Empowering lingerie campaign celebrating diversity is criticised for being in 'poor taste'? Er, what?

Is there such a thing as being too diverse? No, we didn’t think so either. But that’s exactly what the latest campaign from Livi Rae Lingerie has been criticised for.

The brand is known for its wide range of merchandise, which fits women of various body types, including those recovering from mastectomies or who have prosthetics or other disabilities.

For their latest in-store campaign, Livi Rae put up a window display depicting a diverse range of real women modelling in their underwear. The adverts including several plus-size women, a model in a wheelchair and a woman with multiple sclerosis, not to mention featuring real women spanning all ages and races. Clapping hands emoji.

Or so you’d think. Because apparently the brand was asked to take down the display because it was considered by some to be in ‘poor taste’. Really?

Thankfully, Livi Rae, whose slogan is “No bust too big or small, we fit ’em all” are refusing to back down. And instead of removing the adverts have taken to social media to start a campaign to stick it to the body shamers under the hashtag #noshamelivirae.

“Body shaming is real,” a caption alongside the ‘offending’ adverts reads.

“We experienced it first hand today when our landlord asked us to remove our window display. As you can imagine, we’ve received a lot of calls asking what people can do to help. Please share these images along with the hashtag #NoShameLiviRaeto help us educate the community about body shaming.”

“Our campaign features women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds,” the caption continues. “The media have been conducting interviews and we will be sharing those shortly to keep you updated. In the meantime, please let us know your thoughts. Are these images offensive or in bad taste to you?”

Cynthia Decker, one of the brand owners, spoke to Yahoo Style about the campaign and the idea behind it. “We wanted to show people that they didn’t have to have perfect skin, bone structure, or bodies to feel beautiful,” she said.

“We’ve never had to clear an ad with the management property in the past. We were told the ad is in ‘poor taste’, but no one has explained what that means.”

The lack of diversity in the fashion industry continues to be an issue. According to a 2016 spring diversity report by The Fashion Spot, of the 422 models featured in 236 campaigns included in the study, only 21.8 percent were women of colour, and a teensy 1.6 percent of the women were plus-sized.

With that in mind, campaigns which challenge traditional perceptions of beauty are exactly what the industry needs. Thankfully, lingerie brands seem to be leading the way. Last year, British brand Curvy Kate was praised for their empowering #TheNewSexy campaign for their Scantilly range. Choosing to shun professional models, instead the brand enlisted eight powerful female role models including a transgender woman, an amputee, an alopecia sufferer, a plus size blogger and a recovered anorexic to showcase the collection and celebrate real women in all their diverse beauty.

And underwear company Aerie are often hailed for their inclusive campaigns featuring real women of varying body shapes and ‘no airbrushing’.

Lets just put this one down to a blip in the diversity battle shall we?

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