“What is Identity”

Back in 2022, BLANK_ publication approached me to write an essay about Identity. As someone, who’s been passionate about diversity and inclusivity since starting my own brand, it was a simple “yes”. Throughout my years at University, I would always dig deeper within my projects to spread awareness and importance for diversity and inclusivity, and use my creativity and artistry to address issues such as lack of representation in the fashion industry and other. My final Uni project explored lack of red-haired models in the fashion industry, and this essay is a snap of my findings and results. Through this academic piece, I wished to address the loss of identity in the fashion industry, and truly empower and inspire individuals to embrace their uniqueness.

"What is Identity”

What is Identity and why is it so important? Identity can be defined as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2022). It is therefore what renders us unique in the world. As people become more connected with their authentic selves in a modern inclusive world, their need to feel unique and express themselves will continue to be an important issue.     

Identity is a part of personality; therefore, it can be translated into uniqueness. People can freely communicate their uniqueness in many ways, including an expression of sexuality, beliefs and image. Simply put, identity influences everything. Although, with the awareness of personal status, diversity and inclusivity have been one of the biggest issues in the Fashion Industry for decades (Newbold, 2020). The fashion industry is one of the biggest and most influential in the world, however, it's been selling one beauty standard; according to Omar (2020), the image of light eyes, fair skin and straight hair significantly influenced fashion brands’ content. This one “beauty standard” has left no room for diversity. Loss of identity in the fashion industry has negatively resulted in presenting younger generations with unrealistic beauty standards instead of encouraging uniqueness. Social media publishes beauty and body images, usually heavily edited, promoting unrealistic expectations that simply don’t exist, resulting in body dysmorphia in young people across the globe. Snyder and Fromkin(2012, p16) state that people tend to evaluate themselves by comparing with others, arguably creating toxic attitudes. The question is are, likes and the need to fit in more important than being authentic and proud of one’s unique self? 

Diversity's Blind Spot in Fashion.

Diversity in the fashion industry is underrepresented, including “normal” body types, hair colours, genders and skin colours. Red haired models for instance are scarcely seen in the fashion industry. Furthermore, society tends to historically believe in stereotypes. These do not portray people as individuals because they ignore the person and diversity. Red hair is associated with several stereotypes and is portrayed as less attractive; Clayson’s study (1986) showed that 92% of men and 87% of women with red hair reported being bullied because of hair colour. Less than 2% of the World’s population have red hair (Misachi, 2018). This rarity leads people to have aversive reaction to redheads, but why do we rarely see ginger-haired models in the fashion industry? Is the fashion industry to blame by selling unrealistic “beauty standard”, where redheads often don’t fit in due to being seen stereotypically not as aesthetically pleasing? To me, the rarity of red hair is the most intriguing, and should be celebrated. Stereotypes that still exist, may be suppressing freedom of expressing that authenticity.

Rejecting Stereotypes, Embracing Uniqueness.

The subject of identity and uniqueness is of personal interest; therefore, I’d like to break stereotypes and make a positive change, being a voice for those who feel rejected by unrealistic beauty standards. Uniqueness is individual so no one can measure it. At last, people should reject stereotypes, which create prejudice and negative experiences, and instead embrace differences, own them and be unique. 

References: 

Clayson, D and Maughan, C (1986). Redheads and Blonds: Stereotypic Images. [Psychological reports] Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/pr0.1986.59.2.811 (Accessed: 1st April 2022). 

Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2022) Identity. Available at: 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/identity (Accessed: 24th April 2022) 

Misachi, J. 2018. What percentage of the world population has red hair? Available at: https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-percentage-of-the-world-population-have-red-hair.html (Accessed: 5th April2022). 

Omar, S (2020) Is fashion finally addressing its diversity problem? Available at: https://www.raconteur.net/hr/diversity-inclusion/diversity-fashion/ (Accessed: 5th April2022) 

Snyder,C. R and Fromkin, H.L . 2012. Uniqueness. The human pursuit of difference. 3rd Edition, PLENUM PRESS. New York and London.