Now I am going to talk about something related to my previous post, the globalizing standard of beauty. Vogue, the fashion equivalent to the holy bible is an example which shows the globalizing standard of beauty. Vogue began as an American magazine, but now, there are different editions of Vogue published around the world including Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Korea, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Vogue is featured in many countries but the models do not appear only in their country’s edition of Vogue but also the other international versions! Vogue not only brings fashion together but also the many different standards of beauty together.
The covers of some international editions of VogueModeling itself has also become increasingly globalize. In the past the industry will only have a single token colored model in runway shows, editorials or its advertising campaigns but now it is breaking away from tokenism and more and more ethnic models are making it big! Out of the current group of ‘IT’ girls, a hand few of them are Asian, like Chinese Du Juan and Pei Bei; Koreans Hye Park, Han Hye Jin and Daul Kim; Japanese, An Watanabe; and Russian Eugena Manchieva. There has also been an increasing group of ethnically diverse models like Korean/African-American teen queen, Chanel Iman who was featured in the US Vogue May 2007 cover, The World’s Next Top Model which also featured clothes from Gap’s Designs Edition (as mentioned above) and the racially ambiguous Bruna Tenorio. Modeling allows one to see not only the beauty of one’s on culture but also introduces one to another standard of beauty.
Hye Park, Hye Jin and Du Juan at the SS07 Dolce and Gabbana fashion show.Your Cultural Expert, Nicholas!
Labels: Nicholas Chua - Culture Expert
