How 'thin' for fashion

[MorelloKisses]

Wondering how thin is thin (bear with me!)

On the Expensive thread there is reference to thin people looking fab in jeans and trainers, I recently came across reverence to Ines de la Fressance being less than BMI 18 (!!) etc

Now I know poeple vary in build and how they carry weight, but realistically, what ballpark of 'thin' do we need to be to look good in the majority of clothes.

For what it is worth, I'm 5ft 6, extreme pear shaped, BMI 21.6 and although I look reasonably good, i think my legs and arse look big in trousers.

Me too, like I said I'm 5"9, big size E boobs, size 14 is ok, 16 I feel fat, 12 I feel a million $ 😂

I was just staying in a hotel where Conde Nast were having a conference. Worldwide group of fashion people in their finery (which hilariously included multiple pairs of those fur lined Gucci backless loafers and leather mini dresses in 37degree heat). The ladies and the men were all thin. Properly hip jutting thin. And they wore it well - it screamed fashion but it didn't scream health. The difference between eg Kristen Scott Thomas and Elle macpherson (who is slim and healthy but not 'thin'). High fashion seems to demand thinness (I suspect that many of these designers don't make clothes larger than a 12), and emphasise it - huge handbags and voluminous white shirts - in fact Vicky beckham's entire current dressing strategy is to make her look small

MyBMI is19.8 and I feel slim but my ideal is about one kilo less in weight- so I'm 165cm and weigh 55kg but I'd like to be 53/4 kg

its whatever feels and looks best on you. I'm 5ft3 and have a very tiny frame. At the moment I'm about a size 10 on bottom but it looks massive on me, I'm at my most happiest and healthiest at a size 6-8.

My best friend is 5ft11 and has quite a broad frame. If she was the same size as me she'd look very very ill.

Visibility of bones has a lot to do with it. Kylie is tiny but covered in flesh and therefore looks slim not thin. I've been at model castings with young girls who have entirely visible skeletons- that's thin

I'm only short at 5ft 4 but I feel thin at 9st but when it goes up to 9st 4/5/6 lbs it makes a massive difference to how I feel weight wise.
I used to be 12 and half stone and edging towards a size 16 and I didn't carry it well at all.
Some people do though, I have friends who look amazing who are a size 16, friends who are a size 6 but still curvy.
It does get on my nerves when people say I'm too thin at 9 stone! I think that bang in the middle for BMI but can't exactly remember. It really isn't too thin
Nobody told me I was a fatty though when I was 12 and a half stone! .

It's so tiresome that extreme thinness is still associated with high fashion and therefore money, making it aspirational.

I don't aspire to be thin (though I did for many years when I was younger) I don't want to look fragile, I want to look strong! I haven't weighed myself in a while because it's become such an unhelpful and irrelevant measure for me personally. I lift weights these days and it's changed my body shape, and the way I see my body shape. I don't think I care that the strong and solid look will never be in fashion; it certainly suits me.

Once you hit 40 you have to choose between your face and your arse, sad but true

I wonder why the current aspiration for body shape is so thin? Because we associate it with youth? Or perhaps subconsciously admire the control it would take for the average person to be so thin?

For me, ideal is strong, toned-slim but not tiny and with a reasonable sized bum and bust (I have the bum but sadly not the bust)!

While I agree healthy comes in all shapes and sizes (I see plenty run past me during half marathons that are twice my size), I find both extremes of weight alarming: on one hand we seem to admire painfully thin yet also a current trend for 'love my curves' type mentality which is not actually about loving curves in a healthy way but more a sort of acceptance for morbidly obese which I just can't get on board with.

Thinking of Beth Ditto et al when I say about 'curves'.

I have a boxy frame so when I have a couple of extra kilos it's really noticeable!

Clothes hang better on thin people that's the crux of it I think. If you think of high fashion/couture as art, and to be seen, it looks beautiful and best on thin frames.

Or maybe I have been conditioned to think k that way!

With couture and high fashion they want the models to be a walking coat hanger- it's about seeing how the clothes fall and hang and the model wearing them needs to be long and thin to achieve this.

Not very sustainable though.

I was 7 stone at 165cm at age 24. I look younger now at 31 at just under 9stone. I looked tired before and my skin needed a lot of foundation and serum and the like to get rid of that pasty ill look.

Although a weird part of me misses being able to never worry about my clothes being too snug or that something I liked in the shop might not fit me. But really, you could see my ribs and all my breast bone and my shoulder blades and I actually don't think I looked nearly as good as I thought I did.

I'm 5'6" and 11st 4 size 12 - a rectangle with a tummy. I look to me a bit bigger than I want, but not bad by any means even though that measure makes me overweight in BMI terms. I'd be very happy indeed at 10st 7 and wouldn't want to be less than that.

I really don't think I look as overweight as I am supposed to be in BMI terms at this height / weight. My body fat % is a tad over where it should be at 31% (I'm 40)

I run competitively. I'm thin because of this fact, I look too thin for normal life and it has aged me in some respects but makes me look younger in other respects as I'm also only 5ft so very petite overall.

I'm careful what I wear. Some stuff, like skinny jeans look fab. Other stuff looks like a sack of potatoes.

Good job I love running more I'm but this size for fashion.

"I personally don't really notice or role model women shorter than me appearance wise so can't comment there."

I'm 5'3" UppityHumpty - are you saying you wouldn't notice me, or consider me to be stylish, no matter how well dressed I was?

*not

I'm thin but I still feel like some fashion is very unforgiving around the belly. For context, I'm 5'8" with a BMI of just under 18, and a 25" waist. It's bloody ridiculous - what freakish dimensions are some designers designing for?!

(BTW I'm not this size because I think it's an attractive or desirable thing, I'm just underweight because of stress and grief. I'm in no way advocating being this skinny!)

I've thought that before, tried stuff on at a size 8, 5'9" and it's looked crap on me and thought well who the heck do they think this will look good on then exactly. What a waste of time

I personally (and this is just me personally so please don't attack me for it!) like thin, or tall and v slim and yes, I think that suits some fashion better.

Slimmer people just tend to look a bit tidier in clothes IMO as the whole thing just looks a bit neater and streamlined.

My body idols are supermodel Taylor Hill and model Daisy Davies.

I'm 5'3 and look my best at around the 7st 13/ 8 st Mark. Much more than 8st and I really don't like my body. Unfortunately, any weight gain with me goes straight to my face, so I can look a lot bigger than I am (especially in photos) if I put on a few lbs. I try and keep my weight at 8st, which is a ball ache sometimes, but worth it for my confidence. I also look a lot better in clothes at this weight too. : shrugs :

I used to aspire to look like famous people but since almost getting an eating disorder then getting rather rotund after I've given up and now exactly when I look best for me, that's a stone lighter than I currently am!

Models are incredibly, incredibly thin and more to the point have a very different body shape to 99.99 percent of women - take a preteen boy and stretch like chewing gum. Add pretty lollipop head.

In a group (ie a casting) you can see how unusual they look, like a herd of giraffes who've wandered into a load of humans.

You can't use fashion models any more for anything to do with fitness or wellbeing in the media - they really don't look healthy enough, people literally switch off.

And no, fashion models really don't look good unclothed - ironing board chest, ribby, hollow bottom, clanky knees and elbows. Brilliant skin because they're 19, particularly if they're black, but that's it.

I think on the "groomed" threads the "slim looks best" posters don't mean a particular size or the extremes of high fashion, but basically whatever dress size would mean a flat stomach for your frame.

While high fashion demands a tiny shape, for "normal" fashion, just having a flat stomach makes cheaper clothes hang better. It can create an illusion of cheap clothes looking more expensive, which is the point of that thread!

Some woman will have a flat stomach at size 6, others 8, or 10 or 12. I've met very tall woman with pancake flat stomachs at a size 14, but most woman curve at that size.

My BMI is 22 at the moment and I've just had a baby and am pretty fat! For me to be 'thin' would probably be under 18. But I think I'm quite light for my size.

I feel healthiest and strongest and well when I am quite thin. Am 5'5 and 55kg at the moment.
I feel and look better at 50kg as my breasts don't feel so in the way and bounce about.
I do think a healthy frame is quite a slim one. The sort of frame that was more common in the 1960s.