When searching for a diverse consumer to base the project around I struggled to detach myself from the average diverse consumer; plus size, petite and ageing. During the planning process we were asked to define beauty which brought my attention to this phrase:
'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'
I questioned this phrase throughout the planning process and came across the idea, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what if the holder cannot see? This questioning brought me to my diverse consumer of the blind and visually impaired.
Meet Rosie
Rosie experiences her everyday life experimenting with her senses and testing her imagination. Being visually impaired from the age of a teenager Rosie struggles to find clothes which suit her lifestyle as well as keeping her feeling fashionable. Rosie enjoys taking long walks with her guide dog Pixie in the park, catching up with her friends at the local coffee shop and going to the salon to get her hair styled.
Disability in society is inevitable; ‘there are almost two million people in the UK living with sight loss.’ (Access Economics 2009 – Action for the blind.org) creating a garment that engages Rosie’s senses, develops her fashion confidence and eases her relationship with wardrobe decisions is essential in the current market.
Challenging the Market
When researching into beauty ideals and my diverse consumer I created this poster in order to communicate the difference between everyday fashion and a diver customer. The right side of the poster depicts my consumers lifestyle and the left side is my research into biased beauty.
In this research I conducted a small research project into fashion promotion, marketing and advertising. I took 5 issues of Grazia magazine, counted 390 models which were advertising fashion and separated them into several categories.
Results:
98% of the models were not wearing glasses
73% models had blond hair
100% models are under a UK size 14
98% models had an airbrushed complexion
94% of the models counted were Caucasian
