Why are all clothes modelled by stick thin 20 yr old women?

That's a good point, Storm . I've done a bit of clothes design for friends as an amateur thing, and it requires a lot more thought and effort to get the "cut" right on curves. (Not that it can't be done - it can, but it is harder).

Also economics drives the clothes industry in all sorts of ways. For example, all those cap sleeves which look terrible on older women like me (I have wobbly upper arms, and wrinkly elbows, due to being what I am, which is middle aged). You ask yourself "how hard would it be to put 3/4 sleeves on instead of cap sleeves. Surely it can't be any more difficult?" No, it wouldn't be any more difficult, but it would increase the amount of fabric in the blouse by about 60% (if you've ever done any dress making, you will know that each sleeve on a full-length sleeve blouse is almost as big as the back panel of the blouse). So we're stuck with rack upon rack of cap sleeved efforts that only suit teenagers.

As my mum says "if you have a great figure, you can wear a binbag and it'll look great."
"Designing" for someone with a perfect trim 20 year old body means that even terrible clothes will look ok.

The same reason why hey don’t show it on the average 5’4 frame... clothes don’t look as good. Does my head in.

"Do you expect the retailer to pay for a lot of different models?"

Do you expect (in the interests of cost-efficiency) that there should be only one model who models all the clothes in the whole of the UK?

As soon as you admit to a need for more than one model, why shouldn't they (for commercial reasons) reflect the same range of body shapes as the customer base?

And no, it's not about normalising growing levels of obesity either - a size zero model has a waist size of 23 inches, which is not normal in a healthily slim adult woman of pretty much any height. (I was a very slender, athletic young woman, and very short - 5'2" and I have never been anywhere even slightly close to a 23 inch waist). Catwalk models, by any objective standards, are thin to the point of unhealthiness. So there is a real question as to why they are held up as a model to aspire to, never mind the fact that the customers won't fit into any of the clothes that look good on them.

I get what you're saying about the age, she is very young to be a mother of the bride and that's how they're selling the outfit. It shouldn't be too much of a hardship to hire a model who doesn't look too young to have an, at least, 18-year-old daughter.

Not as sure about the size, I don't think she's stick thin at all (although there has been some dodgy photoshopping around her knees in one pic so who knows what she actually looks like?).

@ineedacupofteadesperately-

How can they do that?

It is a business specialising in wedding/proms/formals.

Each season they will get the new styles in and do the photos, the same couple of models will do all the photos. Very few of those dresses will be mother of the bride. They have to cater to the audience that gives them the largest revenue stream.

You cheered M&S in your opening post but they have done the same thing, the older woman is their main revenue stream.

I make my own clothes and I can assure you it is all about fit. A slim 20 yr old is a doddle to fit. Everything looks good. Nothing pulls in the wrong place. As we get older things start to drop and bump and we become more asymmetric.

I'd rather see them on a plain dummy than a very young women.
Putting them on a young model doesn't make me think 'I'll look like that if I wear that item'. It makes me wonder if I'm buying something thats too young looking for my age group.

Do you expect the retailer to pay for a lot of different models?

That would push the price of the clothes right up.

I was told by someone in the fashion industry that it is because then all clothes models are a standard size and they can be sure everything will fit. The bigger a woman is, the more variation there is in shape.

Don't know how much truth there is in it

My post partum hips are wider than my teenage hips were, and they were like a barn door. I mean my hip bones, I'm not talking about fat.

Look at the ancient Venus carvings. Post partum bodies look different from teenage bodies. We are a different shape after childbirth and as we age, and thats partly down to our genetics.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_figurines

They're not stick thin.

People have lost sight of what a person with a normal bmi looks like as most of the country is now over weight with 1/4 being obese or higher.