Helen Kukovski is a small family brand and we don't spend much on ads. But we follow high profile mass market brands and are worried with the low diversity of models casting in the photo and video ads. This problem always worried me, and maybe that was one of the reasons why I've started Helen Kukovski. I wish every woman has sexy and quality items in her wardrobe that emphasize her sexuality instead of shaming for her shape or age or ... you add.

I returned to this topic because of the most recent incident happened with Livi Rae boutique in Georgia, a shop that obviously has much in common with HK in the attitude to this problem. Have you heard about it? This small business has been criticized for being too diverse in selection of models for it's in-store campaign! Landlord asked to remove this window display:

A post shared by LiviRae Lingerie (@liviraelingerie) on Mar 9, 2017 at 12:37pm PST

explaining that it's "in bad taste". I'm sure the landlord would prefer some Victoria's "angels" instead of real women, so his building front looks "properly". I don't blame him, he's just a product of publicly accepted attitude to women's bodies. Instead, let's look at the numbers.

While leaving much space for improvement the problem of fashion models diversity attracts more and more attention. The Fashion Spot magazine started tracking body diversity on fashion show runways in 2016. In it's latest report the magazine is optimistic about trends but look at the numbers. Only 0.43% of castings were allocated for plus-size models! Even less for models over age 50: 0.29%, and 0.17% - for transgender models. Well, positive thing is that 27.9% of models were women of color, but the fact that other 3 major groups were represented by less than 1% is NOT OK. So, returning to the place where we left our Georgian landlord - what may you expect from people who live in this body/race/age/gender shaming world? It's not him, it's all us who need to change.

I'm thinking of the reasons why all those global fashion brands don't recognize such major groups of people. I'm afraid that diversity simply wasn't coded into their DNA and thus they don't have a chance to change. They live in the world populated only by young white thin models. It sounds stupid but what they actually do from the business point of view is ignoring their major target audience. And this can't last forever, such brands will have to change or die.

Help spreading the word, share this post, support diversity in fashion, love yourself :)

Helen Kukovski's Mint Lace Bra

We at Helen Kukovski apply all our experience and knowledge to give the best lingerie and swimwear for everybody. We offer a constantly growing wide number of sizes. We don't charge extra money for plus-size or slight changes in shape, because you deserve it by default.