As a woman of color I had assumed the color called "nude" was simply the color of Band-aids. I never even considered it was supposed to mirror a skin tone, and there certainly weren't other bras that blended in under my sheer pieces. Now, finally, I think I've finally found a solution: Nubian Skin, a line of underwear and hoisery for women of color. Those last minute treks into the city or a crowded mall parking lot on a quest for a specific shade of brown bra can stay in the past. This company is making the color nude a reality, with several shades of browns available.
I first realized how messed up the term "nude" was in 8th grade, when I was in a play that required us to wear a specific nude color tights. My mother refused to buy the required spandex, and sternly told me to put on my first pair of nylons that matched my legs perfectly instead. "Tell them I would be more than happy if they called me about it," she insisted. I understood, my "nude" chocolate skin was different than the rest of the class; it seemed odd that they would even call it nude in the first place. As BuzzFeed points out, a quick google search of the word will show you that "nude" refers to only one group of birthday suits.
Personally, this is a million dollar idea that I am a little annoyed I didn't come up with myself, considering the fact that I've had a love/hate relationship with the color nude for most of my life. In fact, when I was living in Portland, I referred to a spandex brown dress as nude when requesting another size and the sales associate laughed. Have you ever referred to brown as nude before? Try it out and you'll be in one of the top five most awkward social situations of your lifetime. Sheer tops do not discriminate y'all — everyone needs to look naked underneath at some point.
So far Nubian skin, is rolling out an advanced color system that will have shades as dark as "Berry." To find your perfectly matching shade, Nubian Skin has cleverly added some tips to base your particular nude off of makeup colors by MAC and other popular cosmetic brands. As far as bra sizing goes, they currently only offer a range of 30B to 36DD/E. Of course, I got my small-breasted homies in mind and have already pondered if double-A cups are coming our way.
Unfortunately, this still won't be a company with all shades of nude; in fact it will only have shades of brown. Not to be pedantic, but the lingerie industry seems to be steering towards a separate-but-equal trend that is slightly troublesome. Of course, that's the American road to equality: First you say "OK fine, you can have this, but you aren't allowed to have it with us" and then eventually everyone says that's dumb and we whine publicly about it until we all decide togetherness is beneficial to the economy and our minds.
In October, the beauty industry will take a progressive launch towards forcing popular brands to provide for all their consumers that need to wear something see-through. Thanks to Nubian Skin, lingerie is finally on its way to equality.
Images: Nubian Skin; Giphy; Need Supply Co
