Ohio State held its first fashion show in ten years last night in the Ohio Union Ballrooms.
There were no waif-like women wobbling down the runway. Instead, 44 girls between the ages of 8 and 14 walked the catwalk in clothing specifically designed for body image concerns of their age group.
Melinda Shmidt and Jill Hein, two graduate students in the College of Human Ecology, became interested in the “tween” age group (8-14) last year while taking research classes on body image.
Statistics – such as those showing that 81% of girls have been on a diet before the age of 10 – spurred Shmidt and Hein to do their Master’s of Fine Arts thesis’ on the body image of “tween” age girls.
“I talked with the girls about their bodies and how they are changing at their specific age, and I related clothing to that,” Hein said.
Shmidt and Hein held focus groups with about 40 girls and interviewed them about body image and clothing styles that made the girls feel self-conscious.
The girls said they did not like shirts that were too tight or that showed their stomachs or bra-straps, and they wanted skirts that were no shorter than a credit-card length above the knee, Hein said.
The focus groups yielded results that Shmidt, Hein, and 35 other undergraduate students used to design and create body-conscious clothing for a “tween” fashion show.
“We thought it would be really fun to do something that would get the community’s attention and get young girls’ attention,” Shmidt said about having the show.
Shmidt, Hein and the designers created clothing that incorporated styles from major cities across the country. Shmidt used the term “American city styles” to describe the focus of the show.
“We wanted to make a point that not all styles are the same,” Hein said.
Los Angeles’ style used a surfer theme with bright colors, Seattle’s style was bohemian, Houston’s style was cowgirl, Chicago’s was preppy and athletic, and New York’s style used cool colors and a fashionista theme.
