5 fashion brands that totally promote body positivity
We live in an amazing time for shopping: all we have to do is open up our web browser and there are literally thousands of retailers at our fingertips. With free returns and online reviews, it’s never been easier to spend your hard-earned cash on a cute top or adorable pair of shoes.
And yet, with the plethora of fashion outlets out there, there are surprisingly few that promote body positivity. Victoria’s Secret ran into trouble a few years ago with their Perfect Body campaign, and sadly, not much has changed. Most fashion designers still cater to those impossible standards of beauty that leave us ladies with feelings of self-loathing.
Luckily for us, there are brands out there who are more interested in promoting body positivity than sales. Below are a list of our five favorites, in no particular order.
Aerie
American Eagle bra-and-underwear offshoot Aerie has been OWNING IT lately with their body positivity. In 2014, Aerie announced they would stop photoshopping their models as part of its #AerieReal campaign, and they’ve pretty much been our favorite fashion line ever since. Even their Instagram is full of body friendly images:
Aerie‘s advertising builds off the phrase “the real you is sexy,” and we couldn’t agree more. The brand also lends support to the National Eating Disorders Association, and encourages fans to share authentic pictures of themselves with the #AerieReal hashtag. As of right now, there are over 37,000 posts with that hashtag. We can’t wait for the number of posts to reach over a million.
Rebdolls
Providing “unapologetic fashion to women sizes 0 to 28,” Rebdolls is an online fashion retailer shaking up the industry with its “girls kick ass” mentality. We love how free and happy and, well, real, the women on the Rebdolls Instagram look. They’re badass AF, and they know it:
Slay, ladies!
Bluestockings Boutique
Queer-identified Jeanna Kadlec founded Bluestockings Boutique with this amazing mission:
Bluestockings Boutique gives back to the causes they believe in. They have financially supported Fenway Health, Boston Pride, The Trevor Project, The Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Planned Parenthood, and Metavivor, and they have sponsored “badass feminist, queer-friendly media and organizations like Bitch Magazine, Offbeat Bride, Ladypreneur League’s LEAP Conference, and The Femme Show.”
All this, and their clothes are awesome? Miracles do exist.
The online retailer is dedicated to bringing its customers #underthingsforeveryone. This means a wider range of sizes (XS-4X) and styles (including binders and packing briefs). As their website explains:
We seriously couldn’t agree more.
SmartGlamour
SmartGlamour is “an affordable, fashionable, and customizable ethical clothing line for people of all shapes, sizes, heights, ages, identities, and styles,” all designed by Mallorie Dunn. This means SmartGlamour’s clothing comes in a large variety of sizes, from XXS and petite to 6X. Plus, every piece of clothing is customized, and thus guaranteed to hug your body in all the right places—places right for you, not for the majority. Because you most certainly are a unique snowflake.
According to Dunn’s website:
These are goals we can totally get on board with!
Modcloth
We absolutely must mention online retailer Modcloth, as they were the first fashion retailer to sign the Heroes Pledge for Advertisers, which asked retailers to “do [their] best not to change the shape, size, proportion, color and/or remove/enhance the physical features” of their models in Photoshop, or to label those pictures if they do.
According to Modcloth’s CMO Nancy Ramamurthi, “We don’t have professional models on our site … We’ve never been a company that has misrepresented or altered the photos of our models.”
Modcloth was doing this before it was cool, and while there are plenty of companies out there embracing this model—such as the ones we’ve already mentioned in this article—Modcloth deserves a nod for embracing (if not spearheading) the trend of larger retailers supporting body positivity. Plus, their clothes (which come in sizes XS to 4X) are fabulous: