Levi's New Line Offers Jeans For Many Shapes

A recent Change.org post about the fashion industry's claim that making plus-sized clothing is "enormously difficult" drew hundreds of comments from both men and women. They talked about how difficult it is to find well-fitting and attractive clothing for any type of body, and largely debunked the claim that only larger bodies are unique. Many (including me) revealed their particular shapes and the trouble they pose in trying to find, say, an ideal pair of jeans.

Which is why Levi's new ad campaign is so distinct — for once, the fashion industry may be targeting the particular characteristics of different body types and not trying to pigeonhole these body types into the easy categories of thin or plus-sized. After body scans of 60,000 women, Levi's has come up with a new series of jeans designed for varying hip, waist, and butt sizes. The jeans, introduced as the"Curves ID" line, offer forty-five shape variations and supposedly come as a result of "countless conversations with female customers."

It seems at least one brand actually might care more about what their customers want than it cares about maintaining some sort of standard brand image based on skinny wide-eyed models looking disenchanted in size 00's. The Curves ID line is another step in the direction of fashion that doesn't assume thinness is the base note of beauty and that, just as crucially, doesn't treat plus-sized women as one (slightly freakish, somehow lesser) half of a thin/fat dichotomy.

This would be my hope for the fashion industry: that more brands move away from the heroin chic and anorexic sunken figures of the past two decades and towards a more nuanced, open acceptance of the specificity and variety of women's bodies.

Photo credit: SFHT_GRAPHY