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Women Protest Agesim in the Fashion Industry: 'Grow Up'
It wasn’t just animal rights that were being fought for on Friday morning at London Fashion Week. The inclusion of older women within the fashion industry also became a major talking point after as group of ladies over the age of 45 arrived carrying signs.
Organized by retailer JD Williams, the small group told the fashion industry to “grow up” while reminding everyone that “fashion has no age limit.”
The protest brought up some worrying facts surrounding the fashion world. The average age of a catwalk model is now 17 with older models hardly booking any jobs (if they do, it’s viewed as a gimmick).
“Women don’t suddenly stop wearing or buying clothes after their twenties so why isn’t this reflected in the models used in fashion shows?” 63-year-old Jilly Johnson, a former model, commented. “We’ve started to be more inclusive when it comes to ethnicities and disabilities on the runway – which is fantastic — but why not all ages?”
As well as fighting discrimination, the group aimed to challenge why a model’s workload decreases as they get older. Suzi Burns, the public relations manager for JD Williams who helped spearhead the event, spoke of the “generation of older women who feel ignored by the high street and underrepresented in TV and magazines.”
“As a retailer and an advertiser, we believe we owe our customers the honesty of showing them realistic but aspirational images of themselves,” she finished.
As always, fashion still has a long way to go when it comes to complete diversity. Hopefully, designers, casting directors and modeling agencies will begin to listen to the protests and demands of consumers and show a wider range of faces, bodies, races, and more.
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