Ugly is the new beautiful and awkward is now socially acceptable.

The fashion industry’s idea of “beautiful” has changed. No longer do perfectly symmetrical flawless faces dominate advertisements and runways.

It’s hard to imagine the day when the likes of Cindy Crawford walked the runways for major designers (or for that matter, when she walked down Sheridan Road as a former NU engineering student). Crawford’s “perfect” form used to be the American ideal of beauty.

The modeling profession, as with most of fashion, is progressing away from the idealized perfection and wholesome looks that dominated magazine pages twenty years ago. Now models featured in magazines look a lot more unique — even quirky.

Lily Cole, a model whose success echoes the fame of former supermodels, has bright red hair and a circular face. Her cherubic and doll-like look is far from ugly. But when compared with pictures of Christie Brinkley, she represents a definitive shift in the way fashion and beauty is appreciated. A model like Cole may not have risen to international fame during Brinkely’s time.

The quest for the unusual expands beyond the modeling world and into makeup and beauty. When Cindy Crawford was a big deal, the popular look was to emulate Crawford’s fresh faced all-American girl-next-door vibe. Bright colors seemed tacky and overdone.

The tone has shifted. A recent Max Factor advertisement shows a model festooned with bright blue metallic eyeshadow. This ad brought flashbacks to my first forays into sparkly pastel eyeshadow back in the sixth grade. Only this time around it looks edgy rather then tacky.

The clothing world is embracing the weird as well. Designers are shifting away from a soft and romantic look to futuristic and metallic collections. Dolce and Gabbana’s latest ad campaign features models dressed in metallic green, turquoise, yellow and purple mini dresses. Prada features similar shiny silk fabrics and Versace’s models are dressed in reflective gold.

Various factors have brought about these changes in the fashion industry. Designers are business people: They want to make money, so they inevitably try to predict what their clients will want to buy. So, they have to predict what shifts in society will influence what types of clothing people want to buy. Sally Singer, of Vogue, pointed out that since 9/11, fashion shifted to softer pieces that allowed people some escape from a harsh world. However, the new move towards away from romanticizing life and towards futuristic and harder looks may indicate that society is finally recovering from the trauma of being involved in war.

Societal shifts have the power to make ugly into beautiful and tacky into trendy. Dressing like a character in a science fiction movie would have seemed ludicrous a few seasons ago. Yet shifts in what is considered “beautiful” or “fashionable” occur constantly for lots of different reasons. Looks that previously were the epitome of tacky and bizarre (blue eye shadow…pleather…) are now in fact “cool.”

What is awkward somehow sometimes becomes something fun and new. But we should know that by now. We go to Northwestern.