MISSGUIDED x PLAYBOY

In the last month fashion brand Missguided launched it'd latest collaboration with men’s magazine Playboy. This collaboration has left me both surprised, but not surprised. Some people are obsessed with it whilst others have branded the collection as tacky and embarrassing. The collaboration, which went live on September 25th 2018, sold out so fast that a second restock of all the products happened almost a month later - why is it so popular?

Missguided announced the collaboration with Playboy on the social media and called it “The essential collection for a new generation of rebellious females who dress by their own rules.” From the outset I have liked Missguided as a brand, i find their clothes hit and miss but I love what they stand for so I am extremely surprised that Missguided - who pride themselves on their business model which focuses on empowering women - would willingly collab with a mens lifestyle magazine who are most well known for its photos of naked women. This seems to go against everything Missguided are about.

The collection consists of t-shirts, dresses, bags, tracksuits and jewellery, to name a few, all plastered in the classic Playboy logo and vintage magazine cover images, with prices ranging from £8 to a full tracksuit for around £50.

To me the collection screams nothing but tacky, with far too many diamante's making an appearance for 2018. It feels like a revive of 2002, i'm all up for vintage but this collection really isn’t doing it for me. But again why are people loving it?? I looked through twitter and instagram too see what people were liking about it, and to be honest there wasn’t really anyone singing their praises about it, a lot of people saying that its ‘tacky’ yet they love it or ‘neeeeed’ the collection in their life, but what is it that’s drawing them to this tacky 2002-esque clothing?

I don’t find this collection at all rebellious like Missguided described it as, neither would I feel like I was dressing by my own rules in this collection when half of instagram are wearing the exact same bunny print tracksuit. In a world where empowering women is everything why are women actively choosing to promote playboy, a brand that see’s women as a sex object?