It’s hard to say when it began, but both the beauty and fashion industries have been trendsetters in problematic practices and created media that hasn’t exactly been known to be inclusive. From expanding shades for fair-skinned people while neglecting dark-skinned people, to only featuring skinny and beautiful figures as the highest standard of beauty in the fashion industry, there have been many ways in which these industries have failed to represent minority demographics. This has recently come to the attention of younger generations, including myself, in the past decade, who have been increasingly upset with both a lack of diversity and the half-witted attempts to fix these wrongdoings. However, this issue is not as black and white as it seems. For minorities such as myself who have grown up believing that their skin tone, their hair texture, and their features will never be enough to reach those impossible beauty standards, the solution should be an easy one. And yet when it comes to the question of whether or not it is possible for diversity to coexist with the beauty industry, I found that the answer was not as clear as I thought it would be. With that said, here are the complexities of inclusivity and diversity within the beauty industry.
Tarte foundati0n shade controversy
The first time that this issue truly came to light for the populace was when a number of makeup brands were not considering other skin tones in their shades, specifically foundation shades. This might sound familiar to some, but the most infamous controversy in my opinion was when the company Tarte was experiencing backlash for having a number of shades meant specifically for light-skinned and fair-skinned people, yet only featuring a handful (maybe even less) of shades for dark-skinned people. The way that I found out was in 2018 when the youtuber and makeup company owner jeffreestar made a video titled, “THE TRUTH…TARTE SHAPE TAPE FOUNDATION REVIEW.” where he mentions Rihanna’s approach to Fenty beauty’s foundation and shade range and says, “If you cannot create a all-inclusive shade range, why is the product even being put out?” The initial video that brought the issue to light was created by Jackie Aina and titled, “Black Girls React to Tarte Shape Tape Foundation,” where they review each shade on their own skin and find that almost all the shades are not fit for their dark skin tones, which is where the original source of the controversy publicly began. Jeffreestar also touches on Tarte’s response to the controversy which was posted on their Instagram story (questionable choice) where they said, “We all know by k
The new standard: fenty beauty
I’m sure many of us remember when Fenty Beauty launched and released their extremely diverse shade range, thus forcing the truth about the blatant racism of the beauty industry into the spotlight. The brand, which was founded by Rihanna, would seem like any other celebrity product at first glance; wildly unsuccessful and only utilized by fans and supporters. But the brand became so much more than that, because this was the first time that the beauty industry paid attention to what so many POC people were asking for and delivered spectacularly. So much so that their initial shade range of 40 shades became a sort of standard; anything less than that was deemed unacceptable, apathetic even. The solution to a seemingly pestering problem was so glaringly obvious and simple that Fenty’s gesture shouldn’t have been that revolutionary, and yet it meant everything to those who had never been a part of the equation till now. To companies that want to argue that diversifying shade ranges saw no prospective profit, Fenty’s sales say otherwise as, “some of the most obvious proof came when the darkest shades of Fenty Beauty foundations sold out first.”Aside from a purely business aspect, a larger and more diverse range was necessary for those who are outsiders to the beauty industry, including me. I’ve never been a makeup connoisseur myself, but the fact that Fenty Beauty took the first big step towards diversifying the beauty industry and including everyone on the scale even made me feel more important. Diversifying shade ranges in foundations was definitely a huge step towards both equality and inclusivity in the beauty industry, but the overall dilemma itself is not purely characterized by the inconsiderate products of makeup companies. The fashion industry has always been subject to scrutiny, but when one brand tried to make up for it, people were not as happy as they anticipated. That brand was Victoria’s Secret.
more questions than answers
Last month, Victoria’s Secret announced the revival of their famed Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, which had many people excited as it had been 5 long years since the last show. However, they decided to take a new approach in order to appeal to recent criticisms of the lackluster inclusivity of body types and diversity in the fashion industry. So, for this fashion show, they decided to include more ethnically diverse and plus sized models in the mix for those who were meant to be this year’s angels. But the backlash that the company received in return was more than unexpected. In an Instagram post featuring model Ceval wearing work by Michaela Stark, many of the comments expressed their anger and sentiments towards this new approach, which was more than confusing to understand. User @flo.lopezq commented, “The point of the angels was that not everyone could be an angel,” and user @amberblanco5 said, “As a curvy woman this isn’t it. The editing is horrific, embarrassing. Stop trying to please everyone, it’s not working.” There seem to be a multitude of issues concerning this approach to inclusivity, one of which being detached from Victoria’s Secret’s attempt to be more inclusive and involves the fitting of the clothes themselves. It is known that Victoria’s Secret’s clothing has not been kind to plus-sized women, so to see their products on plus sized women when they are clearly not fitted or tailored well to their body shape was extremely disappointing to those who were highly anticipating the return of the fashion show. The other issue deals with the debate over the necessity of plus-sized models as angels in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, a show that’s been notorious for featuring “unreal” beauty, a standard that’s near impossible to reach. The main argument is that the previous angels worked extremely hard to earn that title, and to hand out the title to those who were seemingly undeserving did not translate well to the public. The approach seemed to be a defamation of their own brand, and in my opinion, the overwhelming backlash towards the revival was extremely surprising to me considering the increasing calls for inclusivity in the fashion industry. Under the same Instagram post, Victoria’s Secret issued a statement in response to the backlash which essentially said, “We value her [Michaela Stark] voice and work and will not tolerate hate speech that violates our brand standards.” This situation compared to the controversies of the beauty industry is especially interesting to me because of the seemingly hypocritical nature of the comments and backlash, and it does raise the question of how Victoria’s Secret as a brand could work towards inclusivity whilst maintaining their brand image, or if that in itself is even possible at all.
Can diversity and the beauty industry truly coexist? In complete honesty, I still don’t know the answer. Fenty Beauty’s response to Eurocentric standards that defined the beauty industry until their release of new foundation shade ranges seemed to be the easy solution to what Tarte couldn’t fix. However, Victoria’s Secret’s approach to the issue was met with violent backlash, which calls into question the possibility of diversity, inclusivity, and even equality coexisting with the brutal nature of both the beauty and fashion industries. Maybe it’s contingent on the industry itself, since it may not be fair to categorize both fashion and makeup under the umbrella of beauty and the demographics that they aim to appeal to are different. Yet I wonder why the standards that both industries have perpetually flaunted and established as the absolute pinnacle of beauty seem to be the same across the world of makeup and fashion. The lessons that I’ve learned from observing the dilemma are: equality and recognition of all different types of people is extremely important, but sometimes, it can come at the cost of one’s brand image. At that point, it’s no longer the consumer’s place to decide which one is a priority; it becomes the company’s final responsibility.