portfolio and blog for Claire Boston, a London-based graphic designer

hello beautiful (but only if you're thin)

So yesterday I popped into Selfridges and saw their #beautyproject campaign. I'd seen it before a week or so earlier, but this time I paid a bit more attention.

And it annoyed me. These people are all ravishing. Yeah sure, they are a bit alternative, they have quirky haircuts or tattoos, or don't fit into the 16-25 age range of most models. However not one of them looks remotely curvy. 

I realise that they must have had to steer well clear of Dove's real beauty campaign, which is a lot more about body image and acceptance (though even Dove may have started scraping the barrel with that campaign), but in a conversation about "the definition of beauty", I feel like they could have been a bit more rebellious by including at least one person who wasn't a size 8. 

I'm not trying to wage a war against Selfridges (who I think are rad), or the fashion industry, or even the way that women and beauty are portrayed in the media, as I think there are a lot of voices who do that more eloquently than me.

I just think it's a bit shitty, as I know that there must have been a conversation at some point when they were curating these examples of beauty where someone would have raised the question about having someone a bit more voluptuous, and [warning, wild speculation ahead] I imagine the idea was panned for not being 'fashion enough'.

I know that there are lots of examples, like Debenhams and H&M, who are moving things forward in the body love movement. It's a good direction to be heading in.