How Gen-Z called out the lack of diversity and representation in the Fashion Industry

I want to say well done.

Well done to you, and well done to the Instagram user on the left to you, the Twitter user on the right, the Snap-chatter at the back, because although it may not seem apparent now, or substantial a few years prior; we all had a pivotal contribution, in the reconstruction of the fashion industry today. 

Haven’t you noticed that we’re their target market now? That they’ve begun to make clothing brands, which are designed for ‘us by us’,  (insert ASOS Collusion and Topshop iT). In campaigns, it’s youths and young adults, who mostly look like me and you – now. (Emphasis on the mostly). It certainly wasn’t that way before. 

That’s because we’re the first social media generation. We came of age at the documentation of everything in digital form. We had to teach our parents how to utilise Facebook, and divulged to our friends our emotions and opinions, through statuses and words. With that reformation came resilience, and a refusal to keep quiet about anything fundamental to us. We observed our peers unveil their proudest insecurities on Instagram, and make known their sexuality on YouTube. We’ve been steering the world via our online portraits, and the fashion industry has just now begun to realise. Projecting on a screen relentlessly, everything that must change, everything that’s unacceptable, everything that’s doesn’t include ‘him’, or ‘her’ or ‘they’, in an equal representation of body sizes, pigmentation and shades. We posted selfies of ourselves despite not having a models figure, in garments and styles considered unorthodox, and refused to conform to society standards by wearing makeup and wigs, even if we don’t identify as a woman. 

As youths and young people, we consciously and subconsciously helped push, the metamorphosis they are making in the industry because we declared to the fashion world, who we truly are, and what we actually believe in; and if they didn’t too than they wouldn’t have a demographic to vend to. I think we should all acknowledge the evolution, we helped make happen within Fashion. We refused to change, so they were forced to adapt.