Last Thursday, the day before Trans Day of Visibility, Lizzo’s brand Yitty announced the launch of a new gender-affirming shapewear line coined “Your Skin.” The shapewear collection will launch late this summer and will feature a new Tucking Thong and Binding Top in sizes 6X to XS.
Lizzo announced the drop on the one-year “yittyversary” of her gender-affirming intimates and shapewear brand. But not all fans rushed to commend the “About Damn Time” singer.
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Artist Zackary Drucker alleged on Twitter, tagging Lizzo directly, that Yitty ordered from trans- and queer-women-owned gender-inclusive garment brand Urbody. Additionally, they met with the team earlier this year about the launch of “Your Skin,” only for that meeting to feature “no one from the trans community,” according to Drucker.
Since its emergence in 2022, the foundation of Lizzo’s company has been to market styles to fit all body types, and now with Your Skin by Yitty, supposedly all gender identities as well.
@lizzo When your team ordered a full size run of trans-owned business @urbody__co’s compression tops in 2022, Urbody emailed to open the door @Yitty to speak up for trans folks who’d been doing this work to be at the table of #YourSkin from the beginning.
— Zackary Drucker (@zackarydrucker) March 31, 2023
In a statement provided to Fashionista, the team at Urbody shared they “were largely ignored and brushed off,” when offered to partner with them “despite the Yitty team previously sharing that trans community insight was a gap for them and a key learning opportunity.” In addition, Yitty only contacted the brand to consult after the collection announcement was made public.
In an Instagram post reposting Drucker’s sentiments, the UrBody team stated they “were excited by the potential to see our community have a meaningful seat at the table with a brand represented by Lizzo, her platform and her powerful, vital message of racial and size inclusivity. Instead, we were left disappointed.”
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Drucker also tweeted the collection used Urbody’s designs for development. Urbody reiterated this concern in its statement to Fashionista, expressing disappointment that not only does the set have “strikingly similar creative, copy and designs” to Urbody, but also “coming from the reality that the trans community, time and time again, is overlooked and marginalized — even when we have valuable experiences, talents and expertise to contribute.”
When @urbody__co finally met w the @Yitty team in 2023, they saw no one from the trans community. It wasn’t until today, when you announced #YourSkin (a line developed using Urbody’s designs for R&D), that Urbody was asked to consult to further the success of @lizzo’s brand.
— Zackary Drucker (@zackarydrucker) March 31, 2023
In a statement on its website, Urbody said, “We admire Lizzo and how she’s been an advocate for inclusion, and we believe she’d be empathetic and aligned with us if she knew this back story. We want to bring this matter to her attention. And more importantly, we want to stand up for trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming people everywhere who deserve better.”
Neither Lizzo nor her brand has responded to these accusations.
