Way to go, Jacob

So a few months back, I posted a rant about Jacob, a Canadian clothing store that I loved, but that no longer seemed to love me, given that they told me they were discontinuing size large - my size. I was pissed, and stayed away from them for a long time.

Today, I wandered in, just curious to see if this was still the case. I was secretly hoping not, since they have the very best cotton cardigans, and I could use one or two for this winter, but if there wasn't a large in sight, I was out of there, even if they had decided to keep their long-standing classic in large.

But? Seems they have reinstated large to its rightful place on the rack, and everything I looked at, I found a large in (save one shirt that they had run out of - guess their demographic does buy large after all!). Congrats, Jacob - you have me back.

And not only that - because if I'm going to condemn for a crap move, I'm also one to praise for something I like - they had signage indicated that they have committed to stop retouching models in ad campaigns. Holy crap.

There, large as life about the counter, were a few pictures of a model in different outfits - including lingerie. And in that scanty outfit? Lo, there was something akin to a revelation. At the top of her stocking, where it clasped her leg, her thigh bulged gently against the pressure, rounding outward a touch. At the top of the wide lace band of her underpants, the flesh of her hip, concave after the tension of the elastic edging, mounded softly toward the slimmer dimension of her waist. Looking at that, you can see exactly where in past, as they admit, it would have been considered necessary to apply a little photohsop tool magic, because these are the things we are not accustomed to seeing in the world of print campaigns.

She looked, of course, fantastic. I mean, even without the use of digital trickery, the model was, after all, chosen for her adherence to a physical ideal in the first place (and then made up, styled, and well-lit). We are not talking about putting, say, me up on the wall unretouched. But it is fascinating, liberating, to see that even those specimens of so-called perfection have those little bits of soft flesh that make for curvy femininity, that they are not as entirely other as they sometimes seem. In stark contrast to what studies have shown - that fashion magazines directly and negatively affect a woman's self-image, I felt... relieved. Inspired. And most of all, impressed.

Way to bring it back around and then some, Jacob.