British singer-songwriter-dancer FKA Twigs has responded via Instagram to the recent UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ban on her Calvin Klein underwear campaign photo from last spring.
FKA twigs, Calvin Klein Spring 2023 underwear campaign.
The campaign, which was unveiled last March, has just now made waves with the ad ban aimed specifically at one image of FKA Twigs, wearing an unbuttoned denim shirt that was drawn halfway around her body, leaving the side of her buttocks and half of one breast exposed.
"The ad used nudity and [centered] on FKA twigs’ physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object. We therefore concluded the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause serious [offense]," was the official statement from the ASA. Kendall Jenner, who was also photographed for the line, was not singled out. However, FKA Twigs is now voicing displeasure at the board's descriptive terminology.
She wrote: "I do not see the 'stereotypical sexual object' that they have labelled me. i see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine." She is presumably referring to the surgery needed to remove fibroid tumors in 2017. Before that, she had lived with "a fruit bowl of pain every day," as she described in an interview with The Guardian at the time.
FKA Twigs performs at the Park Avenue Armory, May 2019.
Continuing in the Instagram post, she stated: "In light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, i can’t help but feel there are some double standards here." This may be a thinly veiled jab at the board for caving into the two (!) complaints they received about her image. Calvin Klein has been vocal in support, refuting the ban: "The images were not vulgar and were of two confident and empowered women who had chosen to identify with the Calvin Klein brand, and the ads contained a progressive and enlightened message."
FKA twigs, Calvin Klein Spring 2023 underwear campaign.
"so to be clear…i am proud of my physicality and hold the art i create with my vessel to the standards of women like josephine baker, eartha kitt and grace jones who broke down barriers of what it looks like to be empowered and harness a unique embodied sensuality. thank you to ck and mert and marcus who gave me a space to express myself exactly how i wanted to - i will not have my narrative changed."
