To wonder why 'thin is in'?

[loverofchoc]

DH and I were discussing this with a group of friends earlier today - why are all models now expected to be so thin?

Normally, nobody finds it attractive (obviously bar a few exceptions). The majority of men prefer at least some moderate feminine curves and the majority of females feel slightly sick looking at a really clinically underweight model. It's extremely damaging for these women who starve themselves to be in that profession and surely we'd all be more persuaded to buy stuff if the person modelling it looked happy and healthy...

I don't mean naturally skinny like some people who struggle to gain weight . I mean really, really, anorexic thin like a supermodel.

Any theories?

I inherited my great aunt's evening dresses, and wear them occasionally. I've noticed that a dress of hers has size 16 on the label, and I wear a 10 or 12 from the UK high street.

I also recall some footage by my FiL taken in Canterbury High Street in about 1955 and there are no fat people in the picture, of any age.

If we continue on the current course, the generations born after 1970 will not outlive their grandparents.

No idea why I felt the need to share that opinion. Just makes me sound like a twat

You said it mouthy

Id much rather be the size 14 i am than someone who posts triggering shit on weight threads.

"If we continue on the current course, the generations born after 1970 will not outlive their grandparents"

Maybe some dont want to. Have you seen whats happening to social care? Imagine what its going to be like in 30 years time.

OCSockorphanage we're not really talking about the general population, more about the fashion industry, where it would appear that models are pressurised to be excessively thin.
Here's one example www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3303021/Edyn-Mackney-exposed-sick-fashion-industry-reveals-s-flooded-messages-fellow-models-pushed-starve-careers.html
Very sad. Most models are very young, not much more than children.

roarityroar : I'm 5"4, 164cm, 8 stone 4/53 kg. I'm not thin. I'm a almost overweight
No, you aren't. You'd be overweight at 67.1 kgs.

I, for one, think those very thin models look great. I'm a straight woman so I'm not looking at them with a sexual interest, but I would love if I could (naturally) look like that.

Agree that the trend for almost pre-pubescent models is distinctly odd. Who would buy clothes because it looked great on someone 20 years younger and 20lb thinner? But models are there to show the clothes to best advantage, because the plan is a commercial one. Obviously I missed the point, but the health issues remain very real.

I also get what Helena is saying.

Invisible that's interesting about the teeth blackening - I will add that fact to my pub chat repertoire

As a PP said, unless you've sss. A model from the catwalk circuit you really don't know whether they look great or not. The camera adds weight and the pictures are airbrushed.

It's well known that catwalk models are very underweight. I find it laughable posters are trying to claim they're just thin or naturally like that.

They also usually from poor backgrounds (to counteract the rich: thin analogy above)

Someone who has a BMI in the underweight category IMHO looks just as bad as someone with a BMI in the overweight category. Neither look is good.

*unless you've seen a model...

Someone who has a BMI in the underweight category IMHO looks just as bad as someone with a BMI in the overweight category. Neither look is good.

Depends how underweight, surely?

The lower end of normal range for BMI is either 18.5 or 19 (NHS choices says 18.5 is normal, but for IVF funding minimum BMI is 19)

I've never been over 19 in my life - I only look unwell if my BMI drops much below 18. Between 18 and 18.5 I look absolutely fine - it's my natural build. Strictly I'm underweight but that's normal for me, to get my BMI up above 18.5 I really have to work hard at it.

I am a curvy woman. My measurements are classic hourglass and I am a size 18. I'm 32. I would not chose to be anything other than what I am, I love my body and the way I look and it is the complete opposite of the way these women look.

But we are all women; we need to stick together and support each other! Life as a woman is hard enough without being analysed by other women. Yes, it can't be healthy if an individual is starving to be a lot less than natural and the fashion industry is rife with it but being critical won't help.

Naomi Wolf gives a good grounding on this in The Beauty Myth.
A lot of energy, time & money (essential political resources) is taken up by the demands imposed on women by the beauty industry, which is a system partly put in place in order to preserve the current power balance between the sexes.

Most of the main clothes designers are men (still in 2017!...) and they want their clothes and aesthetic to look unattainable. They truly don't want to design clothes that could be worn by the average woman. Haute couture fashion has always been about exclusivity and unattainability, it's not meant to be easily achievable but instead rare and denoting of status -wealth and beauty and these days, extreme height coupled with slenderness. Even for these catwalk models the level of thinness they need to achieve is not sustainable for so many years - which is why many catwalk models are in their late teens/early twenties at most.

So there you have it OP, a standard of beauty created by mostly male designers. A standard that even their own models, already genetic rarities must take even further to a more unnatural state of thinness by serious dieting that cannot be sustained for many years.

All advertising is about creating dissatisfaction. Being very tall, very slim, very beautiful and very young is not attainable for most and even if you are tall thin and beautiful you wont always be 16. Even short fat ugly old women (not me, of course ) can hanker after some of that glamour though.
Anywdy catwalk fashions get filtered down to make them more approachable. I know a few models, catalogue etc and they are slim, pretty, and 30 ish. Not neccessarily the most attractive woman in the room and often quite ordinary looking when walking the gog and so on.

Catwalk models are not modelling high street clothes.

They are at the top of the tree, the fashion shows dictate styles for the next season and the high street brands then take elements of these styles and create clothes for the everyday person.

Catwalks are not for the everyday.

Catwalk models are rare, most are naturally tall and thin, it's not about what they look like, it's about how the clothes look.

And on the size 14 thing, I'm 5,10' and a size 14 and certainly consider myself overweight.

I'm a good 12 kg heavier that before kids

This is the dress I was looking at in Gap: www.gap.co.uk/browse/product.do?cid=1040054&vid=1&pid=000526712002
...until I was put off by thinking I might look as bad in it as the model does! Particularly in the video. She's just too thin.

"Catwalk models are rare, most are naturally tall and thin, it's not about what they look like, it's about how the clothes look."

What makes you think they're naturally THAT thin?

beingsunny so you wear size 14 clothes and consider yourself overweight? What has that got to do with anything?
Using clothes sizing to determine whether a person is overweight is inaccurate and pointless, yet people on mumsnet keep on doing it.

The other thing about clothes sizing is lack of consistency. A 10 in jaeger has wider hips than a 14 in h and m

I'm naturally very slim and threads like this are really annoying. Sorry for not meeting your ideal of feminine beauty loverofchoc