Edgars is a 90-year-old fashion and beauty department store in South Africa that was fast losing relevance.

We needed to relaunch Edgars Beauty to a contemporary African audience.

But how do you connect a beauty brand to local culture in a country where a Western definition of beauty has been sold for over a hundred years? The Western definition of beauty has set a unrealistic standard of what beauty is, making Africans feel like they are not good or beautiful enough.

Edgars Beauty wanted to challenge beauty stereotypes and prejudice in South Africa, a country with diverse cultures and features, beliefs and beauty ideals.

We identified the need for a new definition of beauty.

A more inclusive one, showing that it’s your imperfections that make you perfect.

To redefine African beauty, challenge stereotypes and transcend race, we cast the most diverse people ever put in a South African beauty ad. Real people who played themselves replaced typical beauty models.

Their features, and identities, have been excluded from the beauty narrative in Africa since the birth of beauty advertising. We believe that their features and ideals are things to be celebrated and owned with confidence.

We included men, trans people, LGBTQI+ members, and all cultures and backgrounds. The campaign included their unique beauty features; from having freckles, albinism and alopecia to being plus sized, with multi-coloured eyes or having “imperfect” skin complexions.