我们需要多少种裸色？

我们需要多少种裸色？

或许，时尚产业终于开始认识到人们生来就有不同的肤色了。长期以来裸色系服饰有限的颜色选择让很多人找不到最适合自己的颜色，现在，许多品牌开始想办法填补色谱上的空缺。为何会有人喜欢穿裸色的衣物？我们究竟需要多少种裸色？

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

hosiery袜类，针织品['həʊziəri]

conjunction结合，关联[kən'dʒʌŋkʃn]

palette调色板，颜料['pælət]

woeful悲伤的，悲哀的['woʊfl]

cursory草率的，粗略的['kɜːsəri]

beige米黄色的[beɪʒ]

lingerie女用内衣['lænʒəri]

contour轮廓['kɒntʊə(r)]

cashmere山羊绒，软毛织物['kæʃmɪə(r)]

balk阻止，退缩，拒绝[bɔːk]

scant不充分的，不足的[skænt]

sceptical怀疑的['skeptɪkl]

imperative诫命，需要[ɪm'perətɪv]

In the nudes: why skin is in（852 words）

By Jo Ellison

Is the fashion industry finally waking up to the fact that humans come in all colours? Two companies have launched new initiatives with the specific aim of representing a broader range of skin tones. London hosiery brand Sheer Chemistry last month released a range of five new tights colours aimed to suit “women of all shades of brown” in conjunction with the hotel W London.

According to the company's founder Tahlia Gray, the hosiery will serve those who have been “confined to a cycle of disappointment and exclusion from the fashion and beauty industry”.

This month, London-based hosiery brand Heist Studios launched The Nude Project as part of a broader study on diversity, for which it is asking people to send in photographs of themselves to better understand the full spectrum of skin tones. The submissions will inform a “much larger range of nude tights” that will go on sale next year and the company will share its findings with the industry in the hope it will encourage brands “to open their product ranges and cater to a more ethnically diverse population”.

“Despite the fact that the hosiery industry is projected to be worth $25.9bn by 2018, there is no fabric-ready nude palette that body-wear brands like Heist can use to develop inclusive product ranges,” explains Heist founder Edzard van der Wyck. “Hosiery is woefully under-representative. General retailers sell roughly one-third of all tights purchased in the UK and they only offer, on average, four shades of nude. This gives us some indication of how poorly the 13 per cent of the UK population that are not ‘white British’, are currently catered for.”

Why anyone would require flesh-coloured tights in 2017 is another matter entirely; I had naively assumed the only woman still obligated to wear a garment that gives one's legs the eerily smooth artificiality of a prosthetic limb was the Duchess of Cambridge. But it transpires a great many people are excited by the prospect of skin-matched hosiery — especially those lawyers and women who work in the finance sector who remain self-conscious about baring their legs at work. Twelve thousand people had signed up to The Nude Project within three hours of its launch, on July 11, and tens of thousands have engaged with it on social media.

Like Sheer Chemistry, the people at Heist have identified a blind-spot in the industry (or should that be greige spot). While the Heist researchers generously suggest there typically exist about four to seven skin tones in “garments worn next to the skin”, a cursory examination of nudes on the high street reflects a more limited palette. Try and find a flesh-coloured knicker, for example.

Marks and Spencer's nude underwear extends only to white, black and a beige, which might otherwise be described as “pan stick”. Topshop's versions come in a very peachy shade of rose which, while they might suit most skin types, would only really match an unprotected white skin after a few too many hours in the sun. Hanro, the Swiss lingerie brand beloved for its contour fit and cashmere comfort, does offer a selection of six shades — from “powder” through “mocha” to “mahogany” — but many may balk at the prospect of paying about £15 for a single pair of undercrackers. In most instances, the choices are scant: no wonder niche lingerie lines such as the London-based Nubian Skin, launched in 2014 by Ade Hassan “to provide the essential underwear needs of women of colour”, are cleaning up.

But why wouldn't brands want to serve more people with its products? The imperative of diversity aside, it simply makes good business sense. (I am reminded of a recent article in the Financial Times, in which Ozohu Adoh, founder of the Epara skincare line for women of colour, was forced to point out to her financiers, sceptical of the “minority market” she intended to serve, that “Nigerian women spend more money in Harrods than women of any other country — one out of every three pounds in 2015”. The beauty industry is way ahead on diversity (Bobbi Brown offers 31 shades of foundation while MAC foundations come in 46 variations), but even fashion brands must now realise that colour blindness is as economically backward as it is bigoted.

Niche brands serving the needs of men and women of colour are now fast emerging. But it's especially cheering when a global fashion brand decides to offer a broader product range as part of its main line. When Christian Louboutin first introduced his Nudes Collection of classic shoes in 2013, he offered them in five shades, which he increased to seven last year. So successful has it been, that this year he introduced two new styles: the ballet-inspired Christeriva and the chunkier Cherrysandal.

Having shared an image of my phizog with The Nude Project, I eagerly await the spectrum of colours that will more accurately reflect my own skin colour when I shop for sheers next spring. I just hope that among all the coppers, mochas, Kardashians and cappuccinos they'll be some consideration for us poor specimens better suited to shades such as ashen, pallid or “a little bit blue looking”.