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?

That M&S model looks great to me, as does the dress - have never looked at M&S clothes before, thought they sold the sort of thing my nan used to wear. I need a dress for a summer wedding - am going to look at theirs, thanks

To be fair, I'm a size 6-8 and I definitely don't shop at M&S.

Gosh Super that's goady! I wear 12 - 14, 14 in tops and jeans. Not overweight. Would need to put on about 5lbs. Thanks for making me feel fat. Because I needed help with that.

Any difference to today?

What about Kate Moss and her so 'called 'heroin chic' in the early 90s? Not to mention Twiggy.

This debate has been raging for decades.

'I think it's the no-name catwalk models who are expected to be anorexic looking'

Yes. The whippet thin 14 year olds from Ukraine.

Quinto - you'll hit problems when you get to the 50s and early 60s with Marilyn Monroe et al!!

The average woman may be suze 14/16 and I'm willing to bet the average woman also wishes she was a bit slimmer. Very few are stangers to the notion that they will jyst get down to 'whateversize' for an occassion coming up.
Ms Average aspires to be a bit thinner. Thin is aspirational.

Gosh Super that's goady! I wear 12 - 14, 14 in tops and jeans. Not overweight. Would need to put on about 5lbs. Thanks for making me feel fat. Because I needed help with that.

Um. But in the same thread, people are implying that a model who is a size 6-8 is "too thin". How the fuck is that any different? To say that Kendall Jenner - who is a perfectly acceptable weight and who has curves - must starve herself and is underweight?

Vanity sizing is a real thing. It's been discussed ad nauseam. I'm not going to apologise for pointing out that majority of people who are a size 14 are overweight. There's another active thread at the moment about how we've lost sight of what a healthy weight is.

I am sure the point it that we all know high end and catwalk models are thin : it's the fact that that look is being aped by chains that irks OP and me.

The unattainability of richness and thinness is of course true - but that does not adhere to the values of Boden, M and S, and so on.

Even the Bravissimo models have no waists!!

There is a big difference between high fashion and the use of models to sell products to the masses. In terms of high fashion it is about unobtainable standards and the clothes. The designers and fashion editors don't care if the masses don't find the models attractive or too thin. You are not their target and in any case if the majority of people were able to access their clothes then they will have lost their edge. The use of models to sell products is an entirely different thing and often a completely different type of model would be used. As a pp pointed out there are very few models who do catwalk/high fashion and commercial.

And ha ha to be poster who said how dare you call someone not beautiful as it's nasty. Sorry but disappoint but most of us aren't beautiful. "Not beautiful" does not mean ugly.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn was tiny.

I'm 5'10 and a half and well within normal bmi when I'm a 14 - particularly in certain shops

I have recently become clinically underweight and have had quite a few women say I have never looked better and quite a few men saying I am vanishing and there is nothing to me.

Make of that what you will.

Super I am a healthy weight after many years of being slightly overweight. And a size 14 because I have boobs. I weigh myself daily so I know I am not overweight.

I haven't said 6 - 8 is thin (but 6 is super slim!) I have said that it is not typical of an M and S demographic!

Petal Yep, but the majority of people aren't 5'10". If we're talking averages, the average woman is around a size 14, but is only around 5'3". Big difference.

Catwalk models are now expected to be beyond thin. There's been a rash of articles about it recently where girls that are already very tiny have been told they are "hideously fat" and to lose seven or more pounds.

Even Alexandra Shulman came out a few years ago and said the sample sizes they were being sent were too small for even the tiniest celebrities.

Some of the catwalk models now just look emaciated. It's not "thin" or "slim"; it's starved and the pressure on these young women to get to that point is apparently intense. Even someone like Kate Moss in her prime would be considered too "big" for some catwalks now, never mind any of the other 90s supermodels.

I, for one, cannot see how the resulting catwalk images are supposed to sell clothes or a brand. And I don't think they do. The explosion of designer fashion came with the supermodels because they produced a semi-achievable look for many women. Versace made his name with the supermodels; you just don't get that kind of brand recognition anymore.

jezebel.com/5299793/for-the-last-time-what-size-was-marilyn-monroe I'll leave this here before the inevitable "Marilyn Monroe was a size 16!" comments start.

The TL;DR of the link is - no she wasn't, she had a 22" waist at 5'5" tall.

Marilyn was NOT tiny!! She had boobs and cellulite and thighs!

She would wear a size 12 or 14 now.

Marilyn caertainly wasn't the modern size 16 some people claim she was but she wasn't tiny either. I was watching one of her films recently and noticed how relatively fleshy her arms were. In today's Hollywood studio execs would be suggesting a diet and some planking. You don't see fleshy upper arms on today's leading ladies.

I always thought the stick thin thing was about gay male clothes designers, who wanted the models to look more boyish or androgynous.

Clothes do look better on slim people though, buy that is partly that most clothes ate cut for thin people. Which came first?

I don't think catwalks are supposed to "sell" the clothes though. They're about artistic display. Clothes shown on catwalks aren't what end up in the shops, generally speaking.

she did have a teeny waist admittedly. But 36D chest. Also not attainable but not the usual shape of stars and models now.

She would wear a size 12 or 14 now.

Get out with that.

She'd be a size 6-8 now. She was a size 12 in the 50s and 60s.

According to the coroner's report, she was 5'5" edging on 5'6" and weighed 117lb or 53kg.

Size 14 my ass.

'we've lost sight of what a healthy weight is.'

I always look out for that exact phrase on MN weight threads! It's as certain to appear as 'a woman's fertility falls off a cliff at 35' on fertility threads.