Everyone has their own style when it comes to the clothes they wear and to some extent are conscious about how they dress, be it men, women, teenagers; even toddlers are picky these days. Women are no longer the only ones that spend hours in the shops looking for the perfect matching outfit!
Looking at a fashion blog by a blogger named Janis Prince Inniss, she highlights the issue of how popular fashion culture can lead to questions of racism within this realm of society. The main issue that Inniss raised is over the idea of 'nude' coloured clothing.
For women having a nude coloured bra, pair of nickers, pair of tights, vest top or even nude coloured heels are often essential pieces to your wardrobe, i know they definitely are for me!
However, nude is a colour that is associated with wearing under another piece of clothing that can protect a girls modesty if it is an outfit that's a bit too revealing, with the hope that it will blend in with ones skin tone and be barely visible underneath the original outfit.
For those who skin colour is not the same colour as the standard 'nude' that comes off the production line this is not practical.
Inniss makes note that she has experienced this when shopping, as the nude colour suggested to be 'skin colour' does not match the colour of her skin and rather than wearing a discreet nude vest top underneath her clothes, it had the adverse effect and "stuck out like a sore thumb" - as some might say.
Basically the idea of producing a generic 'skin coloured' or 'nude' coloured garment in the fashion industry is not practical in a multicultural society - which in modern times all societies tend to be multicultural, at least to a certain extent.
The main question that comes to light after reading this blog, is 'does labelling clothes garments as 'skin coloured' suggest that all other shades of skin are different to what is considered to be the normal 'nude' colour?' This is the issue that may offend some members of society and be linked to episodes of racial prejudice and discrimination (Garner 2007).
Inniss suggests that individuals whom have 'different' skin tone to white people are considered to be of a 'different race', however whitness should also be considered as a 'race' in itself, but this is often a concept that is overlooked within society; "The meanings attached to 'race' are always time- and place- specific.... whiteness is no exception (Garner 2007:1).
In Britain it was once a condition that to acquire citizenship you had to be a 'white person' (Haney Lopez 1996:1), however times have moved on, as a result of colonialism and immigration, using Britain as one example, is made up of many multicultural societies.
It is often perceived that whitness reflects power as Garner (2007) states, 'whiteness represents dominance, normality and control' and it is these perceptions that society have embedded in them that cause tension and debate around the colour of a persons skin.
In an ideal world, along with developments of multicultural soceties that are effects of immigration etc. there should also be developments in society's attitudes to individuals with different skin tones.
It can also be true that the shade of nude clothing can be problematic for white people, who's skin shade doesn't naturally blend with such clothing, however the meaning behind Inniss' arguement over the issue of clothing labelled as 'skin coloured' is a a contentious topic of debate. As retail outlets are often very influential towards society, the homogenizing of garments that are labelled as 'skin coloured' highlights publicly that anyone with a different skin tone fail to encompass what it is to be 'normal' in the eyes of society.
Link to blog: http://www.everydaysociologyblog.com/2012/06/fashion-and-race.html#more By Janis Prince Inniss (2012)
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