MIRROR explores the relationship between fashion, identity, and self-perception, reimagining mirrors as symbols of both self-expression and societal pressure. From McQueen’s Voss runway to mirror selfies, the project examines how reflections shape beauty standards and cultural narratives. Through essays, interviews, and striking visuals, it addresses themes like body image, gender roles, and neurodiversity, challenging how societal norms influence identity.

Every time I post a full-body mirror selfie with an #ootd tag, I can't help but hesitate - who is that person in the mirror?
Just a slight rotation of the eye or a change in stance can alter our mirrored image, proportions less than perfect, and colours less matched... So we step back to our wardrobe, pondering, until we finally strike a satisfying pose before the mirror. This kind of second-guessing happens to all of us, depleting almost a whole day's worth of energy before we even go out to face the real world.


You can't find a way to talk about fashion without mirrors; they are a staple in every fashion scene.

Alexander McQueen, in his S/S 2001 Voss show, even turned the runway into a massive mirrored box, like an observation room in an asylum, forcing attendees to spend hours with their own reflections before the show began.

Exposed before the mirrors, those who dictate the trend of the fashion industry started to reveal their anxieties. McQueen was satisfied with this reversal of the critical gaze, altering the characters in the mirror as his way of rebelling against the traditional structure of the industry. Mirrors, while visually expanding the space, can also feel suffocating, creating an illusion of an invisible force compressing reality, rendering people motionless. The focus inevitably turns inward, but self-scrutiny isn't as easy as casting a critique because, in the mirror, we are not only facing ourselves but also the gaze of others. Everyone becomes part of the spectacle, everyone is watching themselves being scrutinized - with clothes that wrinkle after a while, hairstyles that come undone, makeup that fades, and even the change of posture.

The show starts, and the mirrors become transparent glass boxes. Models, their heads tightly wrapped in bandages as if post-surgery, enter anxiously, tapping on the glass. McQueen succeeded in bringing the world within the mirror to the audience's view, to show the marks that fashion's scrutiny leaves on a person. Beauty appeared fragile in this confined space until designs with natural elements and armour concepts provided some unshakable strength amidst the chaos.
What’s in the mirror?

While the human body is normally a medium to display fashion rather than the object of critique itself, the presence of mirrors naturally acts as a form of inspection with its own standards.

In history, mirrors once symbolized social hierarchies - King Louis XIV's construction of the Hall of Mirrors in the Louvre, with its 17 massive mirrors, was a 17th-century luxury that showcased the king's power and wealth to the entire world. The Magic Mirror in the fairy tale "Snow White" represented another level of hierarchy, with the new queen's Magic Mirror adhering to a strict beauty standard, where fairness of skin was the golden rule. When the mirror declared Snow White as "the fairest of them all," it seemed to the new queen to be a complete negation of herself, which led to her rage and envy.

In real life, mirrors are much more forgiving. With the deepening of DEI, beauty standards are not so singular anymore - but does it mean we truly have the freedom of choice?

If there are ten great unsolved mysteries of the whole internet, the technique of taking a mirror selfie should be among them. Those "casual" selfies on social media appear to be perfect moments spontaneously captured, where everyone is in a golden-ratio shape, and the mirror presents as an honest recorder.

However, even apart from those "fake-casual" shots taken with professional cameras, ordinary full-length mirrors can also create artificial illusions: if the mirror is slightly tilted backward, everything looks elongated; standing in the centre makes one look thinner; with the higher aspect ratio of the mirror, the taller we will look like... These secrets keep consumers lingering in fitting rooms, trying to make every piece of garment look as perfect on them as it does on screens.

Advertisements have shaped the implicit standards within the mirror. When models sit before the makeup mirror, their bodies are almost not their own to control; the camera captures the image set by the brand and photographer.

When we take something out of our wardrobe, we might subconsciously be comparing ourselves to the images in ads, then begin to pick apart the clothes and even our own body shape before the mirror. A multitude of ads leave visual imprints in our brains, and even as we start to awaken, it is difficult to completely free ourselves from the subconscious influence of these beauty standards; the process of awakening is like propping open our eyelids with sticks, as if a blink might plunge us back into self-doubt before the mirror.

We are told that we can choose whatever we want, but can the freedom that leads to more restriction also count as true one?

Reflection on Collectivism

So where has the freedom that has been relinquished gone?

Philosopher Han Byung-Chul discusses in "The Disappearance of Others" a new form of alienation that emerges from the self in contemporary society. This alienation occurs precisely during the process of self-perfection and self-realization - meaning, as we treat our reflection in the mirror as an object that needs to be perfected, alienation is already happening.

In severe cases, disgust with one's true self in the mirror can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, until people no longer feel connected to their own bodies. If the previously mentioned concepts seem too abstract, these disorders are not novel topics for the fashion industry. The death of Luisel Ramos in 2006 from complications of anorexia after stepping off the runway led to legislation by the Spanish government mandating models to have a BMI of at least 18 to walk the runway. Despite fashion's less stringent requirements for body shapes, underlying implicit standards still prevent people from fully accepting their bodies. In mainland China, many Taobao online retailers set the waist size for women's size L between 68-72 cm, with few options for XL and above, leaving larger-bodied women with limited fashion choices. Whenever I pull up new trousers that get stuck at the hips, I feel discomfort and helplessness. "Should I try to shed some weight to fit into these?" such thoughts flicker through my mind.

But the fashion-induced body alienation doesn't stop there; people try to change their bodies to match a uniform public aesthetic, to better fit into collectivity. In East Asian regions, there's a traditional inclination towards being part of a group for a greater sense of security. Thus, when a trend takes over social media, people rush to follow it, even resorting to surgery to alter their appearances according to some "cosmetic templates." Simultaneously, "appearance anxiety" becomes a nightmare for many. In the Netflix Korean drama "Mask Girl," the protagonist, feeling ordinary-looking, chooses to become a masked dance streamer by night, which leads to a series of tragedies.

McQueen's show ends with Michelle Olley, a central figure in London's fetish fashion culture, appearing naked and masked in a glass box swarming with moths. The mirrors crash down to the sound of a heart monitor. The "truth" in the mirror is Olley reclining in a chair, with plastic tubes hanging from the ceiling connected to her mask, surrounded by moths.

In her diary, she documents her experience, "I offer myself for objectification, and yet, I feel confident that I’m in safe hands—that the object I am becoming is meant to reveal some human truth or other."

Perhaps, in the end, the truth of fashion is the truth of our body.

It's not your body

From McQueen’s Voss show to the pressure of perfect selfies, mirrors reveal beauty’s fragility and societal demands. Exploring body alienation, cultural expectations, and East Asia’s conformity trends, the article questions whether reflections offer freedom or impose new forms of restraint.

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