Bravo! Bravo! With Vogue responding to Jezebel regarding the whole Lena Dunham cover and all that jazz to countless funny photoshop fails, it’s about time a brand took a stand and made it known that all girls are beautiful and to respect your body. We’re so happy that it’s aerie, sister brand to American Eagle, that is known for engaging their own community of shoppers.
The aerie Real campaign is huge push in the right direction for fashion brands. Specifically, major brands that you’d tend to find in the malls have always employed retouchers to make the model their ideal customer. It’s great that a brand with such a national reach is showing exactly who their customer is! They’re not flaunting around the girls that you’d see retouched and slimmed down across the hallway in an Abercrombie. They want their customers to feel just as comfortable in their jeans as they do in an adorable boy short.
Jennifer Foyle, aerie’s Chief Merchandising Officer, is super excited about the campaign and said,“The purpose of ‘aerie Real’ is to communicate there is no need to retouch beauty, and togive young women of all shapes and sizes the chance to discover amazing styles thatwork best for them.” I think we can all agree that it’s during your high school years that you either start to love or hate your body. And who’s the aerie customer? It’s the girls that need to be empowered and taught to be comfortable in their own skin.
While discussing the campaign with a friend the other day, it was brought up that these girls are still slender and naturally pretty. That’s true. The brand could be doing so much more. But aren’t they doing more than any brand out there? The retouching that happens in ad campaigns, fashion spreads and just about anything you see in a magazine tends to be pretty drastic. With aerie Real you’re seeing the curves in these girls, the rolls in their stomach and they look fucking beautiful. I’m a gay man but I don’t think the ass pictured above needs to be altered at all.
What else? The brand launched a full-on bra guide that features un-retouched models in similar bra sizes. You can check that out here. The campaign was shot by John Urbano and we think he did a beautiful job. Bravo!
Photos c/o aerie
