Bullying has always existed in one nasty, catty form or another, but the easy expenditure of online outrage has proliferated the issue. River Island has stepped up with their new campaign to celebrate their many varied customers and make way for a world without bullies.
In conjunction with anti-bullying charity Ditch the Label, River Island is selling t-shirts for £3 that champion their spring/summer message: ‘Labels Are For Clothes’. In conjuncture with this, the high street retailer is propelling the stories of 12 spokespeople into the public eye with images shot by Richard Burbridge and styled by Ondine Azoulay.
Londoner Zara Sheriff, 21, is one of them. Her story is sadly too familiar: an educated, smart woman whose heritage has unfairly left her burned by ignorant people. ‘When people speak to me they ask me where are you from and I say I’m British, and they will say no but where are you actually from, and I realise they mean my cultural heritage, and I say I’m Pakistani. My parents are from Pakistan. In the beginning, it was an identity crisis, I didn’t want to be from there. Then it was like, yes this is where I am culturally from, and I love that, but I am British’, she says, ‘I myself am a Pakistani individual – at school, I was called a Paki. And add to that, I’m Muslim, I wear a headscarf, I get called a terrorist. I’ve had people ask me if I’m carrying a bomb. Muslims are all around you, and the simple fact is, if we were all terrorists – you wouldn’t be alive’. Zara’s message is simple: ‘Do Not Stereotype’.
Uranian-born, Israeli-raised model Stav Strashko is another new face River Island has called on. ‘I identify as a female, I would rather live with no labels – but you know we live in a society where people just want you to label yourself. I do identify more as a girl than a guy definitely, but haven’t had any surgeries done. I don’t want them and I don’t feel this is what’s going to make me a woman.’ Strashko explains, ‘I’m not powerful enough yet, but I promise I will be. I want to use the platform I have to help other kids feel good about themselves. Not necessarily just trans or queer kids, but everyone – it’s just about being who you are and loving yourself and not being scared of judgement. As long as you aren’t hurting anyone, why shouldn’t you be who and what you want to be?’ For this series, she promotes the message ‘100% Woman’.
At 29-years-old Model and ice-cream entrepreneur Sabina Karlsson is a body-positivity campaigner promoting the concept: ‘Do Not Shrink’. With fiery red hair and freckles she says, ‘[i]n the beginning I thought, the skinnier I get, the more comfortable I’m going to be. The more successful I’m gonna be, the more beautiful – but that was not the fact. It was the opposite. When I was really skinny, I didn’t feel it, it’s only looking back at the pictures that I can see it. Accepting that I couldn’t maintain that weight and those measurements were tough for me…I was introduced to the plus size division at Ford, which was the first time someone ever told me that my measurements were perfect. It was such a relief to feel like I was at home and to be accepted, but even though they accepted me, I still had a long way to go.’
‘I’m proud to be part of our most exciting ad campaign to date. In recent years we have witnessed a shift in the market and the attitudes of our consumers – they want to express themselves and not be defined by convention. The Labels Are For Clothes campaign is our recognition of this welcome movement’, explains Josie Cartridge, River Island’s Customer Director.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.