Many high-end fashion labels have long been guilty of using unhealthy-looking waiflike models for their clothing campaigns. Impossibly thin women are the face of many brands; designers and photographers adore muses who showcase the clothing “best,” or so they say. The debate about the ethics of using rail-thin models versus more “full-figured” bodies in clothing campaigns has been heated and enduring, especially in the last couple of decades, when thin female silhouettes have been the prevailing image coupled with high-end labels.
Part of Diesel’s Reboot Campaign
Happily, there are still some designers and fashion labels out there that aren’t afraid to use models of all shapes, genders, and personal styles. One of the more prominent high-end fashion labels whose styling philosophy is based on a love of uniqueness is Diesel, the Italian brand that specializes in denim, alternative clothing, and futuristic looks. Through a recent interactive online process, the brand has selected its models for the fall fashion campaign through a search on Tumblr.
According to the UK’s Daily Mail, “Passing over fashion’s typically waif-like supermodels, Diesel has opted for plus-size and androgynous models found on Tumblr for its latest ad campaign. The brand’s new artistic director, Nicola Formichetti, relied on word of mouth to cast the subjects of his first Diesel campaign: 20 people of all shapes and sizes who live in New York and work in artistic fields.” The “models” for the label’s fall clothing ads nominated themselves as part of Diesel’s “Reboot Campaign,” an effort to utilize a range of different kinds of bodies and styles, rather than the typical tall, skinny fashion models that other labels use.
Some of the faces for the Diesel Reboot campaign include Casey Legler, a former Olympic swimmer who defies gender barriers by booking modeling jobs for menswear, musician and collage artist Benjamin Ackermann, and 22-year-old pink-haired graffiti artist Michelle Calderon, among others.
Formitchetti explains that he “Wanted the campaign to showcase a variety of characters, people who are beautiful in their own unique way.” The point of Diesel’s new ad campaign isn’t to make a statement about how thin people aren’t beautiful or how larger bodies are “real.” The point it’s making is that the brand caters to a large range of different shapes and styles and that what’s most attractive is one’s uniqueness.
Keep a lookout for Diesel Reboot campaign photographs in between the pages of Vogue and other publications this fall.
Featured Image: bee_rosemaria_calderon Instagram via The Daily Mail
Image: Diesel via Instagram
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