Fashioning Better Mental Health

This Men’s Health Week, Daisy shines a light on the shadowy corners of the fashion industry claiming the lives of its greatest talents with reckless abandon…

Have you heard the staggering fact that people who work within the creative industries are 25% more likely to develop mental health disorders than those in other industries?

It’s a widely reported phenomenon that artists seem to fall into poor mental health with alarming regularity. With famous names like Vincent Van Gough or Plath upholding this image in the art world, and the fashion industry painfully scarred with losses such as designers Alexander McQueen, Kate Spade and L’wren Scott, model Daul Kim and the many inspiring fashion creatives who have struggled with their mental health or subsequent addiction issues stemming from these struggles.

“... people who work within the creative industries are 25% more likely to develop mental health disorders than those in other industries?”

But why would so many seemingly talented, successful and inspired people, creating beauty each and every day, and appearing to live the life that everyone else wanted, suffer in this way?

The Creative Genius Trope

First, to be clear you don’t have to be dealing with unfortunate circumstances to suffer mental illness. Like any other illness, it can strike any person at any time. But the glamour and success of the arts truly isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And the unique pressures faces by creatives could be a contributing factor to these shocking statistics.

The stereotype of the ‘tormented creative genius’ is famous in the fashion world. Romanticised as someone so full of creativity and passion that they just couldn’t get it all out, that the world around them was too stifling for them and eventually their genius was too much to bear. And something about the trope or creative turmoil rings true — we are 20 times more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder and 10 times more likely to suffer from depression.

There is an argument that the intense feelings, unique world views, human compassion and moments of high contrast felt by those with mental health disorders is what inspires their often great creativity. And that may be true to some degree. But I can’t help but see that as another way of romanticising the pain: to present declining mental health as a source of creativity integral to an artist’s talent.

I know that I would much rather get on my with creative work without the depressed months lost in bed, trips to hospital or fear of leaving the house. There may have been moments where I turned to my creative practices as an outlet to deal with the emotions I was feeling, and to express them — but most of the time when I am healthy, I create vastly superior work inspired by the people, places and culture surrounding me.

In the saddest and most extreme of these cases, artists end their lives and become martyrs; twisted inspirations elevated to a new level after their unfortunate deaths. As such, we are yet to learn to treat creatives with love and fairness when they are still alive. How many times have headlines changed from exploitative drama to impassioned reverence after death; how many times have industry insiders spoken out about long unpaid hours and excruciating deadlines in the wake of new obituaries but never during life when there was profit to be made?

“But I can’t help but see that as another way of romanticising the pain: to present declining mental health as a source of creativity integral to an artist’s talent.”

Creatives are a shocking 18 times more likely to commit suicide than the general population, and if creatives in the manic phase of their mental illness are able to think and associate freely and quickly and produce amazing work that certainly does not justify the lack of help they receive.

Practical Proof

It’s hard to put a pin in the reason why those of us who are creatives working within this industry suffer from poor mental health. Ofcourse it’s a deeply personal and subjective thing that doesn’t often show physical symptoms we can put the blame on.

But I’d be willing to be the suffocatingly toxic environment we have created within the fashion industry has something do to with it. Here’s why.

Did you know Alexander McQueen was bankrupt when he died? Our industry lives off exploitation: 43% of internships at large for-profit businesses are unpaid. Many of the jobs, especially entry-level jobs that are paid are paid very poorly, and with fashion hubs based in some of the most expensive cities in the whole world — London, New York, I’m looking at you — people are often forced into extreme financial difficulty trying to chase their dreams.

Anyone who has worked in the fashion industry will be familiar with these low wages being supplemented by long hours, tight deadlines, unrealistic standards, and the assumption that we are all willing to give up our personal lives to make it in fashion. And if we’re not, someone else is who can replace us in the blink of an eye.

This fast and fickle world is absolutely soul-crushing, especially if you are a creative whose work uses up lots of personal emotion, energy and love to create.

Looking into the aspirations fashion creates, a similar pattern emerges. Fashion makes money by marketing the idea that you are fundamentally not good enough; that you need to buy more new things to look like other models and celebrities to find fulfilment. An obviously hollow lie, but it leads so many of us to chase the impossible, and feel at a loss when we never get the sense of confidence and happiness that was sold to us. In fact:

“3.4 million of us in the UK have an eating disorder, but for models in the fashion industry, the stats are between 20-40% who suffer an ED.”

6 out of every 10 women have a negative body image, and 53% of men do too. Thanks to social media, we see over 347 ads per day with those of the fashion variety often overwhelming us with unrealistic ideals.

96% of people think that their clothing hugely impacts their self confidence, and it does because we’ve been told how important it is to signal our status and self-worth especially within the fashion industry. But with the speed of micro trends getting ever shorter and those of us working in fashion earning pennies, it’s no wonder our confidence can take a knock and the pressure of this world can so often feel like too much.

For those who work within the extremely fast-paced culture and media industries, the suicide rate is 20% above the national average, and for women this rate raises to an absolutely startling 69%.

Unavoidable Feelings

There is another argument that creatives are predisposed to developing mental health issues.

Terence Ketter, professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at Stanford has identified personality traits within creatives that are also very common in those with depression: high intuition, curiosity, sensitivity, rumination… He suspects the sensitivity required to create great art is perhaps dangerous for creatives, especially for those working in the highly insensitive and fickle world of fashion.

Eric Maisel, author of The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Person’s Path Through Depression holds the very disheartening view that depression is actually inevitable for artists. For him, someone trying to find meaning through their work potentially getting one moment of appreciation after months and months of deep reflection triggers an existentialism that inevitably leads to depression.

It's also been found that artists often resist their medication through fears it will impact their creativity. Too often, medications for mental health disorders are packed with nasty side affects, but studies have shown that 75% of creatives on medication for bipolar disorder were just as productive on medication as they were off. And truly, the risk of no treatment, so often overlooked, is so much greater than the risk of treatment.

If you do seek treatment, creative practices can actually be an amazing way to find calm and release too, and become part of your treatment, not part of the problem.

To the Fashion Industry

To be totally honest, whether we are predisposed to suffer mental illness or not feels irrelevant for me. Our industry has a problem it refuses to address.

The fashion industry is one of the largest in the world and pre-pandemic, it was raking in $2.5 trillion a year. There is no doubt it relies on creatives to stay afloat, yet it insists on a culture that exploits and then replaces them as if they are worth nothing.

“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”

— Quote Source

It continues to avoid accountability and continues to allow those in positions of power to foster an atmosphere of toxicity and suppression; acting as if those who struggle, or even lose their lives to mental illness were purely those burdened with the unavoidable weight of great creative talent and sympathy.

But no.

Mental illness can be treated.

Help is always available.

And no one should suffer for the sake of work, especially one that would replace them in a second if it had to.

So this is my call out to everyone in the fashion industry: to provide safe environments, to cut people slack, to treat your employees fairly, to talk openly and remove stigma, and to simply treat each other with love. If you are in a position to help your work environment improve, it is your responsibility to do so!

If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental illness there are many places to seek help, and support is always available.

Call 116 123 to talk to Samaritans, or email: jo@samaritans.org for a reply within 24 hours

Text "SHOUT" to 85258 to contact the Shout Crisis Text Line, or text "YM" if you're under 19

If you're under 19, you can also call 0800 1111 to talk to Childline. The number will not appear on your phone bill

The mental health charity Mind has information on ways to help yourself cope during a crisis

If you need help but its not an emergency call 111, and if there is an emergency with immediate risk to life call 999

credits

words — daisy riley

illustration — freepik

design — karina so.