Fashion

Sophie Simmons Took A Stand Against Photoshop

by Alexa Tucker

I knew I loved Sophie Tweed-Simmons when she launched her capsule collection for TheStyleClub back in October. Her line includes pieces that are made to fit all different body types, and the items are named after influential women like Sheryl Sandberg, Malala Yousafzai, and Arianna Huffington. But just when I thought I couldn't admire her more, the daughter of KISS rocker Gene Simmons is revealing she's not in support of Photoshopping images. YES.

The model, singer, and designer revealed in an interview with Yahoo! Style that the images for her collection were originally doctored, but she asked to have the edits reversed. "When the first shots of her posing in Sophie x TheStyleClub came back she thought, 'My legs look too good,'" the article says. "She asked if they’d been altered using Photoshop and after learning that they had, she said what very few people would: 'Can you change them back?'"

What few people would, indeed. It's one thing to say you're against Photoshop, but it's quite another to say that you don't want your own photos edited. It's something I've thought about before: It would be extremely tempting to have your "imperfections" Photoshopped away in images that hundreds of thousands of people would lay their eyes on.

We all have things we don't like about ourselves, and here's this computer program that allows us to take them away — just like magic! But the ability to change features and blur physical insecurities comes with a price, and a big one at that. By using Photoshop, we're elevating the standard of beauty to something unattainable for the average woman, and that sets us up for disappointment and confidence issues.

If more public figures like Sophie and influential people in the fashion industry took a stand against Photoshop and decided to celebrate bodies the way they were made, I truly think the world would be a better place. So thanks, Sophie, for bravely asking to have Photoshop reversed in your collection images.

Image: Instagram/@sophie_tweed_simmons