Let’s be honest: many of us watch the Victoria Secret fashion show every year and are envious of the Victoria Secret “Angels” perfect bodies, hair, and makeup. Realistically, we know that many women don’t look like a Victoria’s Secret model but seeing this well-known brand praise this body type, it’s hard not to feel bad about ones self for not living up to that standard.
That is why Lane Bryant, a popular plus sized clothing brand, created the “#ImNoAngel campaign that features models with plus sized models.
“Our ‘#ImNoAngel’ campaign is designed to empower ALL women to love every part of herself,” Chief Executive Officer Linda Heasley said. “Lane Bryant firmly believes that she is sexy and we want to encourage her to confidently show it, in her own way.”
The ad, which premiered on YouTube, showed several plus a sized woman in lingerie talking about how being a different size is still sexy. “How boring would it be if we were all the same?” one of the models said.
Their goal is to redefine sexy and show that there is no such thing as the perfect body. Each week, Lane Bryant’s website will highlight one of the models, including a biography of themselves and their thoughts about how they feel beautiful. The first week of the campaign’s model was Ashley Graham. Ashley said, “Rules were meant to be broken, that’s why I don’t have any.” She has had spreads in Sports Illustrated, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar. Ashley wants to break the social norms of modeling and show that everyone is beautiful in many ways.
Lane Bryant’s website also encourages women to take pictures showing what they love about themselves and using the hashtag #ImNoAngel. So far it has been a social media hit, receiving tons of positive feedback.
Some negative criticism of the campaign is that it bullies skinny people. The point of the campaign is that one is beautiful at any size, skinny, strong, bigger, etc. There’s no wrong “size” a women should be, but this ad represents a type of women that is not represented a lot in the media. It is important to show a variety of women so that girls should never be pressured to look a certain way.
This is the start of what may be to come in the fashion industry-less skinny models, more real sized. A few years ago, Dove did something similar with having models of all different sizes. Will having models with a variety of sizes be the new trend? That sure is something that people will be keeping an eye out for.