The move by the fashion brand to not Photoshop out flaws has been met with a positive response.
Online retail giant ASOS seems to be taking direction from the body positivity movement by featuring models with bodies that show stretch marks.
It’s a big leap forward when you consider that culturally we’re fed an endless stream of digitally perfect images which never allows even the tiniest amount of dimpled flesh or sagging skin to be seen.
While the move to using more realistic-looking women is no doubt a huge step for the mammoth organisation, it’s a charge we believe has been led for some time now in New Zealand by Lonely lingerie founder Helene Morris.
One of the stars of the Lonely campaign, Kiwi model Georgia Pratt.
Although Lonely has been using unretouched images for quite a while, earlier this year the lingerie brand launched a major campaign that elevated ‘real’ women in a way that hadn’t been seen before.
Featuring models from diverse backgrounds, each woman was beautifully shot wearing the lingerie sets and not a single image was altered.
Speaking at the time of the campaign launch, Morris said: “Through intimate portraits of nine inspiring women, we celebrate our differences, our different ages, our different bodies, our different stories [and] the differences that make us who we are.”
Lonely made even more of a statement with a billboard at an intersection of a busy Auckland street showing a model’s stretch marks in all their glory.
It was impactful, and difficult to look away from. It reminded us that we’re perfect, even if that ideal of perfection stands outside of a set of inscribed beliefs. It was powerful, and we loved it.
https://twitter.com/OliviaTuffrey/status/709114619219058689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2017%2F06%2F29%2Fasos-hasnt-been-editing-out-models-stretchmarks-and-people-are-loving-it-6743436%2F
And now it would seem the world is starting to sit up and take notice too.
Metro.co.uk reports fans of ASOS have taken to social media to show their support for brand’s decision to use models whose bodies – while perfect – haven’t been digitally altered.
While the first sign of the brand showing models with stretchmarks was seen back in 2016, recently there’s been a groundswell of awareness of the unedited images among its shoppers.
https://twitter.com/amyrowlandsx/status/880034693432913921
A recent social media post by Twitter user Amy showed a model wearing a tie dye Pull and Bear bikini with her stretchmarks clearly on display. She captioned it: “So impressed with @Asos for not airbrushing the models’ stretchmarks. She looks amazing!”
So far the tweet has racked up more than 40,000 retweets meaning there are plenty of us out there excited by the brand’s natural representation of the model’s body.
https://twitter.com/leahtudorx/status/880147773039022080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2017%2F06%2F29%2Fasos-hasnt-been-editing-out-models-stretchmarks-and-people-are-loving-it-6743436%2F
Although this image is only one example, other social media users have posted other examples showing the brand’s support for body diversity.
While you could say it’s a pretty sad indictment of the times we live in that mean natural representations of women’s bodies are cause for celebration, the fact remains we’re collectively heading towards greater body acceptance – for all women – and this is something we can all be proud of.
