11.29.2005

Old Navy's Women

I keep meaning to mention this but keep forgetting. A few weeks back I got a flyer from Old Navy. Very ordinary stuff. I almost didn't even notice what I'm commenting on because it blended so seemlessly into the piece.

As I imagine many of my few readers know, Old Navy recently rolled out their Women's Sizes line which is appearing in more and more of their retail outlets as well as online. The flyer I got was one of those across the board deals promoting men's, women's, children's, pet's, etc. What really impressed me, though, was that they didn't create a Women's sizes gheto in the piece. They weren't shoved off to a corner or left out entirely.

No, instead, they were right there with the thin models. Wearing the same style of clothing, too. There was nothing in the posing or presentation to set the plus-size model off as Other. She's right there with the other models wearing the "Item of the weak" (jeans) and accented with a nice blazer from the Women's Plus line that seemed like the same style of blazer one of the thin models was wearing. It felt so wonderfully refreshing and encouraging to see a plus-size model treated like she was normal.

Yes, I know, it'd be nice if plus size models were sized so they were representative of more plus-size women. That's definetly some progress we're overdue for. But so's this. And credit where its due, the model didn't look merely "big boned". She had a round face and even evidence of a belly see with her unbuttoned blazer. I actually only noticed her when the thought crossed my head "hey, she's kinda cute for a model" at which point in dawned on me that she was actually a plus-size model. Its that seemless. There is a little "Women's Plus" logo off her shoulder to brand the product name being promoted, but there is nothing wrong with branding.

Anyway, I just wanted to share.

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