This Maternity Brand Is Swapping Models for Real-Life Pregnant Women
How many times have you scrolled through maternity clothing sites and thought, sure, that item looks great on her, but what about on me? Because let’s be honest—those models with perfect basketball-shaped bumps don’t represent your average pregnancy. Well good news, mamas: Maternity clothing Storq is changing all that.
Instead of professional models, Storq recently announced that its website images will now be featuring real-life pregnant and postpartum women in all shapes and sizes.
“Going forward, all images on our site will be unretouched and we will do our best to show how everything fits on different sizes, heights, stages of pregnancy and postpartum, and body types,” the company said in an Instagram post. “When you visit the site you’ll see moms with babes, nursing, playing, and even some nose picking. In other words, real life stuff.”
“The idea was to help women relate more naturally with the models on our site and to hopefully make their shopping experience easier because of it,” creative director Grace Kapin told Today Style. “When you’re pregnant and nursing your body is unpredictable, and seeing people who are going through the same thing as you can be a real lifeline during those times.”
We’re loving this empowering change of pace—and we’re not the only ones.
“Love this—thanks Storq!” wrote one shopper. “So positive and a step in the right direction. (Plus you can see how the clothes ACTUALLY look!)”
“This ad struck me immediately and I just thought, “Wow, beautiful images.” It wasn’t until I scrolled and read that I understood why! Turns out untouched is (literally) a scroll-stopper,” posted another.
The photos, all shot by female photographer Nicki Sebastian, feature women mostly found on Instagram who’d been using the hashtags #stylethebump and #plussizeandpregnant. Ellen Valaldez, one of the new non-model models, had reservations about having her photo appear on the site untouched but went for it anyway. "By participating in this campaign I put myself in an incredibly vulnerable position, and I’m so happy that I did,” she told Today.
This isn’t the only change planned by Storq: They’ve already added sizes 18 to 22 to their line, and in September they’ll add sizes 24 and 26. Way to keep it real, Storq!
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