This Is What An Unretouched Swimsuit Campaign Looks Like

Sometimes it seems that wherever we look, there's some sort of advertisement telling us that we need to change. We should be embarrassed by our stretch marks, our body hair, our cellulite, our wobbly bits; our non-photoshopped, unique, authentic selves need to be altered before we're “beach-body ready.” From snake-oil products that claim to “fix” any imperfection we can imagine, to in-your-face ads that play on our deepest insecurities, it's easy to be bombarded by body negativity. In an effort to help combat the shame, Swimsuits For All has teamed up with model Denise Bidot to create an unretouched video empowering women to be #NotSorry about their bodies this summer.

Swimsuits For All have been the go-to swimwear brand for fuller-figured women for years now — known for releasing multiple collaborations with blogger Gabifresh, offering on-trend plus-size bikinis before they were readily available anywhere else, and carrying one of the largest size ranges for swimwear (size 8-34) — so it's fitting that it has continued its encouragement of body acceptance with this latest campaign. “At Swimsuits For All, we believe that every female body is beautiful and every woman deserves to look and feel her best in a swimsuit,” said Moshe Laniado, CEO and president. “Denise embodies all of the ideals Swimsuits For All stands by. We are proud to work with such a gorgeous, confident woman inside and out, and know she will be a wonderful spokesperson for this campaign and for the brand.”

Bidot, retouched or not, is a stunner in the video, but she says even she has felt the sting of negative-body-image messages. “I think everyone has felt uncomfortable in a swimsuit in public at some point in their life,” she said. “But it's all about acceptance and knowing that we are not all meant to look the same and that we were made exactly as we should be. Our individuality is what makes us, us.” With the uptick of non-retouched campaigns across the fashion industry, we can only hope that it will eventually become the norm and help women feel empowered and accepting of their uniqueness. “Women need to know that beauty is not only not based on a size, it's also not based on age, or your ethnic background," Bidot says. “For so long, people have believed that beauty was something you could put in a box, but we are finally breaking away from that.”