Is smoking fashionable?
It could hardly be thought that a life-threatening addicition could be in any way fashionable, and yet it does seem that fashion and smoking are in some way linked. Awareness of the dangers of smoking really came to the forefront in the 1960’s, and films made prior to this, and even after, portrayed fashionable women smoking elegant long cigarettes, and handsome men in sharp suits stylishly lighting up cigarettes in any odd moment.
It seems that smoking is especially fashionable among models, not least because some people believe that smoking helps to stifle hunger pangs, and smoking has long been part of idea of the enjoyment of a good night out. Chic supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss have often been shown in the celebrity press smoking cigarettes. Unfortunately some fashion designers have not been averse to associating their brand and products with smoking – in fact one advertising campaign for Gucci handbags involved featuring an ad in several top European fashion magazines that depicted cigarette ash scattered carelessly across the expensive Gucci bags.
Jess Cartner-Morley, writing in the UK newspaper The Guardian earlier this year, has analysed how smoking is often portrayed as being fashionable, in spite of its detrimental effects. She describes how imagery used in fashion and advertising can make smoking seem attractive. Cartner-Morley talks of “the classic cigarette pose”, which used to appear frequently in fashion magazines until recently, with a model elegantly holding a cigarette between her long fingers.
However, the effects of the health campaigns are kicking in, and people are not so easily influenced by such imagery nowadays. Or at least, that is what we hope.
Filed under: Smoking and celebrities, General
