Gender Issues in Fine Arts and Fashion Design Essay

Fine arts is the term which is used in distinguishing the variations of the art forms which are developed by people. The concepts which are in this category are the drawings, paintings, sculpture and the calligraphy. Fine arts tend to use the visual methods that are graceful since most of the work done is pretty and delicate. Fashion design deals with fashionable styles and trends within the accessories, clothes, and footwear. Fashion designing includes various skills which range from creativity and market research to sketching and selection of fabrics. The fashion designers have the responsibility of controlling the process of inception from production. An issue in a working system tends to affect fine arts and fashion design making the fashion designers not to achieve their set goals and objectives. Due to the increase in gender issues among other careers, this paper will seek to determine the specific gender issues which are experienced in fine arts and fashion design.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The female gender mostly studies fine arts and fashion design since they are primarily into fashion. The male gender who happen to consider this course end up acquiring jobs faster since few men are into fine arts and fashion design. The young population in the society are mostly interested in fashion hence making a large market for the products which relates to fashion. I will be in minority since I will major with the designer so that I can be making designs. My responsibility as a designer will be to create ideas and produce designs through the use of computer-aided models or by hand. Also, I will be working with other designers as a team so that we can develop products which meet the demands of the clients. Designers also source, select and buy trims, fabrics, and embellishments which help to adapt the existing designs to ensure mass productions (Vial, 2014). As a designer, I will manage finances, marketing of design products and conduct various business markets if I happen to work on a self-employment basis.

The fashion industry experiences discrimination where men own most of the fashion houses. The social practice of gender inequality plays a vital role in the fashion industry since it is supported by different functional structures such as capital resources, cultural capital: educational qualifications and homosocial reproduction. The structures tend to become influenced and organized by the already existing social beliefs and norms of the gendered behavioral differences. In the corporate firms which are involved with fashion, the executive positions are held by individuals who possess specific educational qualifications and have particular work experience. The executive position holder who is mostly men tends to have control of the nature of different structures in the industry and other related companies. Men usually advance quicker than the women hence making them to have higher positions as fashion designers and CEO (Williams & Connell, 2010). Due to this reason, it can be deduced that most individuals who have the appropriate business skills both experientially and academically are mostly men leading to gender inequality in the fashion industry.

On the other hand, gender inequality in the fashion industry is also contributed by the requirements of capital resources so that it can sustain its fashion houses. For example, the sociological theory states that the dependence between people is usually unevenly distributed due to the innate individual needs for the valued resources. The fashion houses and firms search for wealthy investors who will provide the capital resources to sustain and launch other fashion corporations (Williams & Connell, 2010). Therefore, the unequal distribution of the capital resources in the fashion industry is making men to hold higher positions of the authority.

The simple social structure present in the fashion industry helps the employees to attend engaging and exciting events as they socialize with others. This structure leads to the development of gender inequality which is facilitated by the tastes, cultural knowledge and practices of various employees. For the cultural capital to be of great significance among the employees in the fashion industry, there must be a representation of similar interest among the employees and employers. Since the majority of the executive in fashion industries are males, the tastes and benefits of the socializing groups are masculine. Also, women in the fashion industry might be limited to attend the after-work event due to families and various obligations (Davey, Schneider & Davey, 2009).Therefore, concentrating men in positions of power in the fashion industry tend to make the open culture to become more masculine; thus creating limitations of women engagements with the differing responsibilities and interests in the corporate events.

Despite the reputation of the fashion industry being a female-oriented sector, men continue to run the fashion industry due to their experience at work and acquisition of higher learning education. The population of the female students tends to be high in schools thus enlarging the gap between the male and female students. Women mostly experience challenges which are related to sexism, family, lack mentors and they are less aggressive during promotions in the industry. This has made men proceed to hold the higher positions the fashion and design industry leading to gender inequality (Rowley, 2009). Therefore, creating awareness among the female gender on the importance of attending mentorship programs, being confident and becoming aggressive will help in improving the number of females in the fashion and design industry.

Gender determines the clothes to be designed and be worn by individuals of the public. For a brand be worn by both genders it must not be too masculine or feminine. This makes fashion not to become strictly male or female. Some of the clothed which are designed for either male or female gender tends to break the norms and beliefs of people in society. The fashion industry has shifted towards fluidity since the male models are wearing skirts, high heels, and frilly blouses while on the runway. This act has made normalized what people want to wear in society. For example, the Gucci brand has moved toward gender fluidity where the male models are wearing chunky heels and long dresses (Cukul, 2015). Also, another issue which is with the fashion industry is that fashion was known to be a female profession, but the male gender has attained higher positions in the fashion industries. This has made men to become awarded all the praise and the awards over the females present in the industry.

Currently, the fashion industry is experiencing change due to the development of technology. In the last years, people had to acquire a ticket so that they can attend fashion shows and get to see the new designed wear and art. Due to technology such as the Instagram, live streams and snap chat the clients can view every detail of the clothing and swing of the chain straps. Also, the buyers and the editors of these wear have the opportunity of seeing them. The availability of different mobile apps has improved connectivity where people can do shopping through mobile commerce (Turker & Altuntas, 2014). The new method of shopping for designer products has made it easy since clients only click on the item they need and it is delivered at their doorstep.

My goal is to focus and become determined on designer and make fabulous designs which will make my brand to be liked by the clients. This will help me to develop trust with my clients since I will be providing appropriate brands that are up to their tastes and preferences. Making fabulous designs will help to attract the clients my clothing line hence making me achieve the set goals and objectives in the long run. The clients will also provide their ideas on the products they want thus making me improve on my brands (Davey et al., 2009). Through fabulous designs in the market, I will not become affected by competition since I will have won the trust of my clients.

As a productive member of the fashion industry, I will grow the e-commerce with a fabulous website since it brings more revenue to the clothing business. Improving e-commerce will help in the advertisement of the design products and promote the buying of these products through online platforms. Also, to encourage the brand of the fashion industry, e-commerce will help in advertisement thus targeting a larger population. The process of determining how the website of the company will look like involves a skilled individual process such as conducting market research (Turker & Altuntas, 2014). Therefore, through the market research, I will help the fashion industry to identify their strength, weaknesses and the competitors who are present in the market.

Consequently, developing a marketing campaign to promote the brand produced by the fashion industry will help potential customers to get to know their companies brand. For the marketing campaign to become successful, I will find a message which it speaks to the customers and employees at the industry hence helping in building the fabric and branding of the organization (Vial, 2014). Through the advertisement messages, the company will increase its revenue due to the growth in the market.

The problems of gender inequality in the fashion industry can be solved by creating awareness of the female gender. Creating awareness will help women to acquire high education status and become experienced at work thus getting promoted to the executive positions. Also, including women in the committees for decision making will help them ton table their ideas which would become implemented and move the industry to another level. Motivating the young women to get into fashion and design will also help in mitigating the problems which are brought about by gender inequality (Vial, 2014). Also, in the industries, allowing women to hold some offices will promote division of power between the males in higher positions and females in other senior offices. Therefore, gender inequality in the fashion industry is the major limitation that leads to its slow growth rate.

References

Cukul, D. (2015). Fashion marketing in social media: using Instagram for fashion branding (No. 2304324). International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c1c7/64a6ecdb241c2c4a48d53593ab01e56b02f6.pdf

Davey, J., Schneider, L., & Davey, H. (2009). Intellectual capital disclosure and the fashion industry. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 10(3), 401-424. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/61c4/1dee60fade935da0ee79a1d897883f26c226.pdf

Rowley, J. (2009). Online branding strategies of UK fashion retailers. Internet Research, 19(3), 348-369. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/10662240910965397?fullSc=1&journalCode=intr

Turker, D., & Altuntas, C. (2014). Sustainable supply chain management in the fast fashion industry: An analysis of corporate reports. European Management Journal, 32(5), 837-849. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/9009631/Sustainable_Supply_Chain_Management_in_the_Fast_Fashion_Industry

Vial, C. (2014). Clothing the debate: textiles, text-isles and the economy of gift-giving in four Middle English Breton lays. Etudes anglaises, 67(1), 3-18. Retrieved from https://www.cairn.info/revue-etudes-anglaises-2014-1-page-3.html

Williams, C. L., & Connell, C. (2010). "Looking good and sounding right" aesthetic labor and social inequality in the retail industry. Work and Occupations, 37(3), 349-377. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0730888410373744