I’ve spent a lot of my career in the media grumbling about the media. Specifically, the way it portrays women: woefully.
In particular the women we see in magazines and fashion and in advertising almost always conform the most narrow template: very tall, painfully thin, white and young.
It’s always the default for what those industries present as attractive, desirable, feminine and glamourous. As if there’s only one type of body shape, age, weight and skin colour to which we should all aspire. Please.
That’s why I always like to shout out whenever someone pushes the other way and chooses to promote diversity.
By using women in your advertising and to showcase your brand who don’t conform to that suffocatingly narrow ideal, you do all women a great favour.
Because consciously or otherwise, the companies marketing products to women – products we want to buy! – are the gatekeepers of our self image.
So it was with a song in my heart that I saw the latest campaign from Australian fashion label Gorman, featuring this gorgeous woman. (Post continues after gallery.)
I’ve had the odd flirtation with Gorman over the years. Attracted by their bold, fun prints, I’ve regularly popped into their store when I’m up at Westfield but as much as I love the colour, I’ve often found the fit and the fabric to not quite work for me.
This new season is different. I went in after falling in love with the model they used in the campaign and the prints she was wearing and I bought a stack of fun stuff.
The fabrics are softer, the cuts more flattering and I’m loving pottering about in the store and the changerooms along with women whose ages span over four decades.
Diving deeper into the Gorman Instagram page, I found some more great examples of a company that is doing positive things for diversity and – in my opinion – moving the needle in a way I hope other fashion brands take note of.
By the way, this is not a paid post a branded post or a sponsored post.
I don’t get free clothes from Gorman or a discount.
I just genuinely am having a Gorman moment and wanted to share the love for a brand who is pushing back against established advertising ideals of how women are portrayed.
Amen to that.
Featured image: Instagram/Gorman
Top Comments
Where's the "diversity" in a label that only stocks up to the average Australian woman's size of 14 and won't dress the still-pretty-average size 16?
just because something is average doesn't make it right. their clothes probably don't look good on big sizes.
Gorman's ethics are questionable and the quality has decreased significantly since the business was sold to Factory X.