I am the founder and operator of a boutique pastie and body jewelry company, Appeeling. I started this company as a result of my multiple battles with breast cancer. Today, we thrive as a body positivity brand promoting body confidence one tassel at a time.
Despite our brand ethos and our operating vision, we are routinely and consistently censored by every platform we are on. So you can imagine how excited I was to see this article in The New York Post by Alev Aktar: https://nypost.com/2023/02/16/pasties-make-a-comeback-at-new-york-fashion-week.
We believe pasties and body jewelry are fun, flirty AND fashionable. . Like Saint Laurent's description of the 2016 pastie combo we too hail pasties as a nod to female sexuality. This could not be more powerful today when permission of what we do with our bodies is questioned.
But it is also more than this. Pasties are also gender-neutral and size inclusive. Our products appeal to fashionistas, lingerie enthusiasts, drag queens, burlesque dancers, executive women (pasties under a suit is the new power suit) and more. From Pride and Carnival to Burlesque, Raves and the private runways of many a home, pasties have created a fashionable community of body positivity advocates and an open forum for "free-style".
As I write, I cannot help but think of the beginning days of And1: a brand that leveraged the spirit of what people wore in the streets and made it mainstream.
Let's hope we have more articles like this and ones that celebrate the beauty AND choice of personal style, self expression and the beauty of every-body.
Andrea Johnson is a global entrepreneur, speaker, storyteller and passionate community activist. She is the founder & SHE-E-O of Appeeling – a body celebration brand selling fun and flirty pasties that are perfect for every body. See more at www.beappeeling.com