Lena Dunham and Jemima Kirke are championing the unretouched precedent set by models such as Iskra Lawrence and Barbie Ferreira after appearing in unedited images.
The Girls creator and star have been shot for Lonely Girls, a journal featuring inspiring women modelling underwear from the New Zealand-based Lonely brand in their own personal spaces.
The journal is part of the Lonely Girls Project, a portrait series launched in 2009. The project aims to subvert female objectification by presenting women in underwear without the sexualisation prevalent in fashion and tabloid media.
A growing resistance is forming against digitally manipulating images in reaction to the heavily filtered photos dominating Instagram that perpetuate impossible standards of beauty.
Ferreira’s image quickly went viral when the American Apparel model, 19, was chosen as the face of Aerie’s swimwear collection. Lawrence and Ferreira were selected for the brand’s Aerie Real anti-retouching campaign and have become ambassadors of the body-positive movement.
Dunham posted a picture of herself in one of Lonely’s lingerie sets last year.
Sara Ganus, the brand’s account director said: “As an unconventional approach, Lonely aspires to showcase women wearing underwear in a way that we usually don’t see in mainstream advertising and the media. Instead of being objectified, the women who participate in this journal series – in this case, Lena and Jemima – are empowered and exhibit real beauty that will hopefully help women everywhere feel a little more liberated. The brand also never retouches a single image.”
