If you walk into any lingerie shop, among the printed and lacy numbers, you’ll always find a standard collection of everyday bras in the classic black, white and, of course, ‘nude’, which more often than not is a shade of beige, blush or ivory.

But Talent Management has been wondering, what if this commercially evolved shade doesn’t match your skin? When there’s such a huge proportion of women whose skin doesn’t come close to what we’ve come to accept as ‘nude’, surely manufacturers need to diversify?



African-American Psychologist Tara Raines recently wrote about the evocative subject, saying: “As a group, [women of colour] are still fighting to have our beauty recognised. Part of feeling beautiful is looking like ourselves.”

This basically relates to being able to find brown bras to match their skin colour; something that many white women quite possibly take for granted.

“I feel it is imperative that women of colour be represented in bras, panties, and lingerie. We shouldn’t have to go to a specialty store, on a goose chase, or spend a fortune to get a bra that looks more like us,” Raines wrote.

“Being ignored is a slight. Every time I shop for bras, I am subjected to a micro-aggression.”

Women of colour have huge spending power, not only in the US, where the campaign stems from, but across the world. So, as a pro-diversity modelling agency, we think it’s ridiculous that such a big slice of people are essentially disenfranchised when they shop for lingerie, not to mention other products, from nude high heels to plasters.

But how are things going to change? At the beginning of this month, a social media campaign named ‘What’s Your Nude’ was launched in a bid to mobilise women fed up over this complete lack of diversity in everyday bra colours.

The campaign’s organisers have been urging women to contact bra makers and retailers and demand greater representation across new and existing lingerie collections.

Let’s hope the ‘What’s Your Nude’ campaign will not only promote awareness, but also instigate action from lingerie manufacturers.

So far the campaign has over 3,000 supporters on Facebook, us being one – if you too feel strongly about this misrepresentation of the word nude and want to help promote greater diversity in bra colours, you can participate in the campaign by joining the ‘What’s Your Nude’ Facebook page and the ‘What’s Your Nude’ Twitter page. But, more importantly, make sure you spread the word and get in touch with your favourite lingerie shops!