Underwear Ad Campaign Featuring Women In Tech Causes Controversy
Dear Kate, an American brand of underwear designed to protect like a panty liner, has brought out a new ad campaign – and it’s caused international controversy.
The line, titled ‘Ada’ after the computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, is designed for modern women – and is modelled, in the ad campaign, by some of technology’s most prominent women.
It features names like Rebecca Garcia, founder of Geek Girl Web, Sarah Conley, who created Style It, and Patty Delgado, who’s the lead tech for fashion site Refinery29.
And they’re all pictured quietly coding – in their Ada underwear.
The campaign’s lookbook, which also contains quotes from each tech pioneer about the importance of women in coding, has drawn criticism – most notably, Elissa Shevinsky, who started Glimpse Labs, who said that “posing in your underwear undermines the message that you aim to be taken seriously as a technologist”.
However, many people have leapt to the label’s defence – and pointed out that criticism is being sexist. If it were prominent men in tech casually posing in their skimpies for an underwear line, the response would likely be humour, not outrage.
Defenders have also noted that the women aren’t being sexualised – they’re simply wearing the underpants while going about their regular business, including doing their jobs – and that an unclad woman, as the nude photo scandal involving JLaw and other actresses proves, draws huge judgement.
Rescu. thinks that ladies can pose in their underwear and still have copious amounts of brains, if you ask us.
What do you think?
Image: Dear Kate’s Ada line.
Carolina Herrera: New York Style Is ‘Horrendous’
It appears that legendary designer Carolina Herrera is not particularly impressed with the street style on show in New York.
In an interview to publicise her latest show, which is coming up at New York Fashion Week, she lambasted New Yorker style – and didn’t mince her words.
“If you look at the people walking around the streets of New York at this moment, it’s horrendous!” she said. “I have never seen people so badly dressed in my life! It’s amazing the way they look! I don’t know why – I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s really, really bad.”
Apparently Herrera spends her time “sitting in traffic looking at the people on the street, thinking ‘Everybody is wearing the wrong clothes!'”
Harsh words indeed – but Herrera reserves particular criticism for the spring item of the moment, the crop top. Ladies who are attempting to pull this off, be warned – Herrera has her doubts.
“When you are very young and you have a wonderful figure you can pull this off. But whenever I see this style, it’s usually on the wrong person,” she said despairingly.
So what are Herrera’s tips for actually looking decent on the street? “You have to dress to flatter your body,” she said. “You don’t have to dress a certain way because fashion is saying that you have to wear miniskirts. Some people don’t have the legs – or the age.”
What do you think – is she behind the times or on the money?
Image: Carolina Herrera.
Sneak Peek: Ines de La Fressange For Uniqlo
They’re opening a store in Sydney – and hopefully Uniqlo will be featuring their new, very fashionable capsule collection.
It’s designed by professional fashion muse Ines De La Fressange, an ex-model who’s written tomes on how to do French chic.
And the results? Plain but with an unexpected French edge.
The shirts will probably be snapped up rapidly: they feature a pleasing mix of prints, including several different colours of plaid.
And rumpled coats and precisely crumpled pants are on the menu, too. But the LBD, with its ruched front, will probably be a sell-out because of its all-ages appeal. De La Fressange is, after all, past 40.
Don’t look for evening wear here, though – there are four varieties of parka, but nothing overly formal.
What do you think of the Uniqlo collaboration?
Image: Ines de La Fressange with Uniqlo.
