Clothing Brand Exclusively Uses Women With Ph.D.'s to Prove That Smart Is Beautiful

Impact

Do you ever look at a fashion spread and love the clothes, but wonder why the stick-thin model wearing them looks bored, hungry and cranky? Well, apparently this small clothing company heard you, and has decided to tackle the modelling industry's most annoying assumptions about beauty.

For their spring collection, Betabrand, a high-end online clothing company, has decided to exclusively model their spring collection on women who have Ph.D.'s or who are doctoral candidates. The company had an overwhelmingly positive response after posting the modeling opportunity on their Facebook page: sixty women applied, of which fifteen were eventually chosen.

Image Credit: Betabrand

When asked why he wanted to undertake this project, Betabrand founder Chris Lindland said that he thinks there's more to beauty than looks. "Our designers cooked up a collection of smart fashions for spring, so why not display them on the bodies of women with really big brains?" he said in a statement.

Image Credit: Betabrand

Lindland told AdWeek that the campaign has done wonders for the company. "Great so far. Plenty of tweets. Plenty of sales. Doctors, lawyers and MBA's have written in demanding a fashion focus of their own," he said. Clearly, there's a demand for more diverse images of women and Betabrand has tapped into it.

Image Credit: Betabrand

Sure, one could argue that most of these models are fairly thin, mostly white and traditionally attractive. But this is still a really big step in the right direction — we have to appreciate efforts to dispel stereotypes even if they are imperfect. Hopefully next season the company will include plus-size models, or put a larger emphasis on ethnic diversity.

Image Credit: Betabrand

It's great to see companies finally realizing that if they want women to buy their products, they need to start treating them like the smart and empowered human beings they are. Since women are outpacing men when it comes to higher education rates, it only makes sense to reach this growing demographic with representations that look like them. And given that young girls and women have long been targeted by advertisements suggesting they're "too pretty to do homework" or that they "hate math," it's refreshing to see a corporate entity taking an active interest in changing such outdated stereotypes. 

Image Credit: Betabrand

What do you think about this Betabrand's new campaign? Let me know on Twitter and Facebook.