Dive Brief:

• Plus-size women’s apparel retailer Lane Bryant and Glamour magazine announced a collaboration on a fall clothing collection.

• The partnership, which incorporates the body-positive mantra of Lane Bryant’s 2016 spring campaign “This Body” and Glamour’s editorial fashion expertise, is a first for both companies. Glamour’s fashion editors are working with Lane Bryant’s design team to create the collection, which will be available in stores and online.

• In addition to the magazine content, which can be seen in the issue already on newsstands, Lane Bryant has developed a three-part video series titled “How to Wear Everything You’ve Been Told Not To.” 

Dive Insight:

The Lane Bryant/Glamour effort features a few top plus-size models, including Iskra Lawrence, who says that there’s “no such thing” as a perfect body, and assertively blasts the idea that women who wear larger sizes “can’t wear white” or must adhere to other rules deemed unflattering to curvier women.

“We’re not buying it,” Lawrence said.

Lane Bryant surely hopes that more women will be buying thanks to this campaign. The retailer has faced criticism from women who wear larger styles who say Lane Bryant hasn’t offered enough fashionable looks or quality apparel choices. During a 2015 Twitter discussion hashtagged #AskLaneBryant, for example, the retailer sent out a “frowny face” following an onslaught of tweets from customers complaining about the company's quality and approach, and demanding more.

If this collaboration with Glamour can address those perceptions, Lane Bryant could be on to something. Fashion, in one very important sense, gives its wearers confidence, and that has been woefully missing in plus-size fashion, which more often has seemed designed to cover up women’s bodies and avoid showing faults—hardly a confidence booster. Certainly the model’s in this campaign’s videos exude confidence in a way that is infectious—for anyone, really.

“We love how Glamour has embraced the mantra of 'This Body,' as the campaign is designed to be relatable for ALL women, not just Lane Bryant clients,” Lane Bryant CEO and president Linda Heasley said in a statement. “We want her to recognize and embrace her own strengths and flaws as unique parts of herself that make her who she is, and to give her confidence. To have a partnership that allows our brand to continue to make waves in the fashion industry by breaking traditional conceptions of what is considered sexy or beautiful is incredibly exciting.”