FKA twigs has called out the “double standards” she believes are at play after her Calvin Klein underwear advert was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Twigs’s poster, which was released in April 2023, shows the British musician and actor wearing a denim shirt that is drawn halfway around her body, leaving the side of her buttocks and half of one breast exposed.
This week, the ASA revealed it had received two complaints that the images of twigs, 36, were “overly sexualised”, offensive and irresponsible because they objectified women and were inappropriately displayed.
It did not ban Calvin Klein’s posters featuring model Kendall Jenner, which were released as part of the same campaign.
“I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me,” twig said in a post to Instagram, where she shared the image of her in the Calvin Klein campaign.
“I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine.”
Twigs said that after reviewing other Calvin Klein campaigns, she couldn’t help but feel “there are some double standards here”.
FKA twigs in her ad for Calvin Klein— (PA)
“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,” she said.
“Thank you to CK and [fashion photographers] Mert and Marcus who gave me a space to express myself exactly how I wanted to – I will not have my narrative changed.”
On the decision to ban the ad, the ASA previously said: “We considered the image's composition placed viewers' focus on the model's body rather than on the clothing being advertised.
”The ad used nudity and centred 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 offence.”
FKA twigs called out the decision to ban her Calvin Klein advert— (PA Wire)
Calvin Klein defended the advertisement by comparing it to those previously released in the UK for many years.
It said that twigs, whom the fashion brand described as a “confident and empowered woman”, collaborated with Calvin Klein to create the image and had approved it before its release.
Calvin Klein added that all “conventionally sensitive” body areas were fully covered and the subject was in a natural and neutral position.
The ban of twigs’s ad comes shortly after Calvin Klein released a highly publicised campaign featuring The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White.
Speaking at the Golden Globes earlier this week, White suggested he is uncomfortable with the media scrutiny, after fan reactions to the ads began going viral on social media.
