"Nowadays, the image of beauty is about shapes and proportion," Esprit Asia-Pacific president Wolfram Hail told The Standard. "To a large extent, we define beauty by how confident a person is.
"The way we define beauty is real beauty, which is, people who radiate. People radiate when they are confident and happy with themselves."
Hail said he is aware of the popularity of pseudo models, or langmo, such as Chrissie Chau, Angelababy, Lavina, Kama, and Janice Man and that rival chains choose stars and supermodels to promote their products.
In March, Bauhaus hired Twins' Gillian Chung Yan-tung - who is staging a comeback after the Edison Chen Koon-hei sex photo scandal - as spokeswoman for its jeans line. And popular Japanese casual wear brand Uniqlo, which has branches in Hong Kong - chose supermodel and former beauty queen Norika Fujiwara to promote its slim pants, helping boost its sales. But Hail said he has no plans to follow suit.
"They [supermodels and langmo] do not represent what we stand for," he said.
He said it would be "a very short-lived thing" to have photoshoots of the models, super or otherwise.
"Customers do not connect with the personality of what we try to promote. That is why we go for a totally opposite approach."
He also said Esprit will promote a "healthy look, not the superslim."
Esprit criteria include "being healthy, being radiant, confident and enjoying life rather than making things complicated," Hail said.
The fashion company launched a campaign in Hong Kong last month to recruit "ordinary people" - from housewives, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, work colleagues, school friends and even tourists, to become the new faces of its fall and winter fashion collection.
"We are on the lookout for real people in a move away from using traditional models to front the brand," Hail said.
The company also has no plans to invite celebrities to the opening of its upcoming new flagship store in Tsim Sha Tsui.
"For instance, there will not be any VIPs at the opening event, no red carpet, no limousine. It will be simply business activities: we will celebrate with our customers or people who walk by our Tsim Sha Tsui flagship outlet."
