And boy, did it work! Now women have taken selfies wearing the American Eagle Outfitters underwear with the hashtag #AerieReal and it has blown up over social media.
The lingerie line has stopped retouching, airbrushing and Photoshopping their models. This strategy, which started over a year ago, has helped women embrace their sexuality and insecurity over their bodies.
Founded in 2006, aerie states that there is no such thing as a perfect body and you needn’t cover yourself with makeup or do any digital enhances to make you look perfect.
To back this up they used models who don’t fit the “normal” idea of underwear models.
The response on social media has been unbelievable. By using the hashtag #AerieReal many women illustrate that they can feel comfortable and sexy wearing underwear.
President of aerie, Jen Foyle told Today, that their intention is to celebrate real beauty, as they showcase tattoos, beauty marks and scars – saying that displaying your flaws and imperfections is considered sexy.
The underwear line caters to young adults, and the line strikes a nerve with many young women and their body obsessions. Many consumers are noticing that Victoria Secret’s models and underwear are less relatable than aerie’s.
This has also done wonders for the business itself. According to Upworthy, the quarterly sales of the American Eagle sister store have gone up by 9% since they’ve stopped using Photoshop, which was in 2014.
Actress Emma Roberts has signed with the lingerie company for their fall collection. They are currently running a competition urging women to submit images of themselves wearing their underwear looking airbrush free and sharing what it means to be #AerieReal.
This campaign is starting to get more popular, as an increasing amount of people have starting to recognise this amazing initiative from aerie.
Check out this video and see four young women talk about the #AerieReal campaign:
What do you think about the aerie Real campaign? Do you think this is a fantastic initiative and is long overdue in the fashion world? Let us know by commenting below.
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