Body Image
Body image and individual confidence is something I have written about extensively because I believe that fashion, femininity and personal identity are all wrapped up.
After my first documentary feature for BBC in the early 90s I was invited to become a patron of Beat, the leading eating disorders charity. I met lots of young women who educated me on what it felt like to live with an eating disorder and do battle every day with a misunderstood mental illness.
I continue to write many features on why our feelings of self-worth are so intricately linked with the way fashion promotes femininity...and increasingly masculinity.
How to Look Good is a site that Jane Galpin and I have run since 1999 to promote body confidence through styling advice for a range of common body shapes that don't fit the model mould! Its' a mainstream site that has helped us research our working initiatives based on the questions and comments we have received. Around 3000 books are downloaded each month and we've had some really special thank yous!
Woman in the Mirror Book
My first novel: Woman in the Mirror sold 22 thousand copies. A frank account of fashion and the smoke an mirrors around image and the pressure to embody unachievable physical ideals laid bare with some almost recognisable characters thrown in and my literary revenge on an appalling ex-boyfriend. Yes he would know it was him!
Franklin on Fashion the book before the site!
An earlier book: Franklin on Fashion also set out to deconstruct fashion, in a kind of bite sized, pop cultural appetising way. It became required reading at fashion colleges when it was released which I rather liked. Of course body image figured err....how could it not?