Megan Stringfellow
Major Project
Reclaiming the Gaze — Redefining Female Bodies in Fashion Advertising
MAJOR PROJECT
My main project is the result of a thorough scholarly and personal inquiry into the connection between media, fashion, and female body image. During my Fine Art undergraduate studies, I started my investigation by using abstract painting to convey the intricacy, fragility, and beauty of women’s bodies outside conventional norms. In my artwork, I aimed to visually resist prevailing beauty standards by showcasing a wide variety of body sizes and shapes.
What is my major project?
I applied this topic to a new setting- the fashion industry- as I moved into my MA Fashion Innovation. My current work combines fashion and fine art to investigate how visual media and apparel shape young women’s perceptions of their bodies between the ages of 16 and 25. The pressures of cultural beauty standards, which are fuelled by fast fashion cycles, fashion advertising, and social media impact, are especially harmful to this group.
How have I done this?
Through my scholarly and practice-based research, I have examined the ways in which fast fashion reinforces irrational expectations. My dissertation “How Does Fast Fashion Influence Consumer Perceptions of Body Image?” examined theories such the Objectification Theory (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997), the Sociocultural Model (Cash & Smolak, 2011), and Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954). These frameworks made it easier for me to understand how young women’s psychological anguish, self-objectification, and body dissatisfaction can result from their continuous exposure to idealised bodies in advertising.
I gathered firsthand knowledge about women in this age group’s experiences with clothes, portrayal, and body image by conducting surveys and workshops with them concurrently. The results were in line with previous research, which suggests that sizing irregularities, influencer culture, and fast fashion marketing all lead to low self-esteem and a skewed impression of one’s appearance.
My project responds by challenging these standards using an interdisciplinary manner. I’m developing a conceptual fashion campaign that highlights bodies that are frequently left out of the media. The campaign consists of:
-Clothes printed with my own abstract body paintings on textiles, turning bodies into wearable works of art.
-Mixed media displays that question the visual language of fashion advertising include tapestries, risograph prints, and paintings.
-A short video that examines how one perceives and images oneself by juxtaposing carefully constructed internet personas with actual physical encounters.
-A scholarly statement that places my work in perspective and promotes reform in the fashion sector.
This endeavor is a reinvention as well as a critique. It provides a counterpoint to the homogenised beauty narratives propagated by fast fashion, with the goal of empowering women via meaningful self-representation, embodied storytelling, and visual diversity.
Reclaiming the Gaze is ultimately about redefining fashion as a place of inclusivity, honesty and individual strength while also upending the passive consumption of damaging notions.