The death of George Floyd - the tragic event that spearheaded activism movements across the globe - has prompted Marks & Spencer to take on a more proactive role in highlighting racial bias by launching a “more inclusive” range of lingerie partly inspired by the “global conversation” around racial injustice. According to the brand, they "recognized a  need to do more," which spurred them to launch a Nothing Neutral About It campaign that offers more colours, sizes and choice within the neutral category.

The store statement said: “The global conversations around race and equality over the last 12 months spurred us to go faster in creating a better, more inclusive range. From the product offer to the names, to the marketing, we’ve worked for hand in hand with our colleague Culture & Heritage network to deliver a campaign we’re proud of and an underwear range that provides more colours, more sizes and more choice so that all of our customers have the freedom to complement or contrast with their individual skin tone in a way that suits their own personal style.”

The retailers found that there was a lack of inclusivity in their previous product in terms of colours since it only served lighter skin tones. They believe the new colours in the nude and neutral spectrum will adequately cater to all ethnicities.

Laura Charles, the M&S director of lingerie said: “We are the UK market leaders in bras and knickers and with that comes a responsibility to ensure what we sell makes all of our customers feel fantastic. We listened when our customers and colleagues told us we hadn’t got it right when it came to colour; both in the choices available and the way we talked about the neutral shades."

The retailer said that after receiving and listening to customer feedback, they went ahead launched a  new campaign that had more colours in their nude and neutral range to suit all skin tones. The new colours are reportedly named after gemstones such as Topaz, Daily Mail Reported.

The store will also launch a range of post-surgery bras for women who have had a mastectomy and use 'representative models.

Laura Charles said that they feel the responsibility to make every woman look and feel fantastic in their products and the global conversation around racial bias in the past year has only made them work faster in achieving that goal.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 23, 2021 02:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).