Russian brands of underwear for real women
In early November, right after its annual showing, Victoria's Secret was at the center of the scandal: the marketing director of the American brand Ed Rasek was accused of bodybuilding and transphobia. When asked by an American Vogue journalist, when transgender and plus-size models appear on the “angel” podium, the manager replied: “I don’t think we should. Why? Because our show is fantasy. This is 42 minutes of special pleasure, the only thing world. " A few days later, Victoria's Secret apologized on her twitter page, but it was too late. Even the singer and LGBT activist Halsey, who had recently taken part in the underwear show, spoke out against the brand. “As a member of the LGBT community, I cannot tolerate a lack of inclusiveness. Especially when it is based on stereotype,” she writes. The outcome was a quick one: the CEO of the brand, Jan Singer, paid for the sloppy words of the marketing director - she resigned.
The fact that the American brand stubbornly follows the canons of “traditional” beauty and denies its models the right to be women with a “Neangel” figure, we wrote before the show and the scandal. The multi-million dollar business was rather cumbersome and unwilling to change, and this despite significant financial problems. However, this opens up opportunities for small indie brands that invite all sorts of women of all sizes to become their customers. We talked with representatives of Russian underwear brands about the evolution of body perception and what customers want.
TEXT: Anton Danilov, author of the Telegram channel "Promeminizm"
Le Journal Intime
Natalia Voinich
founder of the brand
Tatyana Valenovich
marketing director
Our brand exists since 2015. At first, we wanted to create underwear with a corrective effect that would look aesthetically pleasing - so that a woman would not be embarrassed that she was in corrective underwear. We created the first collections together with French designers. These were quite complex models combining compression material, lace, velvet ribbons, large clasps. It was something intermediate between lingerie and clothes. At the same time, we began to develop our own collections in a completely different, minimalist style. He turned out to be much more popular among our clients.
For us, bodipositive in clothes and underwear is the choice of products that are comfortable in the first place, pleasant, do not harm health and at the same time emphasize appearance. The main focus is on comfort: our bras do not have pits and push-ups, they support the breast due to elastic mesh knitwear and a special design that repeats the natural shape of the breast. The transparent material from which we produce most of the collections is very comfortable, as it allows air and moisture to pass freely. He is like a second skin.
Evaluation of female attractiveness is changing - it always has been. Our audience responds to photography with ordinary women or non-standard models: people are simply tired of the "ideal" pictures. We show that our clothes look great in everyday life. Of course, this strategy always increases confidence - after all, on the "ideal" models, everything will sit accordingly. We often receive letters of gratitude from women tormented by close push-ups with chafing stones.
Trusbox
Anna Gorodetskaya
brand co-founder
Our brand is five years old, and from the moment of its foundation its concept has not changed: as we were the femory-oriented brand of linen, we remain the same. Our audience grew and changed - for example, we had requests for lingerie for nursing mothers. We were the first in the segment of designer Russian linen began to shoot non-standard models. We did the first shooting with the plus-size models. She was not a one-time experience: we show all our lingerie on girls with different bodies and actively use these photos in advertising and on the website. Specifying the size of the linen, we do not say that it is “big” or “small”, but simply write the number.
We follow the size range. In the assortment of our brand, there are always models of linen at least up to size L. In addition, we agreed with one of the designers about the possibility to sew clothes to order and for any other sizes: at our request she adapted the models so that they could be "planted" on any shape. We took this step because we understand that small designer brands do not have the ability to make underwear beyond the size of L-XL, and also cannot keep it in stock at all times. The fact is that underwear of this size is not particularly bought online: customers prefer to measure it. At the same time, these dimensions cannot be obtained by simply scaling the patterns, they will require manual adjustment, and it simply will not pay off from small brands.
It seems to us that sexuality in a vacuum does not exist, it always exists for someone. For example, I prefer girls of medium height with sharp cheekbones, but what will be considered attractive for someone else is his or her business. We do not position our underwear as a means of increasing sex appeal and do not believe that underwear is within our power.
Now more and more often images are used that can be attributed to the group of "strong woman", "rebel". The canonical, “feminine” picture, of course, also sells - the only question is who and to whom. I think that if this visual solution was not successful, it would not be used so massively. A huge number of brands (and customers) only works with such a visual line - and they feel great. Our clients are not homogeneous: some people like our ideas, some don't. Someone praises us for courage, but adds that "there must be a line," someone says that "this is the only way." In general, our audience, of course, supports our choice not to retouch (only technical), our choice of models (from XS to XL and more) and our style. Otherwise, we would simply not do it.
Petra
Veronica Khan
founder and brand designer
Our brand exists for three years. At first, we just brought beautiful lingerie that we liked, we didn’t seriously think about the real needs of our clients. Now we understand that everyone has different tastes, and the mood can change. Today, for example, I want to feel sexy, so I will wear unusual lace lingerie. Another day you want comfort - for this we have our Basic line or knitted Odaliska. At first, we were often asked about the tight cup and push-up, but today it is extremely rare: clients increasingly like thin cups without additional inserts.
We do not think about the standards of beauty in our work: attitude to beauty is a personal matter of each girl. Bodypositive promotes diversity in appearance - and we are all for it. We are interested in a woman who is left alone with her thoughts. It is important for us that she feel comfortable with herself. That she put on our underwear, admired herself in the mirror and enjoyed the inner harmony.
Female sexuality today is sensuality and the ability to express the features of your personality. Of course, everything is changing rapidly: today, people understand and accept that beauty can be very different. "Ideal" women's bodies in the advertising of underwear - this is an outdated concept, but for some, this scheme still works. I hope that we can expand the concept of beauty.
Lovegoods
Olga Kolchenko
founder of the brand
We have been working since the summer of 2015, and during this time a lot has changed - except for our concept. We started as a brand of individual underwear sewing, and this option is still on our website. The wishes of our clients are rather static: our target audience loves basic underwear at a price that is adequate to today's Russian economy. Sometimes we add something completely new to the range. For example, jewelry for the body of silver or knitted cotton linen - and our clients are very fond of such collections. I am glad that they allow us to experiment.
The last two months, together with the photographer Lucy Zharikova, we have been working on the project #pathmoemiel. It is very important for me to say that Lucy is a person with a special vision and some kind of psychotherapeutic approach to photography. Her works are stories about relationships with people, packed in a photograph. It was she who suggested that I move away from the standard underwear shooting and "tell stories." We have already shot actress Varvara Shmykov, photographer Anisy Kuzmina, set designer Masha Melkosyants and sisters of Davydov: designer Margarita of the Davydova London brand and photographer Jan. The whole essence of the project, as well as the essence of bodipositive for me, is to show that beauty is not finite, not framed, not standardized and not as narrow as the media give us. I instill the same philosophy in my brand: bodypositive is not "beauty of girls with different types of figures", it is an absolute acceptance of the fact that everything comes from the head, including our attitude towards ourselves and others. Under the hashtag # of the pathmoker, we collect all the stories, photos, and generally everything that we get every day. For me, this project is one of the central ones in 2019. I really want us to allow ourselves to love ourselves and others to look the way they want.
I never objectified "female sex appeal", did not try to sell it in Lovegoods packages. The most sexy thing I've seen lately is the work of the photographer Yura Treskov. Yes, the girls in his pictures look like unearthly creatures, with the longest legs in the world and “perfect” proportions - but he loves women, and every frame is saturated with this love.
I have collected about twenty reproaches in my notes, which I copied from comments under the posts of Lovegoods in instagram. Critics write that our brand is trying to "jump into the last car of feminism," and our posts about body positive and self-acceptance are profanity. In general, the meaning is this: you simply beat out more money from us with your naturalistic images and bold texts. In my opinion, the best selling and selling of good quality products, service and the word of mouth following them - not posts on Instagram, cooperation with bloggers, special projects and so on. This does not mean that we do not have them - this means that the value of our company is quite different.
Petrushka
Alexandra Snegova
founder and brand designer
The brand has existed since April 2015, and its concept has not changed since its inception. Now, like three years ago, we are trying to create unusual things that are not found in stores and other manufacturers. Body-positive for us is first and foremost an acceptance of oneself, with all its strengths and weaknesses. We have always believed that every girl, every woman is beautiful: at twenty, at forty, and at sixty. It doesn't matter what she looks like, what her hair color is, whether she likes tattoos or piercings: beauty is her absolute quality. That is why we work with models of different types, our brand was the first in Russia to take a representative of Oldushka modeling agency Tatyana Neklyudova in an advertising campaign for underwear.
I am very pleased that recently the industry has been changing - and is changing for the better. Many not only western, but also Russian companies refuse photoshop, show real people in their catalogs, not their photo copies. Unfortunately, in Russia, not all clients are ready to accept this, but we are moving in the right direction! Many responded to the shooting with Tatyana, and the reaction was positive.
COVER: Trusbox