TStraps & Keeping It Natural

Me Design worked on the launch of TStrap’s branding and gave it revamp to the brand recently which included a website. This is just one of our many fantastic collaborations with Illustrate Media, working together to design and create a simple, but stunning website.

The founder of TStraps, Aretha is passionate about her amazing product and we feel privileged to have been supporting her from the beginning. They are a brand who pride themselves in empowering women, and we were so excited to get alongside and support them!

The concept of the TStraps brand is based around creating products for women of any shape and size to make us look our best whilst feeling as comfortable as we can; a difficult task in a world where women’s bodies are so heavily stereotyped. Clothes and fashion accessories are generally designed for a ‘typical’ shape and figure, but TStraps were designed with everyone in mind.

TStraps only have three products based on a simple, but very useful idea, so keeping the design simple and highlighting the usage of the product was key. We went for a clean, bright and dynamic look that supports the active lifestyle the product is promising to help women with.

A vital part of the branding for us was keeping everything as natural as we can – including the photoshoot that we did for TStraps. It was important that we didn’t follow the trend of digitally shrinking waists, slimming arms and thighs, and smoothing wrinkles, as is the ‘norm’ in the fashion world these days – we know there’s really no need for it!

We think the excessive use of photoshop is getting out of hand in advertising and popular culture, and we don’t like the impact this has on the perception women have of themselves. It’s unrealistic and unhealthy to think that every woman should conform to the shape that’s portrayed as ‘perfect’ by the media; we think women are naturally beautiful! This is why we’re proud of Aretha for being conscious about how she promotes her product for real women with real women.

The photoshoot featured two very different, but beautiful models who didn’t need to be photoshopped; they naturally look great! It can be difficult to do a photoshoot when you’ve made the decision to not depend on photoshop afterwards – but with the two fabulous models, Bola and Yeko needing no re-touching, and our amazingly talented photographer Laura Lewis, this one was a joy! We loved the moment Bola took out her wig and wanted to be photographed with her natural hair. And she gave the strongest and the most beautiful photos. How empowering!