Sex in a new way: transgender and other unusual women in an underwear advertising campaign
Stephanie Van Cluysen is a 21—year-old model from Belgium, also known as Effie. She was born a man, but after sex reassignment surgery in 2015, she lives as a woman. Effie said that she took part in the shooting of an advertisement for a brand of women's underwear in order to come up with a new meaning for the definition of "sexy".
(5 photos in total)
The report of the online publication The Fashion Spot noted that of the 422 models who took part in the spring-summer campaigns of fashion brands, only 21.8% were not of the Caucasian race and 1.4% had a clothing size larger than 44. Not a single transgender person took part in fashion shows. However, Curvy Kate's Scantilly brand has never used the services of professional models, instead choosing girls who look like their clients. Suitable candidates were found on social networks.
"It is important for us as a brand that through our advertising campaigns we can appeal to as many women as possible. We know that our customers are not similar to each other, so why should our models be the same?" — says Hannah Isichey, Head of Public Relations and Marketing at Scantilly.
The #TheNewSexy advertising campaign presents eight striking female images, including a woman suffering from baldness, a woman with an amputated leg, as well as a woman cured of anorexia. Each of them wants to show that they feel confident and deserve to look sexy in beautiful underwear.
One of the models who took part in the fashion shows, Stephanie van Kluysen, described her childhood in Belgium as "difficult" and said that she felt like a woman from early childhood. She also said that for many years she endured bullying, insults and ridicule coming from both school bullies and passers-by on the streets.
"Everyone has the right to live in peace with themselves, and if the media will show us a variety of women — of different races, height, age and abilities — then girls who look at models in magazines and want to be like them will be more relaxed about themselves."
"I'm transgender and I'm worried about whether people will accept me or not, but in fact, the most important thing was that I could accept myself, and I'm very happy with what I did."
Keywords: UK | Beauty | Models | Unusual | Underwear | Advertising campaign | Sexuality | Shooting | Transgender