Aerie, the American Eagle branch that sells underwear and sleep attire, stopped airbrushing its models and saw a 9 percent increase in sales last quarter, AdWeek reported on Tuesday.
The store ditched Photoshop and other retouching techniques earlier this year, leaving models' bodily imperfections and tattoos in its ads.
In comparison, Aerie saw a 2 percent decrease in sales during the same quarter last year before they made changes. The increase in sales has also been attributed to selling Aerie products in the same space as American Eagle clothing instead of in its own stores.
But Aerie's move to portray women in a natural way has been popular with consumers, Quartz reported. Online shoppers can now see how clothes would fit on a model closer to their body type. Many have pointed out that Aerie still employees models - who may be smaller than the average American size - but freckles, stretch marks and soft rolls of skin are still left on display and make for a more natural look.
British department store Debenhams also stopped airbrushing its swimwear models in 2010 and its lingerie models last year.
Dove's real beauty campaign made headlines when it was one of the first to show how retouching gives off an unrealistic image, with a series of viral videos meant to change the perception women have of beauty and of themselves.
