A major fashion brand has launched the world’s first campaign styled exclusively by children in a bid to empower women who have lost their fashion confidence.
Fashion brand Long Tall Sally created the ‘Style Has No Rules’ campaign after a new study revealed that 76 percent of women no longer feel confident when it comes to fashion. However, 78 percent of adult women felt they were confident as a child when it came to choosing outfits, and 96 percent reported they simply “wore what made them happy” up until the age of 10.
These findings come as no surprise to child psychologist Tom Lloyd:
“Children get excited about putting outfits together as they base them on the ‘fun’ things that make them happy, such as fabrics, colours, prints and shapes. They don’t consider body hang-ups.”
Designed to encourage women to tap into their inner child and feel confident with their fashion choices without being restricted by perceived ‘fashion rules’, the new campaign centred around a makeover with a twist.
Six Long Tall Sally women were selected for the campaign out of hundreds who felt they were “in a style rut.” Unknowingly, these women were paired with “little stylists” – children aged six to eight – who selected and styled a complete outfit for their models. Camilla Treharne, the brand’s creative director said the children all jumped in right away and had fun putting the different outfits together:
“One of the girls commented that she chose a polka dot dress for her model because ‘dots make me happy, and I want my lady to be happy.’ This perfectly sums up why we created the campaign; we don’t want women to find it daunting getting dressed, we want to remind them to have fun with fashion and feel confident with their own style.”
The models were shocked to discover young children had been able to create outfits that made them feel confident:
“It completely changed how I feel about fashion. I loved the outfit, but I would never have put it together myself. Sometimes it takes someone to push you out of your comfort zone to help you feel more confident.”
The video on the fashion label’s Facebook page has already reached 45,000 views and there has been an emotional response by women touched by the empowering message of the campaign, with comments such as, “I LOVE everything about this!! Why do we condition ourselves when it comes to outfit choices. Children wear what makes them happy and so should we. BRAVO”, “This brought a tear to my eyes!” and “Loved it!! Beautiful to have young girls empowered to make older girls remember to love themselves.”
We think these mini fashionistas did a great job – they can style us any day.
Have you lost style confidence since becoming a mum? Let us know your thoughts in the Facebook comments or join the conversation on Twitter @HerFamilydotie
