Models: They're Just Like Us (No, Seriously)
If you frequently find yourself looking at a perfectly tanned and toned (translation: airbrushed) model in a catalogue and thinking "She's perfect, I hate her," then take heart in what seems to be a new trend in the fashion business: real people as models.
Forget a blank-faced girl staring back at us from the pages of an advertisement, a canvas on which to project our own ideas. Instead, savvy companies are hiring genuine interesting people, just like you and me, to help push their products.
Check more models that break the fashion mold.
Converse One Star's fall line has recently landed in Target stores, and with it, a campaign populated by a painter, a motorcross rider, a martial arts instructor, and a book store owner. The clothes are casual and chic and the message seems to be, "I'm cool, I teach Jujitsu, I wear these clothes, I think you'd think they're cool too." It's called "Everyone is a star," which I kind of love, and while I don't know if it really has me hankering for puffy vests and cargo pants, it definitely makes me want to know more people like them. Meet all of them in Target's very cool video here.
Gap also got in on the action this fall, casting Scott Schuman, AKA The Sartorialist, hockey-player-turned-fashion-freak Sean Avery, and photographer Ryan McGinley in their own ad campaign.
We've also recently seen such "real people" initiatives from Levi's (meet three real women and find out why they love their jeans here), Bumble and bumble, and Wonderbra. Of course, each brand owes a major nod to Dove, whose Campaign for Real Beauty put non-size-zero women front and center in their ads (in their skivvies, no less), and helped establish the idea that a real woman with a real career and a real family and yes, real cellulite, is beautiful. What do you guys think of the real model trend? Would you rather see more people "just like us" in ads? Would it make you more likely to buy a certain product?
Read more about the latest real girl Cover Girl Ellen DeGeneres.
Photos: top, courtesy of Target, middle, courtesy of Gap, bottom, courtesy of Dove
by Tracey Lomrantz
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