The inspiration for this video is pretty simple. Society as a whole has pretended that women over a certain age don’t exist. We want to celebrate women of all ages and really honor the fact that we’re beautiful at any age.
- Joanna Griffiths, Founder and CEO of Knix
At Knix, we try to live every single day like it’s International Women’s Day. Women are the building blocks of Knix after all, acting as both the inspiration and continued driving force of every product developed, campaign produced, community event held and story told. It’s always been right there in our mission statement: that we believe it’s time that all women lived totally, unapologetically free. So when it came down to celebrating actual International Women’s Day 2020, we knew we wanted to showcase this long standing Knix mission in a big way.
“I have a crazy idea”, Joanna announced to Team Knix earlier this year. The crazy idea? To honor #IWD2020 by shining a spotlight on women over the age of 50— a powerful population of women who have been historically ignored and underrepresented.
The thing is, celebrating women over a certain age shouldn’t be a crazy idea. And we don’t want it to be! But with women over the age of 50 still being largely invisible in the media, (let alone seen dancing in lingerie) Knix decided to put out a casting call with only one rule: You must be 50 or older to apply.
The response was overwhelming, with over 500 submissions by women from all walks of life who spanned decades in age. Through the audition process we laughed, cried, danced and shared stories of resilience and celebration.
From this came the women who confidently bared all for the campaign: Geeta Bagga, Elizabeth Robbins, Mitzy Morris, Amily Griffin, Christine Voinou, Wendy Walters, Brenda James, Colleen Strong, Rasna Pitt, Vera Wood, Lori Ann Roman, Lorraine Weygman and Kathryn From.
The honesty and vulnerability each of these women showed throughout this entire process is what living unapologetically free is all about. When asked what was most inspiring about these women, Joanna said it best: “Every single one of them is just owning their super power which is being genuine and authentic to who they are”.
It was both important and absolutely necessary that these women were joined by a female crew on set— with the gaze on them captured lovingly by Director Soleil Denault, Assistant Director Sarah Kravetz, Director of Photography Nina Djacic and Producer Kari Hollend. Celebrating women doesn’t just mean providing visibility on screen, but empowering them behind the scenes too.
Set to Demi Lovato’s Confident, all the amazing women danced, posed, and strutted to the finger-snapping self-empowerment anthem all day. For everyone who had a hand in creating the video, the song was an obvious choice. In it, Demi dares you to answer one simple question: What’s wrong with being confident?
Before walking out to shoot her scene, Elizabeth Robbins (75!) told us, “I’m really looking forward to this. I’m ready to show off! Bring it on!”— proving that no matter your age, there’s nothing wrong with being confident.
We’re celebrating International Women’s Day all month long. Follow along here, @Knixwear and on Youtube for more behind the scenes and interviews with all the amazing women in the campaign.
Photo Credit 📷: Sise Drummond