Heist Launches The Nude Project: Why Does Nude Still Exclude So Many People?

LONDON, July 12, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Heist, the British start-up renowned for its break-through innovation and consumer-centric approach to underwear, has identified nude shades that are representative of women across the globe*.

Using insights from 100,000 women and data science to analyse swatches of skin tones from a dedicated microsite https://www.heist-studios.com/the-nude-project,  Heist has answered one of fashion's most overlooked questions; "what is nude?".

The brand recognised that without a data driven cross-section of populations broken down by skin tones, the fashion industry was incapable of providing accurate shades of nudes that match their customers' skin tones.

The Nude Project was launched to collect this data which allowed Heist to analyse the skin tones of 100,000 women over the course of two years. This data identified 1,000 unique skin tones, which then allowed Heist to perform Euclidean clustering. This data clustering process resulted in seven distinct shades of nude which any of the 100,000 women who participated in the project could accurately match to.

The seven shades of nude devised from Heist's research then informed one of its best-selling product ranges; seven shades of nude tights.

Following the success of this crowd-sourcing initiative and the importance of accurate representation of audience in the industry, which has been non-existent to date, Heist has open sourced the data.

Now global brands, designers and entrepreneurs operating across sectors have access to the exact skin tones needed to accurately represent their audience which marks a pivotal moment in the industry.

What is nude? Heist has a data-backed answer. This is a brand constantly investing in true representation.

Quotes from Heist CEO, Toby Darbyshire

"Our insight was that unless there existed a data driven breakdown of a statistically viable cross section of the female population in any given country, the fashion industry would be incapable of providing nude shades that matched their customers skin tones."

"A lack of clarity around how many nude shades are required to cover an appropriate number of skin tones meant that this decision became commercial (i.e. a matter of working capital constraints) rather than customer driven (i.e. a matter of how many shades were required to serve their customer base)."

"This is just the beginning. The Nude Project is set up in such a way that brands expanding into other countries, or with a global footprint, can use the model to easily collate and analyse data to determine how their nude palette should be adapted in any given market."

Quotes from Heist VP of Innovation, Fiona Fairhurst "For us, it's more about how we create a model that allows us to build for our consumers. We exist to provide true representation in underwear for all women."

PRESS CONTACT INFORMATION:

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Michelle Katz
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About Heist Heist exists to serve women by making them feel seen, heard and included with underwear that makes them feel and look good.

All women are different, their experience of underwear is universal: bad.

Heist, set up in 2015 by Toby Darbyshire, has raised $10m from some of the world's leading investors to build Lab12, its in-house innovation laboratory. This team applies the same level of physiological research and technological innovation to underwear that has only previously been applied to the sportswear category.

heist-studios.com
@heiststudios

Creative Colour Component Map identifying levels of red, green and blue (RGB) from the skin tones of 100,000 women, the frequency and proportions of which allowed Heist to identify seven shades of nude following this process of Euclidean clustering.

The Nude; Heist's range of 18-denier nude tights in seven shades.

SOURCE Heist