Tyra Banks has defended Kim Kardashian’s latest SKIMS campaign amid Photoshop allegations.
The 48-year-old took part in a photoshoot for the shapewear brand earlier this month alongside Heidi Klum, Alessandro Ambrosio, Candice Swanepoel and Kim.
After fans accused the brand of editing Tyra’s body in the photos to make her appear slimmer, the supermodel appeared on the Today show to speak about the “empowering” campaign.
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She said: “This is something I’ve been talking about for decades. So, me curvier, me damn near almost 50 years old in this campaign — I think it is pretty empowering.”
Tyra also spoke about how Kim convinced her to come out of retirement for the campaign, explaining: “[Kim] said when I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, she hadn’t seen boobs that were real and big.
“She said that that gave her self-esteem for her body. So we had, like, a serious conversation, and I finally said, ‘Let’s do this!’”
Kim added: “We just had an honest heart-to-heart conversation, and she got to hear what the brand stands for, why I started the brand — and I’m just all about supporting women.”
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Taking to Twitter to react to the campaign, which went live last week, one fan wrote: “Tyra seems to be a victim of extreme photoshop in this one – where did her body go?”
Another tweeted: “Appalled to see the amount of photoshop done to Tyra Banks’ body in Kim Kardashian’s new SKIMS campaign.”
An Instagram account called Problematic Fame, which posts about celebrity picture editing and how it affects Hollywood beauty standards, said SKIMS failed to represent “body positivity and inclusivity.”
They added that Tyra’s body is already “perfect” and said the retouch was “horrendous and completely unnecessary.”
