AJIO walks the ramp with #NotWhatIWear

The vicious cycle of victim blaming has clutched onto societal norms where the length of her outfits is the tool that measures her character.  As the perspective of people to look at both the genders is distorted to a level that leaves the female gender ridiculed and a victim to heinous crimes, like many others even AJIO grasped onto to the digital media to talk about feminism.

Fashion, Freedom, and Feminism

Enthralled by patriarchy, women are made the puppets of the so-called ideal society, with unreasonable standards set for one particular gender. Hoping to bring an end to this insight, brands have stepped up to make feminism the vehicle of communication to connect with women at large. AJIO too joined the bandwagon along with the Lakme Fashion Week, where fashion (obviously) became the topic of discussion and how!

As Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Phantom Ideas Robert Anthony shared the idea behind this campaign, “In the light of the recent mass molestation event on NYE in Bangalore, along with the drip feed of countless news stories about women being sexually harassed, abused and judged because of the way they dress, AJIO felt compelled to take a stand.

AJIO's #NotWhatYouWear encouraged people to express themselves fearlessly and confidently through their personal style pairing up with the Lakme Fashion Week.

The Film

The core concept of the film targeted the mentality the typical society in this country holds where victim blaming prevails, for which they produced a film that communicated the darker side by enacting the everyday situations through dialogues.

Seema Chawla, Head of Marketing at Ajio, tells us what #NotWhatIWear stands for

Catch the @AJIOLife show today at 5PM#LakmeFashionWeek pic.twitter.com/W4uM5UuYlk

— Lakmé Fashion Week (@LakmeFashionWk) February 5, 2017

Directed by Siva Romero Iyer and produced by Inglorious Films these monochrome visuals had women wearing just a box with different voiceover in the background where they take validation from the society with voices filling in the background of people cursing, blaming and throwing filth at them for their choices.

The boxes had messages like “I am wearing a little black dress, is that a crime?” or “I’m wearing skinny jeans, should I be banned from college,” or “I’m wearing a sleeveless kurta, will I be safe in the bus? And a lot more questions we ask ourselves every day.

“Unveiling the #NotWhatIWear campaign Ajio.com has added its voice to thousands of conversations of this nature taking place across the nation. And putting their weight behind the view that it truly is #NotWhatIWear that is to blame, for the violence, molestation and eve teasing, but the way some sections of society think and act,” he added

This film was amalgamated with the Lakme Fashion Week where they interacted with people and asked women to leave their comments with #NotWhatIWear and they included that in their show.

Crowd sourcing content from social media, the brand escalated their campaign to an offline event on a platform where making a film about fashion and clothing made a lot of sense.

The film was even played at the opening of the show at the Fashion Week and immediately after the models walked the ramp wearing the same boxes but tearing them off to reveal the AJIO clothing collecting underneath.

The tearing of boxes raised a strong indicative point where women confidently break down societal demands and do what they believe in. Their entire motive stood up for females and their choice to dress up- whenever, however and whenever.

The social media acceptance

Since its release, the campaign received 209,215 views on YouTube, 121k views on Facebook with 1k shares and the comment section pouring in with the opinions and experiences of people. On YouTube, Facebook and Twitter the campaign crossed 2 lakh views within a week and even managed to garner over 600 shares

The brand even leveraged on the Facebook Live feature at the Lakme Fashion Week to take their campaign ahead and through this feature, though the campaign was conducted offline it was still relevant and accessible for their digital audience.

Drawing a connect and using it at the right time for their audience, AJIO produced a video that might not possess innovative content or an approach but it was utilized and fitted appropriately with the occasion at hand i.e Lakme Fashion Week. This choice of complementing platform got the brand plenty of traction.

As brands repeatedly preach about feminism and try to be the mirror of the society using creative content, AJIO brought out a common topical idea and weaved it in with the brand's offerings in an unconventional way!