TWMBABW: Love and Nudes

Growing up as a little brown child in the 90's, I learned very quickly that this whole "nude" color thing was not for me. The "nude" or skin colored crayons were significantly lighter than I or anyone in my direct family, and half of my school for that matter. The "flesh tone" bandaids stood out on my boo-boos almost as much as the neon colored ones that were popular at the time.

This trend continued well into my adulthood, noting that the "nude" lipsticks on me made my lips look ashy, skin tone hosiery might as well have been white, and nude clothing were more tan than anything else. For me, and so many others, anything classified as "nude", "skin", or "flesh" tone was not informed by our tones. In a swath of fair "skin" colors, light foundations, and pale clothing, we who were kissed by the sun were not being represented by any of it.

That is why today's brand is so important. I stumbled upon Love and Nudes like I have stumbled upon so many great people and brands, on Instagram. A brand that only creates not only quality and comfortable lingerie in shades I can call "nude" deserved my attention. But it is this brands ethic,


Today in This Was Made By A Black Woman, we hear from Chantal Carter Taylor, creator of Love and Nudes.

"The name of my brand is Love & Nudes. We design products to celebrate women in a world of diversity. We’ve developed an intimates line that represents nude for diverse skin tones of the world."

"We speak to people of colour who are bombarded with images of society's beauty standards that don't reflect what they look like. These women would like to be accepted in their own skin."

How Chantal came to entrepreneurship was almost seamless (see what I did there) "I fell into this, I worked as a wardrobe stylist and was very much entrenched in fashion. I became frustrated when I could not find any type of clothing that matched my skin tone. I felt very left out when fashion magazines would feature nude trends because it was always beige. I wanted to be able to wear these fashions in the same way but beige wouldn’t cut it. I searched in Canada and the US for nude bras and clothing and came up empty. I did some research to see if other women were facing this issue also. When I found out that I wasn’t crazy (lol) I knew I was onto something. I then sought out advice and received help from an ideation organization that helped me to launch Love and Nudes."

In the 'nudes" industry, Chantal noticed what I and many women of Color have noticed; the sheer lack of color. When asked how Love and Nudes came about,"I started this brand because I always felt that I should be doing something more than the career path that I was on. I wasn’t happy with where my career was headed and I always loved fashion. I felt that Love & Nudes is a perfect combination of fashion and a social cause of representing women with diverse skin tones who aren’t acknowledged in fashion products nor the media."

When asked about her favorite pieces in the Love and Nudes lineup, "Currently we’ve launched 2 products, a bra and panty in four diverse shades and I love them all. I love the way the colours of our line marry women’s skin tones. I love that our bras our wire-free and offer versatility with a racer back hook. I love that our panty style are a hybrid of a thong and a cheeky panty. These pieces are pretty special and atypical."

Being a both Black and Woman owned business means different things for different entrepreneurs. For Chantal, "This means supporting my community and keeping dollar circulating within our communities. Being an entrepreneur for this brand especially has taught me about self acceptance and not having to be validated by anyone else. This is so powerful. Black people are strong, talented and beautiful; we need to recognize this within ourselves and lift each other up. This includes starting your own business or supporting black businesses to ensure our economic growth and success."