Nude is more than one color
October 4, 2014 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
Written by Aspen Evans, contributor
Photo by Arielle Antonio.
Nude undergarments are an essential staple in a woman’s wardrobe. No girl wants to deal with the unwanted attention from bright bras or underwear when wearing white or sheer clothing. Fashion Week and lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret has engrained it in the fashion world that nude was one singular color, a color that seemed to match my fairer skinned friends. I remember a shopping trip to Victoria’s Secret where one of my friends made a joke over a nude bra that I picked out, saying that that wasn’t her nude, it was beige and that she might as well stick to black.
That remark resonated with me for some time. I had never thought about it in that way. Although I am “light-skinned,” the nude bra I sported under white or sheer shirts that was seemingly “close enough,” really was a hop, skip and a jump from my actual skin tone. It was hard enough to find a makeup shade that fit me correctly but now I had to worry about this, too?
Recently, the news took the internet by storm that a small company called Nubian Skin were revolutionizing the lingerie and hosiery market by bringing appropriate nude undergarments for women of color. The garments so far come in four tones: Berry, the darkest shade; Cinnamon, a medium-dark shade; Caramel, a rich medium brown shade and lastly, the lightest shade, Cafe Au Lait. Thousands of women, including myself, were tweeting, sharing articles on Facebook and commenting on the brand’s blog about how they had waited for this day and their struggle with skin tone matching garments. I definitely made several posts about how this beige nonsense was not my nude and responding with the correct photo of how this Cafe Au Lait color, from the Nubian Skin campaign, was more my style.
Something as simple as making lingerie accessible for everyone is slowly bridging the gap in the fashion and beauty industry for women of color. I have personally not been this excited since Iman and Queen Latifah came out with their lines of cosmetics, specifically targeting women of all skin tones. I have already signed up for Nubian Skin’s email list, so I can be ready when their e-commerce site becomes available in October.
This small milestone has been long overdue, not only the African American community but anyone who has a little melanin in their skin.
