Rad: ModCloth Officially The First Retailer To Stop Airbrushing Models
I’ve always thought ModCloth was rad. Every time my sister bounces out of her closet looking cute as f***, I always ask her where she got her adorbs clothes and the answer is inevitably, “ModCloth” (or sometimes it’s “I stole it from YOUR closet Kit,” but that’s a story for another time). Some of my favorite jewelry is from ModCloth. I even got my BRIDESMAID DRESSES for my wedding at ModCloth, and the girls all looked like garden-party angels without having to spend several hundred bucks on a dress that they would only ever wear once (in the age of Facebook and Instagram, where are you going to wear that bridesmaid dress you were photographed and tagged in a gazillion times on social? Dance parties in your bedroom are basically your only option unless you have Pretty in Pink-level dress-altering skills).
ModCloth has always been rad, but now it’s thrown its rad into overdrive with the announcement that it will no longer airbrush its models. The online retailer is the first fashion company to sign an anti-Photoshopping pledge, a bill that falls under the Truth in Advertising Act, that orders fashion companies not to physically alter their models in post-production. So whatever kind of nose/jawline/waist/boobs/thighs/bottom a ModCloth model has in real life, that’s the nose/jawline/waist/boobs/thighs we’ll be seeing in ModCloth’s images.
If a fashion company does alter its images, the bill states that the company must clearly label said image, informing consumers that what they are seeing has been digitally altered—like how cigarettes have to put that “This could kill you” label on all their packages. Any fashion company that signs on will be similarly responsible for damage their false advertising does.
The bill was launched by Los Angeles father Seth Matlins (who will henceforth be known as “Heavy Contender for ‘Best Dad Ever’”) who knew he had to wage war against Photoshopping after seeing how fashion’s false advertising was damaging his two daughters. This past May, while putting one of his daughters to bed, she looked up at her dad and asked Matlins, “Daddy, do you think I’m ugly?”
“My heart shatters into a thousand pieces, and I don’t even know what to say,” Matlins confessed.
Matlins has since quit his job (as a CMO for an events company) and now is devoting all his time to radically changing the fashion advertising industry.
“Please be a part of the solution and a hero,” Matlins begs advertisers. “Please consider that you are responsible for the side effects of how you sell as surely as you are for what you sell.”
ModCloth, for one, is more than happy to oblige Matlins‘ requests.
‘We’ve never been a company that has misrepresented or altered the photos of our models,” says ModCloth CMO Nancy Ramamurthi. “We’ve had hundreds of independent designers all produce clothing on our site and we’ve really worked hard to ensure they’re for women of all sizes.”
Clearly, going Photoshop-free was the inevitable next step for this fashion company that puts the well-being of their lady consumers first. Good on you, ModCloth. Thanks for giving me one more reason (and a HUGE reason at that) to buy your stuff and think you’re super-great.
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