American Eagle's Lingerie Line Features Non-Airbrushed Models
In an industry where busty, skinny, seemingly perfect lingerie models dominate, American Eagle's new lingerie line, "Aerie Real," aims to do something different.
The line will kick off its spring collection by featuring its items on models who look more like the "real" women with "real" curves with absolutely no airbrushing.
In an interview with ABC News' Juju Chang, Jenny Altman, the line's style and fit expert, explained the thinking behind the unconventional approach.
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"We left everything. We left beauty marks, we left tattoos, what you see is really what you get with our campaign," she said, adding that it was important to represent reality. "It's a selling point because our customers represent this great demographic and they don't really get to see what girls their age really look like."
Because the line caters to young clients, American Eagle features bra specialist who help achieve the perfect fit.
Those who prefer to shop online can now see how the bra they like would fit a model with a similar body type and bra size as their own. Being able to see the items on those models in A cup or a D cup will help customers visualize the items on their own bodies, Altman said.
"They are still models, they're still gorgeous, they just look a little more like the rest of us," she said.
"We're hoping to break the mold … we hope by embracing this that real girls everywhere will start to embrace their own beauty," Altman added.
The fashion industry has long been criticized for promoting unhealthy body image expectations in girls and women by featuring very thin models whose images have been digitally altered to remove any seeming imperfections.
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Other brands that have recently also focused their marketing campaigns on appealing to the average women include Dove's "real beauty" campaign and Pantene's "Shine Strong" commercial about sexism in the workplace.
Emma Bazilian, a staff writer for Adweek, talked about the significance of the Aerie campaign.
"The difference between the Aerie real campaign and, for instance, a Victoria's Secret campaign, is that Victoria's Secret … they completely airbrush out every single blemish or stretch mark," Bazilian said.
"Hopefully, this is a new age in advertising for female empowerment."