Missguided adds diverse mannequins complete with flaws

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 20, 2018

Fashion e-tailer Missguided is extending its pro-diversity, pro-imperfections strategy with a fresh approach to in-store display.

In recent periods the company has started opening physical stores and it is now adding a new slant on its diversity campaign into those stores with the launch of a more diverse mannequin range, complete with flaws, to display its collections.

The new mannequins represent a variety of ethnic backgrounds but the company has gone further by using a make-up artist to add features such as stretch marks and vitiligo, making the mannequins exclusive to the brand.

It means the company is a pioneer in the mannequin space. Unretouched photography has become more commonplace in recent seasons but the in-store models on which clothing and accessories are displayed have largely retained their unrealistic ‘perfect’ finishes and proportions.

The move follows the launch in December of an unretouched #makeyourmark social media campaign under its #keeponbeingyou banner that had debuted in November.

And the latest mannequin development could get a thumbs-up from customers as the launch of that unretouched campaign seemed to meet with consumer approval, garnering over 122,000 Instagram likes.

The campaign saw it proclaiming “a mission to inspire babes the world over to love themselves, for themselves, to embrace your flaws and not to strive for what the world perceived as perfection” and pledging to “never retouch our models' perfect 'imperfection' out."