THE WOMEN MAKING US ALL BEAUTIFUL - Caryn Franklin's How ...

DUMMY SECTIONTHEWOMENMAKINGMature beauty personifiedby Valerie Pain modellingAntonio BerardiAbove, from left: Founders ofAll Walks, Debra Bourne, ErinO’Connor and Caryn Franklin inUS ALL BEAUTIFUL32As the capital gears upfor London FashionWeek, SophieChristiansen talksto the inspiring insiderswho are leading acampaign to make theindustry morerepresentative ofordinary women…22 December 2009When you look in the mirror,are you comparing yourselfwith a picture-perfect magazinecover? A catwalk model? Most of usdo, often without being aware of it. And itcan be extremely damaging.Numerous studies have shown that theinfluence of manufactured beauty can leadto depression, eating disorders and a feelingthat you will never match up to thePhotoshopped beauties on so many magazinecovers and advertising posters.But change is afoot. Three prominentwomen in the fashion industry, backed byphotographers, designers and an emergingeducation campaign at fashion colleges,are aiming to change this airbrusheddefinition of beauty.Caryn Franklin, who has worked in thefashion industry for 30 years, including 12as a presenter of The Clothes Show; DebraBourne, a fashion PR and former director

RANKINof Lynne Franks PR Agency, and modelErin O’Connor have founded the organisationAll Walks Beyond The Catwalk.And they aim to promote and celebrate diversityand individuality.I spoke to Caryn and Debra about whythey started All Walks and discussed withthem the issues surrounding the fashionindustry’s attitude to women. They haveboth had illustrious careers in fashion. Butchanges in the industry in the last fiveyears, particularly the proliferation of imagerythrough new media, prompted themto start their campaign.With a grant from the London DevelopmentAgency and inspired by conversationswith the chief executive of eatingdisorders charity Beat, All Walks wasborn in May 2009.The culture we live in is certainlybecoming ever more dysmorphic. We are,Caryn says, ‘assaulted by an urban wallpaperof billboards’. And there is no escape inthe home either. An unrealistic image offemale beauty is proliferated everywhere,through television and online adverts.The idea of the perfect beauty, of course,is not new. Every generation has had itsown, often rather unrepresentative, viewof female perfection. The difference now,however, is that with the explosion ofadvertising, this image is fed to us whereverwe look.TIME TO GET REALAnd according to All Walks, this needs tochange. ‘Young women are exposed tomore images of unachievable beauty in oneday than I was exposed to in the whole ofmy adolescence,’ says Caryn.Indeed, modern technology means thatnine- and 10-year-olds are exposed to picturesthat make their mothers feel inadequate.We can only assume the impact thishas on their own delicate and developingsense of self.‘I would say that 95 per cent of womenI know are intelligent and attractive – butfeel inadequate,’ adds Debra. Somethingneeds to be done.And so All Walks aims to promote abroader range of beauty by working withinfluential designers and image-makers,to create great-looking images of womenof different sizes, ethnicities and ages.Caryn tells me that in her opinion‘beauty ages beautifully’ and she worriesabout the fear so many younger womenhave about ageing, or the unease manyothers feel about their perfectly healthysize. Both wish for more realistic imagesin all forms of media, as well as greatertransparency when it comes to digitalmanipulation.In their flagship photographic campaigns,shot by Kayt Jones and laterRankin, models included Daphne Self,stunning at 81 with a mane of silver hair,and the voluptuous Hayley Morley. Theimages have not been retouched.Upcoming British designer Mark Fastalso used Hayley as a catwalk model; he isone of the designers backing their campaign,along with a new generation of studentswhom All Walks aims to target asthe future of the industry.CHANGING ATTITUDESSome of the issues surrounding the diversificationof models are rather delicate –and Debra bemoans the apparent lackof adjectives that are available to describea larger physique.‘Celebratory words for curvaceouswomen are missing from the vocabulary,’she says.They want to encourage the studentsthey are working with to start thinkingabout issues such as this, and put everymodel they work with, be they size six orsize 16, at ease.‘In an ideal world, the industry wouldself-regulate,’ Debra says; but All Walksdoesn’t wish to be prescriptive to the creativefashion world they love. They simplywant to start changing attitudes – and arenow working with Equalities minister,Lynne Featherstone, to help spread theword internationally.Caryn and Debra feel proud thatchanges have occurred in the fashion industryin the last two years, largely as aresult of the impact of All Walks.Neither feels that an end is yet in sightbut, Caryn says, ‘We’ll keep going, we’lljust keep going. The Centre of Diversitywe have just created in Edinburgh withdirector Mal Burkinshaw from EdinburghCollege of Art will promote new ways ofthinking in education.’And with the drive that these twowomen have, along with Erin O’Connor’sface fronting the campaign, I think theripple effect that this London movementhas created will soon have spread rightaround the globe.uSHOULD THE FASHION industry be morerepresentative? Why not join the debate atwww.lady.co.ukDUMMY SECTION‘The idea of theperfect beauty isnot new – everygeneration hashad its own view offemale perfection.The differencenow is that thisimage is fed to uswherever we look’KirstyMcLennanwears an AliceTemperleydesignThe Lady 33