What a refreshing development – Debenhams, a UK retail store, is running a swim campaign by loudly renouncing retouched photos.

Yes, selling swimsuits by showing images of models that haven’t had their arms literally shaved off and their waists whittled to unbelievable proportions. Could it really be true?

Yes. The store’s windows display large, clear images of un-retouched bikini models next to a “typical retouched” photo of the same girl.

Sadly, the photo on the right looks more familiar for a catalogue or product image, doesn’t it? How nice is it to see a literally real girl wearing a bikini and looking amazing, though? We can only hope that this is a big step for retailers.

As if Debenhams hadn’t done enough, they also supplied an image detailing how the retouched photo was created. Outlining every single change to this beautiful model’s body, as is typically done in photoshopped product photos. The image is a little shocking, and a bit disheartening.

Good lord. And people try to argue that the idea that beauty standards are not being enforced by the media and retailers. This is hard evidence that we are all being manipulated. Accompanying these photos and this campaign, the Creative Director of Debenham’s had some great things to say about his vision:

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 organisations 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 unairbrushed but over-lit images as a shock tactic.

We only wish that we lived in the UK so we could support this progressive, forward-thinking, and body-positive organization.

Have you seen any other campaigns like this?
Tell us!

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To contact Lindsay Ginn, the author of this post, please send a note to lindsay@thedemoiselles.com, or use our contact form.

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