Daring British songstress FKA Twigs has found herself in the middle of controversy. The star’s Calvin Klein ad has been banned in the United Kingdom as a result of a decision made by the country’s governing advertising regulator.
The controversial ad shows the 36-year-old donning only a shirt draped over her body. The caption “Calvins or nothing” is also written in the ad. The regulator insisted that the photo was “irresponsible and likely to cause serious offense.”
Other stars have posed scantily clad in underwear ads for the famous fashion brand, including Kendall Jenner and Jeremy Allen White. But their ads weren’t removed...racist much?
On Instagram, FKA Twigs defended the ad:
“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. in light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, i can’t help but feel there are some double standards here. 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 [photographers] mert and marcus, who gave me a space to express myself exactly how i wanted to – i will not have my narrative changed.”
The Advertising Standards Authority allegedly received complaints from two different people who thought the ad was unseemly. In a statement, they explained that “image’s composition placed viewers’ focus on the model’s body rather than on the clothing being advertised.”
According to The Guardian, folks complained about Jenner’s ad but the regulators decided that the image was not done “in a manner that portrayed her as a sexual object.”
However, Calvin Klein stands by the “Cellophane” singer.
“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,” they stated.