Fascist Fashion Industry?

Recently Rhonda Garelick of the New York Times revealed the anti-Semetic rants of fashion designer  John Galliano who reportedly was caught on camera phone drunkenly informing a diner "I love Hitler". He also told a woman who was NOT Jewish that she had a "dirty Jewish face" and "Your boots are of the lowest quality, your thighs are of the lowest quality. You are so ugly I don't want to see you." He then "invited her to die". Garelick says fascism and the fashion industry have many parallels, like the anti-democratic dictates of "oracular, charismatic leaders" who beckon their followers to join a "cult of perfection" where beauty is defined by Aryan features, eternal youth, and thin, athletic bodies. Garelick ends by saying Galliano's anti-semetic outbursts are "an eloquent expression of the fashion industry's disdain for the great, unwashed masses".

I agree with Garelick on two things...the first that John Galliano is an anti-Semetic idiot and second that the fashion industry focuses on thin, athletic bodies and eternal youth. Besides these two points I disagree with everything else Garelick said. The idea that the fashion industry is an extension of fascism is very far fetched to me. Garelick seems to make Galliano the Hitler of Fashion and the Fashion industry is own personal Nazi party. To make this comparison to skinny people who walk around in expensive clothes to me is an inappropriate generalization. Everyone in the fashion industry is not an anti-Semetic idiot like Galliano and not everyone in the fashion industry has the same ideals or views as people like Galliano. Garelick's generalization that everyone in the fashion industry will be brainwashed just as the Germans were brain washed by Hitler is again far fetched. One aspect of the fashion industry that I have always disagreed with is the eating disorder epidemic encompassing it. It is true that models starve themselves and throw up their food to remain thin but beauty is not defined by Aryan features in the fashion industry. There are many non- Caucasian fashion icons including Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, and Iman. Though I do not agree with everything that goes on in the fashion world I have more respect for those who do work in this industry to believe that they all believe the same things that Galliano does and that they all have "disdain for the great, unwashed masses" which would include me.