Why body positive lingerie will reconcile us with our body

Cellulite, fluff or visible nipples, after years of diktats as absurd as they are restrictive, women seem determined to shake up the norms to better reclaim their physique. On Instagram, they no longer hesitate to show themselves as they are and take the opportunity to transform what were then considered flaws into hot assets.

A new paradigm that has not escaped lingerie brands, more and more of which stop photoshopping the epidermis of their models and offer more comfortable models. Between real awareness and marketing strategy, what if this object of desire, directly from the male imagination, finally became a symbol of emancipation?

Forget the Bikini Body, the injunction to thinness and subtly tanned skin. While feminism is more than ever in full swing and upsets beliefs that are nevertheless well established in our societies, some daring ones go further and reinvest their own bodies. As models of self-acceptance, they unravel years of standards and myths with inclusive hashtags and realistically staged photos. Whether they reveal their hair or assume their stretch marks, the idea is above all to redefine the codes of beauty today. And rather than taking it easy, why not tackle directly the ultimate metaphor of the oppression of women and the sexualization of their image?

1. Between the ingenuous Lolita and the asexual androgynous, this new generation of cool girls no longer hesitates

By essence sexist, just like porn, lingerie has long been attached to the sole gaze of man. Who has never bought an adornment for the sole purpose of pleasing or seducing? If the idea in itself poses no problem, all the constraints it raises are more disturbing. Nasty but furiously sexy materials or comfortable but often unsightly shapes in underwear, lost somewhere between the ingenuous Lolita and the asexual androgynous, it seems that women have few options. “I'm a big consumer, but also a big frustrator, because I don't have breasts. I grew up in the 80s, naturally skinny before it was trendy. I struggled for years to find bras in my size,” explains Anne-Lise, 52, a civil servant.

Without necessarily burning our bra, why not opt ​​for a version adapted to our shapes, able to sublimate us without suffocating us? "It's out of the question to compress myself all day to please the people around me, embarrassed by a nipple that sticks out under a blouse". Gaëlle, a 23-year-old Parisian, freshly graduated from a Master's in communication, is categorical. Much more than a simple movement born on social networks, body positivism has become a philosophy of life that she strives to adapt to everyday life: “Since we were little, we have been told that we have to look pretty to please the boys… For me, it's clearly not an end in itself. On the other hand, feeling good in your sneakers and in your life: yes”. Tired of oppressive body standards, many claim, like Gaëlle, the right to do what they want with their breasts.

For too long taboos, our “flaws” would now find their – legitimate – place on the slick, obviously unretouched photos that adorn our Instagram feeds. To the point of putting an end to the age-old “90 – 60 – 90”? Maybe not so fast. If the initiatives are numerous and welcome, they struggle to extract themselves from the social network. And the few existing brands, committed to more diverse body models, are subject to the mistrust of consumers, not fooled by the marketing recovery and the unprecedented market that the movement can offer. "We'll see in five years if the trend still lies in body positivism and if the models still look like 'normal chicks.' Maybe, then, I will start to believe in the sincerity of advertisers, ”comments Gaëlle. Same opinion for Nina, 22, who works in the cinema in Brussels: “As a young person anchored in a Western society and an average consumer of women's magazines, I find that body-positive lingerie remains super marketed. If I do not doubt the desire behind the benevolent message, we are in such a system, that we have to give up certain values ​​if we want to have a little visibility”.

2. Under girls' skirts, marketing?

If they are so suspicious, it is also because they are aware. This new generation of cool girls, at ease with their bodies, has fully understood the challenge for lingerie brands to communicate on this benevolent aspect, even if in practice things are changing rather slowly. Therefore, there is no question for them of giving up their comfort to submit to archaic standards, which they know are unattainable anyway. “Everyone seems completely obsessed with the representations of the body that we are given to see. They just forgot that all these images were retouched, that it was not a representation of reality. All of this completely distorts the judgement,” explains Solène, 25, a design student in Antwerp.

For Pascal Monfort, director of the REC trends cabinet, these “new adults under construction” will shift this still confidential phenomenon towards something more widespread. “This generation, much more open and more agile with marketing, has understood everything. They know that the girl in the Aubade ad doesn't exist and what she looks like once she's made up." In search of transparency, they abandon mainstream brands, not necessarily very skilled with these new claims, for independent labels based on the same values ​​and commitments. “When brands, and especially those aimed at young girls, communicate in a very uninhibited way and above all not a killjoy, it works. But when the words are assertive, first degree and sold as the only arguments, we can consider that it is missed”.

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Yet categorized as mass-market, some brands have understood the interest of reaching this new, ultra-disruptive and self-assuming target. Particularly vigilant when it comes to not falling into one-upmanship, Asos ultimately communicates very little about body positivism, even though the site has not photoshopped its lingerie models for some time now. A subtle strategy that did not, however, go unnoticed by consumers, who were delighted to see that the online store was done with the single size 34 standard. use and the uninhibited message linked to curves, always punctuated with a touch of humour, which they send", adds Pascal Monfort. And she is no longer the only one. Similarly, Weekday, one of the newest members of the H&M group, launched a campaign called “My Body My Image” this summer. “We want to engage women to take control and reflect on how the female body is represented in the media,” explains Nadine Schmidt, Head of Marketing for the brand. Photos with a very Instagram aesthetic, varied silhouettes and different complexions, we like to identify with these girls, whose potential sexyness is not directly correlated to their thigh size.

Good intentions that are obviously not insignificant, like feminism, which has become the ideal pretext to boost sales of white t-shirts flocked with watered-down punchlines. The risk of body positivism applied to panties would be to be reduced to the sole status of an ephemeral trend stamped 2018?

3. From uniformity to singularity, these labels that celebrate the body

Under the baby blue lace, the buttocks are streaked with white marks. The waist is underlined by the elastic of high-waisted briefs. As for the bra, its transparency deliberately reveals the nipples. A thousand miles away from the famous "Look me in the eyes... I said in the eyes" launched by Eva Herzigova at the dawn of the 90's in this Wonderbra advertisement which titillated many male spirits, the New Zealand label Lonely gave up the constraining push-ups and the artificial brushing a long time ago. His trademark ? A coherent universe that zaps conventional marketing and models dedicated to comfort capable of giving us a positive image of ourselves. With its hashtags #LonelyLingerie and #LonelyGirlsProject, the label unites a community of girls who have refused to choose between mother and prostitute, aware of the need to extract themselves from the tyranny of pleasing at all costs.

The same goes for La Fille d'O, a Belgian lingerie brand created in 2003 by Murielle Scherre. In her boutique with clean lines, located in Ghent, the photographs of her friends hang on the immaculate walls, overlooking her creations. Nude colors, black tulle and straps rub shoulders with shapes with sometimes unexpected cutouts, but always respectful of the singularity of each curve. “A lot of underwear brands sell the same type of product that is supposed to suit everyone, as if we were the same. Whereas I try to make each woman unique by showing everything that sets us apart, everything that we tended to hide”. Bras that adapt to each back size, cotton-lined panties for more comfort or wider shoulder pads to provide additional support, each piece has been designed to celebrate the bodies of its customers: "There are a lot of love in the way I look at women. I still see too many girls who, once in the cabin, are uncomfortable and complexed. Loving your body is a right offered to everyone, it should no longer be considered a trend.

4. The underrated power of split panties

Long assimilated to an exclusively male fantasy, so-called “erotic” lingerie is evolving. Designed by women for women, it reveals its full self-confidence potential and is in fact part of a body positive perspective. "I'm definitely done with lingerie that hurts, but is so beautiful that I still bought it thinking that the effect on the man in my life would be guaranteed, so that when the time came, I found myself streaked with red marks! If he loves me, he takes me as I am. Which doesn't stop me from trying to always be pretty, but with cellulite and a few stretch marks because he's not perfect either and I accept his overweight! (Laughs)” specifies Anne-Lise, 52 years old. Especially since, far from the collective imagination inherited from porn culture, in which the thong would be the ultimate accessory capable of titillating any man, the latter would ultimately prefer the eternal Petit Bateau panties. Colin, a 45-year-old artist from Ghent, prefers Mickey pajamas to lace thongs, but confesses – “there must not be very many of us in this game (laughs)”. However, the same observation from Nicolas, 25, a journalism student in Brussels: “I don't really have a preference, but I admit that good old panties are still sexy. As for the bra, sometimes my girlfriend is embarrassed. So maybe the beautiful bras are not really comfortable. But I don't know much about it, I already have trouble removing them (laughs).

So lingerie is only a woman's affair? Bandage accents, high-cut panties on the pubis and other bras revealing the breasts, with its Take Nothing/Leave Nothing Behind collection, La Fille d'O rhymes self-acceptance with reappropriation of one's sexuality. “I sometimes see women opting for practical things that they're going to wear every day just because they don't think the rest is for them. But already, I feel their gaze on a sexier piece and the next time, they will ask to try it on. At that moment, something clicked into place in their minds, as if they were saying to themselves “finally, maybe this is part of my identity or what I want”, observes the designer. More a leitmotif to apply on a daily basis than a simple hashtag highlighting a photo in the hope of gleaning a few likes, what if the power of empowerment represented by a simple split panty or a slightly daring thong was too often underestimated? The simple fact of daring to be new and getting out of your comfort zone already seems like a way to reclaim your image. "Often we have a thousand possibilities open to us and we choose to limit ourselves to what we know because we think that the problem lies with our body", she explains, "but in the end, it's It is the lingerie that is not adapted to our buttocks. When we find what suits us, it's a new world that opens up to us. I love seeing how clients navigate through all the possibilities available to them.”

Because it happens that our breasts fall and the elastic of our panties reveals a bulge, it was time for brands to understand that the female body is not made of plastic and finally adapt to this reality, however rather obvious. Both on a commercial level by offering a truly diversified offer of underwear that does not instantly make us feel too big or not enough, that does not compress us or hurt us with each fitting. But also on the proposed representation of women, thanks to unretouched, realistic campaigns, in which it is now possible to recognize oneself. Because loving the reflection reflected in the mirror of a fitting room can still be complicated, body-positive lingerie, committed or just marketed, at least has the merit of helping us to feel guilty and, finally, to love ourselves.

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