5 Lingerie Ads That Prove Beauty Standards Are Changing

New media is on the cusp of learning that standards in fashion and beauty need to change; the lingerie industry is no exception. Just as everyone needs to get dressed in the morning, every woman needs to wear lingerie. If a woman wants to wear cute or sexy lingerie, she should know she has the option to regardless of her size or her looks, and advertising needs to make these women know that it’s available. At Now That’s Lingerie, we celebrate all women and their unique shapes, looks, quirks, insecurities, et cetera. We have made the utmost effort to ensure all women can shop on the website and see images that represent them related to products that represent them.

In order to continue celebrating women, we’ve compiled give lingerie ads that prove beauty standards are changing. Attitudes are shifting in advertising to move forward into a body-positive new world.

Curvy Kate & Its Response to Victoria’s Secret

Curvy Kate is a UK brand of sexy and youthful lingerie, designed for women from D to K, and we are extremely proud to offer a selection of their product on Now That’s Lingerie. We are also proud of their continual advertising efforts that showcase beautiful women of all shapes, sizes, body types, and cultures.
Earlier this year, when Victoria’s Secret published their ad featuring several of their models with a slogan “a body for every body,” a lot of offence and hate ensued. Curvy Kate responded in a subtle yet effective way, recreating a photo very similar to the original. In it, a diverse-looking range of women appeared, all smiles, in nude lingerie. A related contest to find a new model was intertwined into their campaign, which was so clever. Not only did Curvy Kate use a popular controversial ad to bring light to their amazing work, but they also displayed how they want to continue using the women they design for in their ads!

#ImNoAngel

Lane Bryant is quite the established brand for offering the latest trends and exquisite fashion to women off all sizes and with a wide range of body types. So when Lane Bryant was launching a new lingerie line and needed to come up with a campaign, the company used some well-known curvy models and created a beautiful snapshot of them all clad in the gorgeous lingerie. Along the black and white image was sprawled #ImNoAngel.
Each model took to social media to describe what that hashtag meant to them, sparking a bigger conversation about the need for women to move past the more popular images declared as sexy and redefine it for ourselves. Each model looked stunning and youthful with minimal makeup and natural hair, which is almost never seen in lingerie advertisements.

#IamSizeSexy

Ashley Graham is probably one of the most famous models right now; she uses her fame as a platform to discuss issues that she feels drawn to. As Graham has modelled lingerie quite a bit, she’s created her own line and decided that instead of just promoting bras and panties, she would also promote her battle for media, women, and critics to become more secure with a diverse range of physical differences and start promoting love and acceptance, rather than judgement and disgust.

Graham’s line can be found at Additionelle and other retailers, and her social media posts contain the hashtag #IamSizeSexy. She promotes a new idea to be adopted that womens’ sizes don’t really matter; a woman can feel sexy and look sexy no matter what.

The What’s Underneath Project

While this isn’t necessarily a lingerie ad, this campaign features women becoming real about their body image thoughts and concerns while slowly undressing. Allowing someone to see you in your lingerie, especially when you don’t fit society’s ideal, can be daunting, scary, and the level of exposure makes you extremely vulnerable. On Style Like U, women are filmed talking about a multitude of different subjects related to their bodies. It’s engaging, it’s raw, and it’s one of the most powerful things to have been done in new media in a long time.

Young Starlet Goes Un-Retouched for Lingerie Ad

It’s not just curvy women that need reassurance; it’s young girls too, as attitudes about negative self-body image manifest early in age. We heard about Aerie refusing to photoshop any of their models last year, and when darling 24-year-old actress Emma Roberts starred in her own campaign for Aerie, she agreed to go without photoshop. Of course, Roberts is beautiful and youthful, but for someone so young and successful, at the prime of her career, to go photoshop free in such a vulnerable way was an effort by her to show young girls that allowing themselves to be real on a large platform is beautiful. When celebrities make moves like these, they are powerful and reach a lot of people who are still influenced by outside sources.

We hope sharing these advertisements with you fill you with hope that progress is being made, whether perfect or imperfect, towards recognizing every type of beauty. Which one of these moved you the most? Share with us in the comments below, or on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and YouTube!