Zara - is this the shape women should aspire to be?

Bloody hell we really have been brainwashed haven't we?. Clothes are for people to wear. They should be made and modelled with a variety of sizes and shapes and heights in mind

I think there was a comment earlier saying something like ' clothes never look good with boobs so all models have small ones'

WTF. Clothes are for people not the other way round. As women do we really think that it is ok to only make clothes that only look good on 6ft models with very small breasts. I mean really !!

I absolutely think that clothes should be modelled by different height/ size/shape models. Obviously companies would pick the models that best suit each sort of clothing so they look as good as possible

The problem is why is only ONE of those body types represented in women’s retail models?

Because generally speaking the clothes photograph better on that particular type.

I didn't even know what "cap" sleeves were. Had to Google. I agree, they suck.

Presumably the store Evans uses +14 models. Imma gonna go have a look at their site.

This is slightly stepping away from my original point but @butchyrestingface (good name!) when teens are bombarded and I do mean bombarded on social media, online by people who are deemed to look ‘amazing’ who they will never be able to look like I DO think it diminishes their self esteem. I think it is well documented that it diminishes their self esteem. I think it’s naive to assume that a good talking to from their parents about why they use those sorts of models is going to counteract all of that.

But that's why I think it's so important that teenagers (especially girls) at least start to develop critical thinking. And by that, I don't mean a "talking to" from their parents. I never said that.

She's going to be bombarded with these images - this has been the prevailing body type that has saturated modelling for around 30 years. It was probably worse 20 years ago, if anything.

I started going bald as a teenage girl, imagine the imagery and advertisements I had to navigate my way through. My response was simply not to read fashion magazines or watch (much) TV. Not a choice for everyone, but I found being different helped me to form critical thinking skills around the issue.

Does your daughter want to be a fashion model? Or has she actually expressed feelings of inferiority relative to the women she sees modelling clothes on sites like Zara?

Parents have to take responsibility for some of the anxiety and self harming too.
If you let a teen girl have access to Instagram and these photos from a young age then you shouldn’t be surprised if they get upset. Likewise we need to teach our kids how to eat healthily from a very young age.
I expect the next generation will be better at this than us. Managing internet content is so awful and tricky.

She looks o.k.

I was like that in my younger days.

What's the issue? This model looks fine. She may not look like most women. But what model does?

Anyone they use isn't going to look like most people.i have weight on me. I don't like all people who have a bit of extra weight.

And yes some clothes look better of thin people some clothes look better on bigger people.

Modelling has come a long way and you are likely to see lots of different shape and size models now.

As I said I have a bit of extra weight. But also have a very small waist. I am a classic hour glass shape. If I modelled I am sure there would be people saying lots of women can't identify with me, of I have had my boobs made bigger, or my has my ass made bigger. When it's simply down to, too many take always and my natural body shape.

Any model is going to have a large group of some that don't look like them.

I work with women who regularly have a BMI if 18 - 20, this model is smaller than them. I'd be surprised if her BMI was higher than 17.5.

I didn't prove any such point! Where have I been casually insulting about thin people? You are putting words into my mouth.

That’s a lot of what’s going on Fermats.

I recently bought a wrap style dress with princess seaming and if made such a difference- wrap stays in place. Most manufacturers just rely on a fabric with a bit of stretch being enough shaping.

My mum was really into dressmaking, and she taught me so much about different techniques etc to look for in clothes. You just don’t see so many of them at all now.

She looks very unfit.

Not so much her weight, but no muscle tone, her arms look weak.

I do suspect that my negative body image is partly due to feeling abnormal , I am skinny normal height but 30g, and I hate it, and models are either skinny and flat or curvy all round

Well that wasn't the point I was making. I was making the point that badly shaped clothes can be photographed in such a way that they look okay on thin women, whereas a model with curves will always show up the flaws in your design. But good design costs - hence if a fashion retailer wants to sell cheap shit and make it look good they're going to pick a thin model, because a curvy model would show the cut up for the cheap shit it was.

Yes, there is a massive problem with unattainable body types and with the encouragement of anorexia in the fashion industry.

But I think often people underestimate the role of economics and the impact of decent design on profit margins. Take cap sleeves for instance - an abomination which hardly suit anyone. Why are they ubiquitous? Because proper sleeves take a lot of fabric - in fact they'll almost double the amount of fabric you need for a top. And they require proper setting in. Hence you've just doubled the costs for raw material and fabrication. Much more of a profit margin if you can persuade women they don't need them.

(Ditto the decade long fashion for sleeveless wedding dresses which for the most part flattered neither thin nor curvy women - but kept wholesale costs down and profit margins up.)

A580Hojas
Juells - I am not criticising anyone for being thin. It isn't polite to try and shut people down with that knee-jerk reaction.

I wasn't trying to 'shut people down' with a knee-jerk reaction. You proved the point that I made upthread, that it's acceptable to be casually insulting about thin people.

I didn't think Zara was for teenagers particularly, as I'm in my 40s and find plenty of clothes I like in there.

“I'm not actually interested in exactly where you live, but the fact that you don't know one single thin woman is a shocking indictment of obesity in this country.”

Is it?

My DD is 5 ft 10, a size 6, just sits at the bottom end of a healthy BMI and that model is much thinner than her...

I just think that an ‘ideal’ women being very tall, very slim and with small boobs alienates the 95 % of us who aren’t!

I'm 5 ft 2, overweight and big of boob. I don't feel alienated. The fashion companies want to sell their clothes - when you're selling online, you need to make the clothes look good.

In photos, clothes tend to look more flattering on certain body types - tall, slim and small breasted ticks all of those boxes.

Ergo...

I don’t want my dd to never find anyone who looks like (figure) her deemed attractive enough to be a ‘model’.

Eh? Do you mean you worry that your daughter is never going to see anyone with her body shape modelling?

I've never seen anyone with mine modelling. I'm sure many of us haven't. Hopefully your daughter will instead develop a critical awareness of who/what is used to sell products and why.

This is not new. At least Zara make clothes for young people, Me&Em have models that are the age of the children of the women who will be buying the clothes. But can I just point out the model may well have been photoshopped to look healthier than she actually is. The industry is rife with eating disorders. It should be possible to have models somewhere between 'plus sized' and 'very tall and BMI of