to not want all models to look like 'real' women?

[beattieedny]

Just that really. I am much more likely to buy clothing if the model looks like looks slim. I don't care for the current thing of showing clothes (aside from specifically for plus sized ofc) on fat people. It's not as attractive.
I am a thin person but have been fat by the way.

Yes please! And not size 12 and 5ft10

Give us a size 12 woman who's about 5ft5

Yabu. I want to see what the clothes would look like on me, not on a size 6 model.

So 'fat' women are not attractive...to you. I personally prefer the rubinesque figure to skinny, but everyone finds different body shapes attractive, so surely clothes modelled on a variety of body shapes to appeal to different people makes the most sense?

However, I do agree that some companies (Snag, I'm looking at you) take things too far. Yes, it's wonderful that women of all sizes have confidence and feel beautiful (and I say that as someone who has been every size from a 6 to an 18 and felt far more self-conscious at the smaller end of that scale) but normalising being morbidly obese is worrying from a health perspective.

I would just like to see models smiling instead of looking like miserable gits

To the earlier poster who suggested there should be default settings, so that you can choose your size model—excellent idea.

I’m size 8 and 5’7, and definitely scroll on by larger models wearing clothes, as I can’t get a good idea of how the clothes will look on me, just as I imagine many larger women feel frustrated looking at endless photos of skinny models. Better to please all women than just a few.

I suppose if we wanted to combine showing a more representative range of sizes with an awareness of their corresponding health or harms, we could designate the models by bmi, i.e. underweight, healthy, overweight, obese, morbidly obese. Visualise the clothing but also your health - canny, and possibly even effective. Unfortunately I don't think it will catch on ...

My comment about absurdly thin was in response to someone talking about “heroin chic” models.

I think size 8/10 is reasonable. These threads are always skewed because the majority of posters are overweight.

I know what you mean op. I long for the day it is possible to find clothes being modelled on someone who is slim. When oh when will this prejudice end. Come on retailers, we are being deprived of slim models in society and you must do better.

Imo models should either represent the average, so something like 5'5" and size 14ish? or have a range of sizes and heights. I'm 5'1 and very tiny and tbh I take absolutely no notice what clothes look like on models because they certainly won't look like that on me 🤗🤣 The only time I can do that is when Danni Minogue shows her range on herself.

‘Snag tights do this brilliantly’ 😂😂😂

They can’t exactly use a skinny model can they?! ... there’s no chub to rub!

I really like websites that allow customers to upload pictures of themselves wearing the clothes. That way I get to see a range of sizes and heights, but also different ways of styling clothes. So often shops like Cos and Toast style their pieces in a way that is relatively unflattering to keep to a uniform company aesthetic. "Real life" women can show that look in "the wild" and in a more achievable way. I am medium height and medium/slim but pear-shaped and very short-waisted - no models ever seem to have a similar body shape.

Interesting responses. I’m absolutely rubbish at clothes, and rarely look at clothes online, so my main source of opinion comes from what I see in the high street, or on TV adverts,
I’m 5’8”, very slim and quite muscular. But I’m also 56, teeth not very good, have some wobbly cellulite, and thin, short hair. Why not have ‘models’ who are all sorts of shapes, sizes, proportions… ? I can’t tell what clothes will look like on my body unless I try them on. A range of people showing the clothes would give me far better idea, but it even if it didn’t, I hate the fact that only certain types of body seem to be shown. I’d like to see all sorts of women, and get rid of this idea of only perfection should be shown or celebrated. IMO, strong, confident, curvy women look best in most clothing, but it seems most retailers have yet to take this on board.

Completely untrue - many slim people get chafing too. The idealised ‘thigh gap’ isn’t a reality for most as is dependent on hip and thigh width etc.

I don’t think you can compare. Yes, we do have a problem with eating disorders, but it is nothing like even on the same scale as our obesity epidemic. If we teach young girls that it’s ok to be fat (and to think otherwise is ‘fat shaming’) they will grow up thinking having an unhealthy BMI is normal.

While that might be good for their mental health, it certainly isn’t good for their physical health.

I agree. This morning or Lorraine modelled the new trend of peasted skirts on very large models the other day. Pleated skirts make anyone with a big arse look like a centour. I wonder how many women 16 and above truly love their curves and celebrate?

What gets me is that thin or larger, all these models still have unachievable figures (or rather, only achievable through photoshop).

I'd love to see thinner models with a bit of a belly, or anyone with some wobbly arm fat. If a website could show me someone looking good with my actual figure (straight legs, wide hips, flat bum, solid gut) they could have all my money! It's easy to look good if your plus size shape is a perfectly proportioned hour glass.

Why are the majority of posters ‘overweight’? Is that a comment on posters on MN in general? Or just those with opinions about body image? Either way you sound very prejudiced. In my experience, an obsession with body image takes up too much headspace in most women of every shape and size.
The OP clearly has issues with her own body image and wanted to stir up a debate about whether fat people should be allowed to exist in the same ‘beauty sphere’ as thin people.
However, no one should need the approval of others to feel attractive and represented. You’re not going to find every model aspirational regardless of how slim they are.
Thin people are in no way underrepresented in media or advertising so I really don’t see why it’s so offensive to see other body types being included for a change.

Personally, I would prefer to pay less for the clothes than suck up the inevitable additional cost of having multiple models for everything. You have to use your imagination anyway, because seeing a dress on a size 14 model who is busty with long dark hair isn't really helpful if you're a size 14 pear shape with short blonde hair.

Sorry, I think the Emperor is naked there…

How the hell is there such a thing as thin privilege? Phrases like that make a mockery of white privilege/male privilege.

Not being obese isn’t something you are born with - in most cases people avoid obesity by eating healthily, not binge eating and living an active life. That doesn’t make them ‘privileged’ - it means they’ve made good choices.

Not really the same as being black, or being a woman, is it? What a joke.

They need to show how clothes are on short women!!!!
I'm 5ft tall & most short ranges are for women under 5ft 3 so still too long for me but I like to see how they hang & whether the clothes look take-upable!

I want to see them on a range of different sizes. Lucy and Yak are good at this.

For fuck's sake, clothes are photographed on models in preset for you the buyer to aspire, to hope, to desire, to look good in the item. It's advertising - you know, all about manipulating you. It's got fuck all to do with helping the buyer seriously identify if they will look good in said item. It's about promoting the fantasy that you MIGHT look good. Hence the use of "beautiful" "aspirational" models

@Discovereads in some cultures, women with gaps in their teeth are considered to be very beautiful and highly favoured.
We need to shift this -often damaging- western standard of beauty.

I like it when they say what size the model is and how tall. I don’t want short dresses. I need to be able to bend down etc in them and not show my backside. However I did buy a dress on the basis that it was ‘below the knee’ and the model was 5”9. When it cam it was fat shorter.
Axxan aside is there a shortage of good looking men? Most male models I see are very unattractive and not slim.

I am a size 8. I rather resent the idea that I am not a "real woman" because I'm not overweight with a healthy BMI. (Yes, we know it doesn't work with very fit athletes but you're probably not an All Black rugby player are you? ) A lady who ran a boutique once confessed to me why she stocked very few large sizes. She said that she'd have a customer in, find an outfit that looked great and then the customer said she wasn't going to buy new clothes till she lost weight!