[Intro to Fashion Studies] Posting #4

      Learning Portfolio Post #4 (250 words total)

Post images of one object from the FIT exhibition “The Body: Fashion and Physique”. What does your object communicate about the relationship between fashion and the body? How does the designer’s investigation of the body relate to your own investigation of the body (through embodied dress practice or through design)? Include information from the lecture, website, and course readings to support your answer.

Made entirely out of rubber, the object that I chose from the exhibition “The Body: Fashion and Physique” is a girdle that made the body look slimmer and conceal the bulky fat from waist to hip. For the ideal shape of the body established in the 1930s when the object was designed, the girdle forced unnatural pressure to the body of women and adjusted the shape of it. The function of this body-reshaping innerwear was bragged with the catchphrase saying ‘Reduce your waist and hips 3 inches in 10 days, or it won’t cost you one penny’.

The concept of the ideal body shape has always existed within the history of human being. The Venus von Willendorf which is from around BC. 25000 shows the glamorous and excessively curvy body used to be the ideal shape, and the corsets from 16th to early 20th-century show how people were obsessed with the thin waist and curvy silhouette. Based on the shape of the body that is recognized as ideal shape throughout a certain period, people have been utilizing fashion and style to achieve that shape. The rubber girdle that was shown in the exhibition is one extreme example of it. Even more evolved from the previous fabric constructed corset that was tightened with ribbons, the rubber girdle is designed with a new material for the underwear in order to not only change the overall form of the body but also to conceal the smallest bump of fat which is an entirely natural thing to have. As a fashion item recommended to be used by the women in the period, the rubber girdle had a huge relationship with the ideal form of the body that was forced into individuals who could all have a different yet beautiful body.

As shown in the interview clip for the exhibition “The Body: Fashion and Physique”, the idea of acknowledging the authentic body in countless different shapes as beautiful is still in the beginning stage in the fashion industry. The fact that magazine covers with plus-size models are still considered as revolutionary to a majority of the people is one proof of it. As a prospective fashion designer by myself who acknowledge the problem of forcing a single ideal to any people who’s individuality should be respected, the rubber corset which would have been awfully uncomfortable and windtight shocked me the most from the objects in the exhibition and again reminded me of the importance of respecting the beauty of different bodies.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *