Fashionable Women represents a diverse selection of women captured in their own living environment. The project aims to question and challenge the ideas of representation in fashion by documenting the style and fashion of these women in a creative and fashion conscious way.

From my own research, I believe that to the most part Elite or High Street Fashion designers do not influence women, there is a balance and that actually “everyday women” are the trend setters. So why are “everyday women” not represented in Elite and High Street Fashion?!

It seems fashion transcends the outfit and focuses indirectly on the life style of women, negatively influencing men and women alike. Some of the designers in the Elite Fashion industry gain inspiration from everyday clothing “style” and along with the perceptions of beauty, they create a perceived perfect world. It is not Fashion or clothing style that is misleading. It is who and how women are represented! The images try to restore some balance in the representation of women in fashion.

Quotes from the women captured:

”It also continues to perpetuate the myth that you need to be a certain size/shape to be a model/attractive, which can be damaging to people’s esteem if they take it seriously.”

“I think the industry tends towards influencing body size more than anything else. Most models you see are pretty thin.”

“fashion, whether you chose to follow it closely or not, is beautiful and I think its pretty close to being an art form itself.”

“I think a lot of women feel the pressure to diet and change their body size in order to fit with this fashion-influenced social norm.”

“I like to wear clothes I like, rather than what’s popular. I prefer to make my own clothes rather than buy them.”

“I don’t really understand the fashion industry, some of the clothes just look stupid and everyone wears the same thing they bought that make either a person or an animal suffer, and I’m glad to not be a part of the official designer industry”