Watch: Which Major Clothing Retailer Just Launched A Trans Inclusive Advertising Campaign?

Five people, who openly identify as transgender, are featured in this retailer’s new ad. 

& Other Stories, a clothing and accessory brand under the H&M Group, just launched a transgender inclusive advertising campaign featuring five transgender people from the fashion world.

The video includes Valentijn de Hugh (model), Hari Nef (model), Amos Mac (photographer and also editor of trans magazine Original Plumbing), Love Bailey (stylist), and Nina Poon (make-up artists). The group interacts with each other during a photo shoot, and they discuss gender in the world of fashion.

‘I think it’s so weird that when we are born the first thing that we are, even before we have a name, or an identity, we are either male or female, before you even know anything about the person who was just born,’ says de Hugh in the beginning of film. “And I think, you know, being born male or being born female decides so much about who you are allowed to be in life, and I just don’t want to live under those constraints, you know. I want to break free from those.”

In a press statement about the campaign, Sara Hildén Bengtson, Creative Director for & Other Stories, explained the reasoning behind hiring models and creatives who identify as transgender. “The fashion world is embracing transgender models and we think that’s great. But we couldn’t help to ask ourselves how the traditional fashion gaze can change if we keep the same normative crew behind the camera. So we invited five amazing creatives, all transgender, to make our latest story.”

Bailey sums everything up beautifully in the video. “Breaking those barriers of male and female, and black and white, we really have to embrace the color spectrum of life. It’s a rainbow.”

Companies are slowly evolving to allow more trans representation in their advertising. Earlier this year, Jazz Jennings, a transgender teenager, starred in a commercial for Clean & Clear where she came out of her shell and accepted herself. Google also made a groundbreaking video last June when they featured an out and proud transgender man named Jake searching for a place where he could be comfortable working out during his transition. And finally, last month, Make Up For Ever released an ad featuring Andreja Pejić, the first openly transgender, female model to land a cosmetics contract. 

Take a look:

 

Image: Screenshot via andotherstories/YouTube