite celebrities. This time, there was no model or actress in sight.
One example is British Vogue (which altogether has had a significant shift since the new chief editor, Edward Enninful, took charge in 2017, and all the changes that followed could be discussed on their own in a separate article). The July 2020 issue cover of British Vogue came in three versions, all featuring key workers from different sectors.
The covers of the July issue featured Anisa Omar, a supermarket worker, Narguis Horsford, a train driver in London and Rachel Millar, a community midwife in east London. Inside the July issue was a 20-page portfolio featuring doctors, nurses, shopkeepers, postal workers, cleaners, epidemiologists, ambulance drivers, carers, teachers, volunteers from the fashion community and more, documenting the faces of individuals responsible for the betterment of everyone in these troubled times.
Another magazine that chose this approach was British Grazia, which presented four NHS workers on a four-split cover.
Other magazines have marked the pandemic and this collective hardship a bit differently compared to previous examples. For instance, the Vogue Italia April 2020 issue showcased a blank white background on its cover, whilst Vogue Portugal displayed two models kissing while wearing face masks.
This temporary shift could spark an idea of how this could start a welcomed change. Fashion and print media could aim to create this type of content more regularly as a way of showing fashion through a different lens, featuring real-life people and their stories, instead of relying only on fashion models and starlets.
Now someone might say: “This is a business, and the magazines need to profit, which is through advertisement!”
It should be noted that no one is suggesting that advertisement should be hindered in any way, only that it could sufficiently incorporate the advertised goods amongst “regular individuals unknown to the public” as opposed to just models and celebrities. Further, it could give way for this industry to adapt and take advantage of the trends of current times. It is hard to imagine how sales could drop if magazines sometimes chose to include ordinary individuals on their covers and in ads.
Most likely, the magazines could do quite well by sometimes incorporating individuals who are not necessarily famous.
A step like this would benefit the reader and the fashion industry, particularly when new trends and tendencies emerge rapidly. Also, maybe sales would increase if the individuals subjected to the advertisement could relate more to the model in the ad?
The ultimate goal of advertising is to convince people to buy the advertised goods.
Consumers seek familiarity in adverts directed at them, which has proven to be an extremely successful marketing strategy that some brands have incorporated, instead of forcefully bombarding consumers with heavily retouched, posed and unrealistically showcased models. Movements such as body positivity that include more realistic standards like no retouching, leaving stretch marks and cellulite visible, including inclusivity for all shapes and sizes, have gained momentum and proven to be successful. As a result, companies such as Aerie saw boosted sales, whilst their competitor, Victoria's Secret, experienced continuously falling profits.
There should be room for including people of an “average” background who, for instance, work regular jobs, jobs that are by no means nonessential. Perhaps many readers would enjoy this shift and might feel included and appreciated. Especially people who should be celebrated and remembered for their tremendous labour and benefit to society. Not just when a disaster strikes, but because they work in dangerous jobs akin to the foundations of our society that keep it standing. From a journalistic point of view, finding inspirational stories embedded in our public would prove that you do not need to be a celebrity or a glamorous model to be recognized.
Remarkably, this could serve as a reminder to younger generations, thinking of their future careers, that recognition could come to those who are not only models or celebrities and that workers providing essential labour are just as valued in this society.
Thus, demonstrating that day-to-day heroes can and should receive acknowledgement and recognition for the labour that keeps society running.
