You won’t believe the amount of controversy this image has caused.
When Selfridges relaunched their lingerie and activewear department, they rechristened it ‘The Body Studio‘. It is, without a doubt absolutely stunning, a shopping haven, calm, serene, beautiful, a pleasure to browse and it has what is simply delicious, a Hemsley and Hemsley Cafe, where you can basically eat all the food you may have tried and failed to successfully make at home.
The idea of the Body Studio and the way Selfridges went about launching it, was to tap into the more health conscious and holistic focussed consumer. Smart right – because although we are the most obese as a nation we have ever been, technically we have never been more obsessed with being healthy – so weird.
So Selfridges, tapping into the consumer that is more aware of their health and body image and more so than that, diversity and body positivity decided to throw all their fashion principles out the window and hire a diverse group of women for the launch photo shoot that would adorn the walls of the store and the window displays. And it is this campaign that said controversial image, of Bridge Model Mahalia Handley was a part of.
*Background over* So why so controversial – isn’t it just epic that a store like Selfridges remembered that women over a size 8 by underwear too?
Well, step in social media and while those of us who want diversity cheered, health trolls decided that said model was unhealthy and Selfridges was ‘irresponsible’ for using her – after all, how could she be healthy.
We are it seems a long way off the day when we can all both accept that we all have different body shapes and that while health is great it can not be determined by size, but equally healthy and unhealthy people deserve love, representation and respect. But until then, every time another brand embracing women in all their glory, we like to think that another trolls keyboard breaks…
Well we can but hope!
Model is wearing: Fran Tulle Balconette Bra by Adina Reay available 30DD-36G