What is "real" beauty?
Interesting how some people view beauty. Unattainable, perfect, smooth, un-blemished, skinny, impossible. I'm sure you have your own words and definitions for "magazine beauty". I'm happy that mainstream brands are now jumping on the long overdue bandwagon of exposing the realities of media.
The U.K. department store, Debenhams, is selling swimwear with un-retouched images of swimsuit models. The store's windows display an un-retouched shot of a model next to the same shot with typical retouching.
Another image details the alterations that would have gone into the usual retouched swim campaign.
This girl has no armpit, no eye bags, no skin folds, and no thighs. Yet judging by this example, Debenhams doesn't seem like as egregious a re-toucher as many other advertisers and media outlets.
This model, not being as frail as so many are, didn't need any protruding bones filled in and smoothed over.
Debenham's creative director Mark Woods said:
'As a responsible retailer we want to help customers make the most of their beauty without bombarding them with unattainable body images.
'Our campaign is all about making women feel good about themselves - not eroding their self belief and esteem by using false comparisons.
'Not only does it make sense from a moral point of view, it ticks the economic boxes as well. Millions of pounds a year are spent by organizations retouching perfectly good images.
'As a rule we only airbrush minor things like pigmentation or stray hair and rely on the natural beauty of models to make our product look great.
'We are proud to bring the issue of re-touching into the main stream when the likes of Britney Spears and Madonna are using un-airbrushed but over-lit images as a shock tactic.'
This is a great move. It all goes to show the model didn't need the retouching anyway! And she's not the only one — that's why they're models, right?
Comments