Brand
Rue La La
Gilt
Project
DEI Art Direction Pitch
Personality
Femme
Empowering
Sophisticated
Industry
Fashion
Ecommerce
As co-founder of the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee at Rue Gilt Groupe, and open member of the Queer Community, I saw an opportunity for the company to make meaningful steps towards a more inclusive and representative vision of fashion.
Rue La La is playful, comfortable, and at home. Being at home means being at home in your environment, with the people around you, and in your own body. Rue La La’s imagery can visually normalize being at home with queer folx and can help queer identifying people feel at home onsite through representation in models, styling, and art direction.
On a business front, showing queer representation leads to better brand recall, inspires purchases, affinity, and increased recommendations within the LGBTQIA+ Community. We pay attention to companies who create meaningful spaces for us, and support those companies through multiple purchases and recommendations. Rue La La does not have to be the destination, but it should do the work to become a known destination. Sure, Rue La La has a look, but that look can be worn on any person. That’s the beauty of fashion.
The Idea
De-gendering all activities and poses is a start. Allowing men to be soft and airy and to dance will begin to deconstruct the stiffness and rigidity that tends to be the typical menswear image. There is also opportunity to tell stories in pairs of models. An ambiguity in relationship to one another like intimacy, or platonic intimacy is meaningful. Suggesting relationships beyond cisgender, heteronormative ones. Or even a sort of “getting ready” inspired lifestyle image with men using beauty products or something would be a start.
A Start
More than a Pose
Society in general allows women to pose very light, airy, and delicate, while also allowing room for strong power stances. In general, “gender-neutral” is safe as long as it’s geared more towards menswear or boxy fits and poses. Giving our male presenting models more similar styling directions/posing directions to our female presenting models will allow a more diverse idea of masculinity/gender expression. Something as simple as varying poses makes room for different personalities and expressions. If we ask our women models to dance during a shoot, why not ask men to do the same? This goes beyond having representation for LGBTQIA+ models. Cis straight men don’t have to be in a stiff, serious, power stance all the time. We can give models who are not cis women the same spectrum of strong and delicate posing directions. If women can be both, any other human can be as well.