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Original poster

That these pics on the Zara kids clothes website are inappropriate

228 replies

PenguinBarnotBird · 13/04/2021 09:33

Looking for summer shoes for DD online this morning and came across these pics which made me feel uncomfortable. Like an attempt at doing high fashion photography for kids clothes. The poses feel inappropriate for kids this young. Also the sandals are fugly but that’s an aside.

OP posts:
ConfusedAdultFemale · 13/04/2021 13:03

So girls are now not allowed to sit in certain positions because adults find it sexual? That’s a very good thing to teach our daughters, that they can’t sit or lay in case it turns someone on Hmm

Skysblue · 13/04/2021 13:15

I agree OP. Especially that first one. They aren’t highly sexy poses, but the point is that adults (probably male) have brainstormed what this girl wears and what to dress her in forthe photos and they’ve deliberately come up with something like this which seems to be deliberately drawing attention to her crotch. Grim.

notalwaysalondoner · 13/04/2021 13:16

Zara website is awful, I never shop from it as it’s so hard to browse. I’d say the camera angle of the first is a bit off as you can see up her skirt, and I didn’t notice at first but having her on a motorbike is also odd, but I’d say the second and third ones aren’t inappropriate at all.

Diverseopinions · 13/04/2021 13:17

The girls' don't look as if they are in natural everyday poses doing things they would usually do. Usually groups of kids are photographed for adverts.

These are too posed for comfort and a bit weird in the way they are focused - no natural kid-type props, infact, even a poster of a woman flexing and doing yoga in the background of one of them. The girls' remind me of that Bambi long-legged phase when kids start to lose their cute and childish look.. The clothes look a bit tight and small for them.

Kids usually look like they are having larking about on fashion shoots; these girls look lost and uncomfortable and as if they don't really know what they are supposed to be doing. The styling says 'vulnerable' to me.

. Parents can't really see how long the hem and sleeves are, or whether buttons, so disturbing that it has not really been the aim to help parents to shop. The clothes are not being styled to look good quality and hard-wearing - so what is the look being aimed for?

Shedbuilder · 13/04/2021 13:22

@Alsohuman

There's a whole team involved in shoots like these. A photographer, assistant, possibly an art director, a stylist, someone who does hair and make-up, a parent or guardian, often someone from an ad agency too

Do keep up. You’re talking pre pandemic, not now. A lot of photographers are shooting at home using their families.

I do keep up. I have a mate who had a role in a major film that was shot from October to February in the UK. Loads of pix of her having her hair and make-up done with people all over her, camera crew, lighting and sound people crowded round. Life has been going on.

We don't know when the Zara pix were taken or where. Possibly last summer, possibly somewhere where Covid restrictions were relaxed.

askingrandomsonlinemighthelp · 13/04/2021 14:03

But surely this is the problem? Us thinking this? Girls should be able to be bare-legged or "legs akimbo" as someone said... without it being a problem. ALL children wear underwear. The underwear covers the private parts. Kids need to know about that. But I HATE it when I hear people telling girls to close their legs or to wear modesty shorts and all that shit. Why can't they be barelegged? Why shouldn't they wear tights? Are they to learn that it's their responsibility to hide their bodies from predators?

Alsohuman · 13/04/2021 14:04

Possibly last summer, possibly somewhere where Covid restrictions were relaxed

And possibly in someone’s garden using their kids. We just don’t know is the bottom line.

SirenSays · 13/04/2021 14:09

I can only ever shop in store in Zara. Their online photos are always weird. There are loads of joke posts about this online.

www.boredpanda.com/weird-zara-model-poses/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

No idea if links are allowed but this is what I mean.

Shedbuilder · 13/04/2021 14:18

No one's saying they can't.

Would you give me a photo of one of your children looking cute and displaying their underwear so that I can use it on a website to sell shoes? If not, why not?

Shedbuilder · 13/04/2021 14:22

@askingrandomsonlinemighthelp

But surely this is the problem? Us thinking this? Girls should be able to be bare-legged or "legs akimbo" as someone said... without it being a problem. ALL children wear underwear. The underwear covers the private parts. Kids need to know about that. But I HATE it when I hear people telling girls to close their legs or to wear modesty shorts and all that shit. Why can't they be barelegged? Why shouldn't they wear tights? Are they to learn that it's their responsibility to hide their bodies from predators?
Sorry, my response was to this.
SnackSizeRaisin · 13/04/2021 14:24

Why do people keep saying it's a shoe shop?? The models are there to show the clothes.

I don't think the pictures are that bad but they don't really show the clothes very well. They seem slightly uncomfortable perhaps.

The clothes are not being styled to look good quality and hard-wearing - so what is the look being aimed for?

Lol! I think you've completely missed the point. This is Zara not M and S in the 1980s

wouldthatbeworse · 13/04/2021 14:27

Way too crotch focused for me. It’s as much about how tweens may get the idea about how their body presents to others as paedophiles getting off on the Zara website. I know it’s not the Zara style but can we not just let our kids dress as kids rather than mini grown ups

Mummyoflittledragon · 13/04/2021 14:31

@Alsohuman

Possibly last summer, possibly somewhere where Covid restrictions were relaxed

And possibly in someone’s garden using their kids. We just don’t know is the bottom line.

Doesn’t look like someone’s garden. Look at the background and the size of the steps.
ViciousJackdaw · 13/04/2021 14:34

@Alondra

BTW, Zara is an Spanish brand, if you don't like their clothes switch to a more conservative ones according to your taste.
What's that got to do with anything, don't you get nonces in Spain or something?
butterpuffed · 13/04/2021 14:45

If you think the photos are inappropriate , OP , why are you posting about it in here , rather than complaining to Zara ??

Wtfdoipick · 13/04/2021 14:46

Shot 1 is a swimsuit so no underwear on show, that's how my daughter sits, shot 2 is obviously done at home and I can believe that shot, if you note the poster on the wall with stretches on it. Shot 3 looks like a bloody cold and grey day, they've probably been told that the shoes and swimsuit need to show so they've improvised with the jacket. The child is the same one in all those photos and they don't look like studio shots to me, they aren't quite polished enough for that

bluebellscorner · 13/04/2021 14:52

Hmm. I'm not getting any off vibes about this, maybe the second photo with the girl in the leggings reminds me somewhat of an old American Apparel ad - same style somehow, and those were pretty inappropriate.

Nitpickpicnic · 13/04/2021 14:55

Wrong. Sexualised. Puts me right off buying for my 10yo girl.

It’s not that hard to get a kids photographer in to do it properly. I mean, if the clothes are ‘active wear’ like in some of these, how about the pic is of throwing a ball, rather than lounging spread-legged?

Not very profit-enhancing to do it this way. Shoddy, lazy, cost-cutting. Like most of what they do these days.

SmokedDuck · 13/04/2021 14:59

What they really remind me of is a toned down version of that Calvin Klein campaign in the 90s where he used very young models in settings from the 70's, which looked like amateur porn shots.

I think there is a good chance that's a conscious choice on the part of the photographer and Zara, it was a huge and well known campaign.

I think they are playing with the idea of barely pre-adolescent girls who are on the one hand dressed as children (which isn't much different than what a lot of young adults might wear, and looks not unlike underclothing for that matter) but are being presented the same way you would a sexualised adult model.

Yes, kids really sit like that etc, the problem is so do highly sexualised teen and adult models in fashion shoots.

And they are pretty crotch focused, the first and third one in particular and that is hardly a mistake.

So yes, I think they should make adults uncomfortable.

goldielockdown2 · 13/04/2021 15:13

They are just children being children. I can't see anything sexual, sexualised or inappropriate at all, thank god or I'd be worried about myself.

HectorHalloumi · 13/04/2021 15:18

@SirenSays

I can only ever shop in store in Zara. Their online photos are always weird. There are loads of joke posts about this online.

www.boredpanda.com/weird-zara-model-poses/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

No idea if links are allowed but this is what I mean.

Ha ha some of them are hilarious. What the actual hell? 🤣😂
Tullyjune · 13/04/2021 15:21

Of course young girls should be able to sit and play how they like without the male gaze looming over them. And 99.99% of the time they do, when they are at home or out and about with their parents.

This girl (probably) wasn’t at home or out enjoying the summer holidays with her parents. This isn’t a still from her life. She was paid by adults to be photographed in a particular pose by adults who want to sell clothes. This isn’t a glimpse into her life, a one of snap that happened to be a bit edgy.

It was selected out of probably hundreds of photos of the exact same clothes. Some of the photos taken that day would definitely have been less crotch focused, more childlike and less likely to raise an eyebrow. So why did Zara choose photos that obviously have about 50% of people feel uncomfortable? They chose to use that girls image to cause this exact effect.

Anon778833 · 13/04/2021 15:23

YANBU - they aren’t appropriate children’s poses IMO.

Anon778833 · 13/04/2021 15:24

So why did Zara choose photos that obviously have about 50% of people feel uncomfortable? They chose to use that girls image to cause this exact effect.

Quite.

SVRT19674 · 13/04/2021 15:33

Look like my pics from late seventies early eighties. Totally normal.