From lingerie to Band-Aids, cosmetics to shoes, we’ve been subconsciously told that our darker hue is not worthy of including. Most of us brown girls have gone through the painstaking task of searching for underwear that won’t show up under our white sundress or pumps that we can pair effortlessly with just about any ensemble. We’ve been overlooked repeatedly by fashion spreads that claim to have the perfect “nude” lipstick or “invisible” t-shirt bra, only to come across peachy and beige tones. What about the deep mocha, warm caramel and rich ebony complexions?
Fortunately, companies are becoming more cognizant of the fact that at the end of the day our money is just as green as their lighter-toned consumers. MySkins, for example, is a brand that makes lingerie in 20 skin-matching colors. The company tested their seamless bras and panty colors (from Honey to Espresso) on nearly 700 women.
A Google search for “nude shoes” or a glance through various magazine spreads, however, will reveal that we still have a long way to go.
Does the term “nude” offend you?
-Audra E. Lord
I am offended by the word nude, as it refers to white female complexion.
It’s like white people are standard human beings and the other ethnic groups must be classified as other. This word is just the representation of blatant racism in fashion industry.
They should say beige or pink, but not nude.
I could let the term offend me because it refers to paler skin tones as the default, but I don’t. I just make it work.
I bought a pair of platform pumps last year that were a dead on match for my skin which happens to be dark brown. I mentioned it to an associate of the ‘paler persuasion’ that I’d be wearing my nude pumps for a night out with our mutual friend. When she saw them she said “…but those are brown, you said nude.”
I replied “they are.” She kept going on and on about how for them to be nude they have to be skin tone, and I simply replied “The skin tone of whom?”
She shut up real quick. I don’t play that.
I make nude work, and for me the term translates to dark brown, period.
You have a point, I like the answer you gave to your friend
lol thanks, whenever I’m around she’s very cautious when she speaks. I find it all hilarious really.
You go girl.
Thanks for highlighting My Skins. I have been complaining about “nude” ever since I was a brown little girl forced to wear pink band-aids. This is another one of those things that white people never have to think about or deal with.
Good piece. When I purchase a ‘nude’ bra, it’s always the color of my skin and I refer to it as nude even if the tag says mocha.
Yes, yes, yes. Especially since the recent trend of nude has taken over. I worked at Wet Seal, and they had “Nude” (in the traditional sense of the word used by fashion) colored bras placed next to brown bras. At the time, I should have looked at what the tags said regarding colors of the bras, but I didn’t. I asked my manager who had opened the shipment that day if that brown was supposed to be nude for me. We agreed it was when I held it up to my skin. Now I want to know what they called it.
I went out the other day and a brown colored friend (lets call her Rita) wore “nude” shoes.Later on, i was telling another friend that Rita wore nude shoes. Eventually, when the pictures of the event were posted on facebook, my friend is like those are not nude shoes, they are beige or cream. It was then i realized that though Rita wore what the fashion industry termed as “Nude” they were not nude on her because it was not in her own skin tone! So why generalize and use one skin tone and call it NUDE for everyone? It’s like anything Caucasian is the default and the rest of us always have to struggle to find things that suit our skin tone.It is annoying and down right SICKENING.
It doesn’t offend me but like others pointed out the term is often used incorrectly. Nude in the term of clothings should reflect the individual skin tone, point black, weather it is light nude, medium nude or dark nude. I think it is ridicious to say that nude is only one skin tone when it isn’t.
i’m offended by the term nude the way the fashion industry uses it, which could only translate to being nude on lighter complexions, specifically white skin. nude as they currently use it, should just be referred to as beige.