The success of brands like
Nubian Skin and
Christian Louboutin's recent
New Nudes collection have proven that there's a whole world of women fed up with a one-color-fits-all version of "nude" — which, for years was used rather ludicrously by the fashion world as a synonym for "beige." But, for women truly passionate about nude (or, just neutrals), there's
Nudevotion: A shopping destination for all things skin-toned — whatever your skin tone may be.
Launched last year, the site features a selection of products from hundreds of different brands, from the very fancy (Saint Laurent, Tom Ford), to the way more accessible (Aldo, ASOS), and price points in-between. It's not an e-commerce site. It's a shopping aggregator in the vein of Shopstyle or Lyst that aims to connect frustrated shoppers with
their shade of nude. Featuring everything bags, shoes, apparel, lingerie, and even beauty, it aims to be a one-stop shop for the nude-loving lass.
Founder Steve Moscetti tells us he was inspired to create the site as a reaction against the bad old days, when the fashion world deemed nude fashion a must-have for all women — yet didn't provide inclusive options to match. "Not long ago, ‘nude’ meant 'matches white skin,'" he said. "Because not everyone's ‘nude’ is the same, people with skin of any other color were implicitly unable to participate in the trend."
Thankfully, Moscetti says, that's changing: "Now, all the big brands are offering
nude shoe collections, makeup and nail polishes, and lingerie." But, he points out, the marketplace still isn't easy to navigate due to the many different brands, retailers, and different terms they all use ("tan, cream, cognac, almond, pink, rose, coral," he ticked off). It's in that gap between market demand and ease of shopping that Nudevotion stands: "We made it very easy to look for neutral items," Moscetti says.
Currently, the site's editorial team decides which products appear on the site, and crucially, sorts some of them according to skin tone. At the moment, shoppers on Nudevotion can sort two categories (shoes and lingerie) by color, by clicking one of two differently-colored buttons. Click the light-ish button, and products ranging from pale ivory to a tawnier tan are displayed. The dark-ish one picks up at tan and goes into deep brown. That presents a challenge for someone like me — I'm half Puerto Rican with an olive undertone to my skin and saw items in both categories that might match me. Moscetti explains there's barriers to providing more granular ways to sort:
"There's a technical challenge in adopting more than two skin tones: Colors
in product photos are not always accurate and every monitor may display them in
different ways due to different calibration, brightness, or color saturation." But, he says, the site's listening closely to customer feedback and would consider adding more in the future. We hope this is an idea that's iterated on — while featuring something like Louboutin's five different skin tones would be overkill here, medium-complected women would no doubt appreciate something between light-ish or dark-ish.
Overall, Moscetti reports great feedback from women thrilled to find this trend easier to shop. While not many women (well, outside Kardashians) are totally devoted to it as a head-to-toe look, the site fills a niche for when you want to have your own nude shoe (
or dress) moment. And so, the much-needed de-beigeing of nude continues. As Nubian Skin's founders told us last year, "every revolution starts somewhere."
