Canadian brand Garage's racy rebrand sparks criticism online: 'You're supposed to sell clothes, not bodies'
The Montreal-based clothing brand sparked criticism with their latest campaign featuring oiled-up models in various states of undress.
Canadian clothing brand Garage is drawing criticism online. The Montreal-based clothing brand, owned by Groupe Dynamite, is seemingly seeking a more mature demographic with their latest campaign — despite historically catering to a pre-teen and teenage audience.
Earlier this month, Garage wiped content from their social media pages to share multiple videos advertising “It girl denim.” The July 15 post featured several models with toned, oiled midriffs in various states of undress. The hyper-sexualized campaign featured models gyrating to music and wearing jeans as make-shift tops.
The rebrand earned mixed reactions from female followers. Many expressed their displeasure with the brand’s new direction.
“For a clothing line aimed at teens, y’all have been sexualizing these ads like crazy,” someone wrote.
"There's a time and place for everything, and this is not the time nor the place. I am all for embracing the feminine energy, but I'm pretty sure the majority of your supporters are young, very young people," a follower said.
"The new marketing advertisements are disgusting on every platform," another added. "Snapchat, instagram, the website, incredibly disappointing. Let’s put the sexualization of women to an end. So unnecessary."
“You're supposed to sell clothes, not bodies,” someone wrote.
Many criticized the brand for its lack of body diversity and accused the new campaign of promoting harmful body standards.
“So, we are trying to protect our daughters from body dysmorphia and over sexualization and this is the ad campaign you choose to run? On a brand geared towards young teens? This is such a backward step," a follower wrote.
"This is awful. Also don’t see any models with different body types," another said. "Are we back at the '90s?”
Although the brand has yet to acknowledge concern over the rebrand on its social media channels, a representative for Garage told Yahoo Canada that the brand "consistently spends time listening" to their customers as a "way to innovate while delivering an emotional connection to the brand and the product that resonates with her."
"We are overjoyed to be a brand that has the rare privilege of serving a second generation of loyal brand advocates across Canada," Gina DeYoung, vice president brand creative, told Yahoo Canada in a statement. "Our customer has evolved, so have we. Today our consumer is an aged-up, unapologetic fashion shopper in her mid-twenties. This campaign is all about the celebration of empowering women to own their femininity as their most confident selves, while showcasing our best selling and customer-favourite denim styles. We are proud of this campaign, which was shot with an all-female cast, photographer, and production team from diverse backgrounds.”
Despite the overwhelming criticism, there have been some online who approve of the brand’s new direction.
“Am I the only one who loves the new everything? It’s giving early 2000s and I love. Plus Garage has been targeting 18-mid 20s for years now so I don’t see the problem with it being sexual."
“This new campaign is unapologetically YOU,” one person wrote.
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