In The Style is slammed by shoppers for casting ‘perfect’ size 12 blogger Chessie King in a ‘body positive’ campaign – saying she’s ‘too thin’ to be relatable
- InTheStyle announced new ‘body positive’ range with Chessie King yesterday
- Left some customers feeling ‘confused’ over choice, calling her ‘literally perfect’
- Argued size 12 blogger was ‘too thin’ to represent those with confidence issues
- Brand’s founder argued discriminating against slimmer sizes also unacceptable
Shoppers have slammed a new In The Style campaign as ‘absurd’, after the brand announced a new ‘body positive’ collaboration with size 12 influencer Chessie King.
The online retailer revealed the collaboration this week, announcing it is happy ‘to be breaking up the perfect Instagram feed’ and collaborating with ‘the most real, body positive, self loving girl around,’ Chessie.
But many shoppers were left a little baffled by the choice, with some calling it ‘confusing’ and bizarre, and claiming that the British size 12 blogger was ‘too thin’ to represent women battling body confidence issues.
Bethany Rutter, author of plus size fashion book Plus+, said she was disappointed by the choice, tweeting: ‘This is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen.’
In The Style announced a new ‘body positive’ collaboration with Chessie King yesterday, but some were left unimpressed, calling the campaign ‘absurd’ and branding the size 12 influencer, pictured, ‘too thin’ to represent women with body insecurities
Some shoppers were highly critical of the collaboration, with one calling it ‘the most empty appeal to realness I’ve ever seen’
One shopper suggested they were baffled by the range, commenting that it was ‘one of the most absurd things’ they’d ever seen
She continued: ‘A range themed around a thin person promoting ‘body confidence’. Like yes I would imagine you are confident about your body? And what?’
She added: ‘Can thin people have insecurities about their bodies? Yes. Is it useful to frame conversations about bodies around normative bodies? No.’
The brand announced the collaboration yesterday, having teased it as being a collection with ‘one of our favourite body positive influencers.
They declared in an Instagram post: ‘We have been working with Chessie for the last four months on a range that stands for body confidence and all things girl power.
‘Our squad of beautiful babes are all real babes of different sizes, ages, shapes and background but all of them believe in loving yourself more and we’re here to shout about it!’
The collection will be available to VIP In The Style shoppers on Wednesday, and available for all shoppers from Thursday.
Followers were left unimpressed by the choice of size 12 Chessie as the body confident poster girl
The brand announced the collaboration with a video of Chessie wearing a selection of bright tops and denim shorts, holding up signs that included phrases such a ‘More love’ and ‘Hate less, love more’.
Other posts from the brand show Chessie posing alongside a handful of other models on a colorful backdrop.
But some shoppers were left unimpressed by the brand’s choice.
One posted: ‘Her insta profile pic is her hunching over in lingerie to create as many faux tummy rolls as possible, so like, that’s cute.’
Another commented: ‘I just can’t with her, the contestant hunching over or pushing her stomach out to look like she has rolls and simultaneously pulling these sad or funny facial expressions is just performative as she is not fat and has never been fat. Argh’.
The brand announced the collaboration yesterday but left some confused about their choice of body positive Influencer, with one critic taking to Twitter to call it ‘the most absurd thing I’ve seen in my life’
InTheStyle announced they would be collaborating with the British Influencer on Wednesday, and while some appeared excited for the collection, others said they were baffled by their choice
‘This is the most empty appeal to realness I have seen in my entire life,’ another wrote.
Another commented on their Instagram post, saying: ‘I’m confused right now. She is literally perfect how could she not love her own body?’
And referring to the group picture, another tweeted: ‘Notice the ‘biggest’ girl is covered up the most at the back.’
Responding to the backlash, Adam Frisby, founder of InTheStyle told FEMAIL: ‘We are saddened by a small minority view on our recent Chessie King campaign.’
Baffled shoppers took to social media to question the choice, with some suggesting it was ‘an empty appeal to realness
He continued: ‘Chessie is someone who we purposefully reached out to to collaborate with not just because of the body positive attitude she adopts, but the powerful self love message that resonates through her social media channels and the focus she puts on keeping it real.
‘We launched an unretouched campaign earlier this year trying to break the damaging, altered, impossibly perfect images our audience are subjected to every single day.’
He added: ‘Now Chessie, who is a size 12, has been shamed as being “thin”, yet seemingly that ‘positive discrimination’ voiced by some denies her the right of being able to tell women its okay to be themselves.’
A spokesperson for Chessie declined to comment.
Some shoppers were left baffled by the collaboration, with one pointing out that the ‘biggest girl is covered up the most at the back’ of the brand’s promotional shots
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