Real mannequins

Think you’re not beautiful? A British fashion retailer tells you otherwise through its positive body image campaign.

INCLUSIVITY is the current buzz word and beauty brands are now including plus sized women or women who have vitiligo as muses.

According to British business media brand Campaign, Missguided – a British retail company – has introduced an ongoing campaign, launched in December 2017, in an effort to change body image attitudes within the fashion industry.

While this is not entirely new as the fashion runways have already included models of various sizes and ages, Missguided’s campaign is groundbreaking as they have started to look at their store mannequins.

By introducing a range of diverse mannequins in their stores, customers will see stretch marks or vitiligo on them thus encouraging positive body image attitudes.

Missguided also introduced a range representing diverse ethnic backgrounds. This enables customers from various races and colour to be able to see how clothing looks on these pioneering mannequins.

Makeup artists also added natural body features such as stretch marks, freckles and vitiligo on them.

The mannequins are part of Missguided’s ongoing campaign, #makeyourmark, which was launched last December.

The brand had pledged to include stretch marks and other industry perceived “flaws” in their model imagery.

They also decided to stop retouching their models’ stretch marks and this received an outpouring of support in social media with Missguided’s Instagram getting more than 122,000 likes and 3,040 retweets.

Now, if only other retailers will jump on this forward thinking bandwagon. – Sandra Low

Missguided, a British retail company, has introduced an ongoing campaign in an effort to change body image attitudes within the fashion industry. — Photos: Missguided

A store front of the British retailer Missguided.

When a little girl with vitiligo sees a mannequin with vitiligo in a retail store it tells her she’s enough and she’s normal.

Missguided stores showing varying features on someone with vitiligo.

Missguided hired makeup artists to add natural body features such as stretch marks, freckles and vitiligo on their mannequins.