For most of the last few decades, intimates advertising had a clear and consistent message: if you don't look like this, lingerie is not for you. The target market was a specific woman: tall, thin, and seductive in a very particular way. Everything else was a begrudged size extension— until a handful of brands decided that lingerie is for every body and inclusivity in fashion should be the norm.

One might think the lingerie industry had already shown every version of the same fantasy, but Thistle and Spire challenged it at its own game. Launched in 2015, the brand pushed back against repetitive lingerie marketing by centring the individual as the occasion and showing bras, bodysuits and other pieces on a wider range of bodies. The point was not to sell one narrow look. It was to sell self-expression.