I could NOT conclude 2017 without talking about the new Bettie Page Lingerie campaign featuring Violet Chachki of RuPaul's Drag Race fame.
Playful Promises has had a stellar year with a series of gorgeous collections and innumerable press accolades. The foundation the brand has built for the past decade or more is finally paying off as everyone else notices why true lingerie addicts have loved this company for years.
Playful Promises' campaign imagery is complemented by a savvy, socially-conscious staff who not only understand the power of social media and how to craft a message, but also firmly stand behind those they've asked to represent the brand.
After complaints regarding Violet, a nonbinary drag queen and model, surfaced on social media, Playful Promises took the time to address these opinions with a scathing series of tweets that showed their Bettie Page Lingerie ad campaigns were not mere tokenism, but a real approach to changing the way we see, talk about and think of lingerie.
Some of you may know that I was also a model for the Bettie Page Lingerie Collection earlier this year, so having Violet as the model to come after me feels especially exciting and meaningful. It shows Playful Promises is being thoughtful and deliberate with their spokesmodels, and that they understand key aspects of Bettie Page's legacy which have been glossed over or sanitized in the years since her retreat from the pinup scene and her death.
People forget that Bettie Page's work was subversive and shocking at the time. It was considered titillating, raunchy and risqué...not sweet and innocent (a revision more or less made in recent decades by what I call the "cult" of Bettie Page).
For Playful Promises to recapture that original underlying aesthetic means their models are going to need to push the envelope on what pinups can be and on pinup culture traditions...thus the decision to use both a queer model of color and a non-binary drag queen in this year's campaigns. As for the people who are offended by that...well, the funny thing is they're illustrating why these campaigns are so necessary in the first place.
Do you have a favorite look from this season's Bettie Page Lingerie Collection? Share it with us in the comments!