Curvy Kate is a body-positive lingerie and swimwear brand from the UK that carries D-K cups and is known for its advertisements featuring women of diverse ages, races, and sizes, as well as disabled women and trans women. Now, they’ve created two different campaigns starring the same woman, Megan Jayne Crabbe, who you may know as Instagram star @bodyposipanda (she’s got 728,000 followers and counting!). The two campaigns show Megan in the same lingerie but in different poses and lighting, to show, as Curvy Kate puts it, “the truth about lingerie shoots.”
Last year, Curvy Kate approached Megan to star in their #TheNewSexy campaign, which was released in July 2016. Megan joined a number of other diverse women who posed in Curvy Kate’s lingerie and shared their stories about body positivity. The photoshoot was unretouched but showed the women in traditional lingerie ad poses.
But after the shoot, Megan posted a photo to her Instagram showing her after the shoot was over — still wearing the same lingerie, but with no makeup, unstyled hair, and a pose that showed a few belly rolls. She wrote:
“Because if you’re gonna see the posed, polished, professional version, I’m sure as hell gonna make sure you see this one too. Embracing my belly rolls, celebrating my softness. I know the world wants me to value myself higher in one of these pictures, to worship what’s ‘flattering’ and be ashamed of what’s not. Well I refuse to feel that shame. I’m worthy of self love either way, and I choose to see the beauty in both. Same body, same underwear, same person underneath – that’s the only part that really matters. “
Curvy Kate then decided to partner with Megan to create a new campaign — one that showed photos of Megan made up and posed in lingerie, alongside photos of her in the same lingerie, but with no makeup or hairstyling and in less “flattering” poses.
On her Instagram, Megan wrote:
REAL TALK: the photo on the left is staged as hell. I was told where to put my legs, how to angle my arm, which way to tilt my hips and even how to hold my fingers. My eyes were watering from the false lashes and my hair will probably never look like that again. THESE ARE THE TYPE OF IMAGES WE COMPARE OURSELVES TO EVERYDAY! A posed, polished, perfectly lit snapshot of the highlight reel.
Except this photoshoot was different, because after all the typically ‘flattering’ lingerie posing, @curvykate asked me to go home and recreate the pictures make-up free, hair undone and relaxed. Because behind-the-scenes deserves to be celebrated too! Our bodies are glorious from every angle. Posed or unposed. Polished or not.
And we sure as hell don’t need to compare ourselves to anybody’s highlight reel, after all, the model in the magazine doesn’t even look like the model in the magazine most of the time.
See a few more photos from the campaign below:
See more on Curvy Kate’s blog and Megan’s Instagram @bodyposipanda.
This post was published on April 3, 2017
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