Society Nine is a brand for every female fighter founded by strong, empowered, diverse female athletes who are fighters in and out of the ring. 

The idea started out of frustration with the lack of quality equipment available for women.
"Manufacterers think that taking the lowest-quality glove and turning it pink is what we need. I'm here to tell you that this way of thinking is dead wrong" says Lynn Le, the brain behind the project.
She created Society Nine for the female fighter who trains in combat sports, and to also represent the every-female fighter in our lives, across all sports.

Like I talked about in my previous blogpost the average women now a days isn't just a woman. She's a friend, a teacher, a sister, a student working two jobs and above all a fighter. A fighter in the literal sense of the word (let's keep it to boxing, shall we?) but also figuratively speaking: a woman that can take the world! This clothing line is especially made for these strong woman.

"We want to create a movement and community that unites strong, empowered, diverse, fierce woman who are fighter for more than physique. We are the brand for this community of badass woman"




The collection starts with a glove. If you go to google and image-search for "womans boxing glove" you'll find a collection of girly pink boxing gloves (just try it!) But according to Lynn, most of the woman's boxings gloves aren't at all adapted to the needs of woman.

The team behind Society Nine studies every boxing glove on the market to understand how they were constructed, what materials they used and how they fit. Next they asked different woman in sports (professionals but also amateurs) to their opinion and with that feedback they made their first design.






I think it is great that people like Lynn start projects like this. Gender equality is definitely not where it's supposed to be in the world of sports and this is a step in the right direction. I hope woman will feel empowered to do whatever they want to, even if it's in a mens world. The Kickstarter for this project is still running and they are already halfway to their pledged goal.

For more information, a sneak peak of their collection and the progress of the Kickstarter check out this webpage.

We've arrived to the ending of chapter three, 'appearance'. Like i did before in chapter two, I'm going to analyse my blogposts and place them in the Quality of life model of Felce and Perry. The model knows 5 domains of wellbeing; social, physical, emotional, material and development + activity.


I think emotional wellbeing will be the most important this chapter, but there might be some overlap with other domains. Let's see if we analyse them one by one!

I am what's underneath
This project is a really good example of emotional wellbeing. The goal of the project is to create a worldwide movement for self-acceptance. The need for authenticity grows and we don't want to see the perfectly photoshopped skinny girl anymore on the cover of a magazine. It's proof that the fashion industry is chancing. The project has a positive effect on the self-esteem of the participants, but creates a self-acceptance with the readers of the stories on the blog.

You are more than your uniform
This project can be placed under the sub-category 'status' - you are what you do, and in this case you are more than what you do. A good example of emotional wellbeing aswel, but it has a little overlap with the domain development + activity. The photo series shows their life next to their job, but it's no secret that the people in the pictures are proud of their job. When we look to the model we see that 'job' is a sub-category in the domain development + activity so that explains the overlap.

Hipster or Muslim?
The photoseries 'Hipster or Muslim?' is maybe the opposite of wellbeing. It can be linked to the domain social wellbeing, but it is not an example of a good wellbeing. It raises questions about how truthful our own identity is and it shows us how easy people can create an identity for you. It also shows us how easily you can manipulate your identity but just using material things.

The female body image
The people at Greatist.com made some cool illustrations to show how much the female body has changed over the years. It's hard to place this one in a domain. I think emotional wellbeing is the best fit. Although it might seem that physical wellbeing could be linked to it, it's not about our health and state of our body. The illustrations show beauty ideals over the years and that has effect on our satisfaction about our own body. 

Golden oldies
In this blogpost I talk about elderly making an appearance in advertisement for the fashion world. A few domains of the model can be linked to this. The photo series of Dean Bradshaw is a great example of physical wellbeing. Not only young pretty girls can be used for sport campagnes, but elderly are still fit and tough enough to do it aswel. But the campagne by Dolce & Gabbana on the other hand, shows a lot more emotional wellbeing. It's all about authenticity and real women. Perfection is boring an not so much inspiring. We want to see real people and more diversity. Magazines already payed attention to different size girls and now they are adding different ages. 

Like I predicted, emotional wellbeing is the most important one in this chapter. An explanation can be that appearance is so much about your physical appearance, but also about your inner self. Everything reflects on identity and our satisfaction, self-esteem, status, contentment and trust: all connected to our feelings. 

Did you see the new campagne of Dolce & Gabbana yet? If you are expecting over the top glamour girly girls, think twice, because old is the new young. A cast of three elderly Spanish women are the new campagne lady's for D&G's 2015 spring collection.

Not only Dolce & Gabbana has faith in golden oldies, but the French fashion brand Céline also goes for a different age category. The eighty year old writer Joan Didion stars as the face of their new collection.

Why are our grandma's en grandpa's that cool all of a sudden? Perfection is boring and not so much inspiring. We want to see real people and more diversity. Magazines already payed attention to different size girls and now they are adding different ages. Age elasticity is trending!




Another great example is the photoseries by photographer Dean Bradshaw, who uses elderly to show that age is nothing but a number. A funny response to the traditional models usually found in sport advertisements and magazines. The cute and tough photo's of elderly almost make you feel guilty for skipping the gym this week.

And last but not least: Not only big fashion brands are using elderly for their campagnes, but also on a smaller scale we see this trending topic making an appearance. The Instagram account "Fashion Grandpa's" shows fashionable grandpa's found in public. What is not to love?! Clearly not only wisdom, but also a sense of fashion grows with age!

During my research about 'shifting identities' one thing in particular seemed to cross my path again and again: the perfect body. Every magazine contains at least one article about getting in shape, losing weight and being skinny. "Get in shape for summer" or "train away your christmas belly" or "this new superfood wil make you lose weight in no time". What is this obsession of ours about losing weight? We all want to be skinny like the cover girl from Vogue. Or at least, that's what the media is telling us.

When looking for interesting coolhunts about identity I came across this project of a photographer named Kasimir Szekeres. He asked himself "What happens when hipsters and Muslims switch clothes? The results are six personal portraits about today's zeitgeist, religion, stereotyping and identity.

Someone wearing a military uniform can look very serious and strong. But do you ever think about what's behind that uniform? A machine gunner, a guard commander, a warfare officer, an air force commander but also normal people like you and me.  


I think the concept of the pictures are very strong and tell a confronting story. This project has a good connection to the theme 'shifting identities'. Back in the days, when our parents were little kids your job was your identity and nothing more. Now we can identify ourselves with the things we love, the things we like and the things we do best without connecting our jobs to it. I think this is a mindset that is growing more and more in our society and hopefully will keep growing. 

Christmas break is over and it's time for blogging again! This chapter I will dive into the subject 'shifting identities' connected to appearance. At first you might think that's all going to be about fashion and pretty things, but appearance is more than that. It's about who you are, who you want to be and everything in between. It's not only about looking good, it's about what's underneath.



The first thing I'm going to tell you about is a perfect example. The project is called 'I am what's underneath'. Maybe you can guess what's it about? Two woman, a daughter and a mother, want to show the world that it's not about clothing, but about what's underneath.

Elisa Goodkind worked as a fashion stylist while daugther Lily was in her teenage years. Lily tried everything to be like all the 'skinny and pretty' girls from the magazines. With unhealthy eating and dieting pills she lost herself in this empty ideal of beauty. Over the course of 20 years Elisa realized that fashion was turning into a machine turning out one prescribe surface image. "I realized that those same magazine covers I was styling were destroying my daughter's self-exteem" she says. Elisa quit her job and collaborated with her daughter to start the project 'I am whats underneath'.




The kickstarter is done and they collected 135% of their goal. It's clear there is a need for attention to this subject. At the moment the project is in full swing. You can watch all the stories at their website which is still growing every day. It is so great and inspiring to see all these different stories. And it makes you realize that everyone has issues and flaws. At least once in their life everyone has had that feeling that they were lacking something that kept them from feeling beautiful and I bet you are one of them. No matter how fierce they might look at the beginning of the video, everyone has his own story.

This project is a great example of the trend 'transparency'. We all want to know what's behind that fabulous fashion girl and by exposing those vulnerable stories, it makes us feel better about ourselves. Maybe it's okay if I'm not perfect, she has flaws too? It is clear that this amazing proje ct has a lot of growth potential, since it is already growing each day. New sub projects are arising. For example: 'second skin' in which two fashion icons trade clothes with each other. They even got some celebrities involved, which probably makes it even more inspiring for people.

Oh, and what about 'shifting identities'? This project is proof that the fashion industry is changing. The need for authenticity grows and we don't want to see the perfectly photoshopped skinny girl anymore on the cover of a magazine. Elisa and Lily have a goal to create a world-wide movement for self-acceptance with this project and I think they are doing a pretty damn good job at it!