Why are companies still choosing to use only very slender models?

[WildFlowerBees]

I get it, the clothes look great and I can choose not to buy etc but it's not representative of all of the market, maybe that's their target market.

For instance I was having a look at Me&Em not one model over a size 8/10 I want to see what lovely clothes might look like on all different shapes and sizes or is it that their clothes will look shit unless you're tall and willowy.

Why in 2022 are companies still allowed to discriminate in this way because choosing very slim models only seems like discrimination to me.

I'm a size 12 I'm 5ft 7 but not willowy I have big norks and I feel invisible a lot of the time when it comes to clothing.

Am I being unreasonable with my little rant?

There are some Instagram accounts I follow which are deemed “midi”, so women sized 14/16. It’s nice to see how clothes look on them, rather than the traditional sized 8 models. Mollie Campsie is one of them.

On the other hand photoshopping and making models appear very thin and 'perfect' also damages children. We need to teach healthy not healthy = skinny.

This is true. But models that are a size 8 are a healthy size. depending on height. But showing overweight models is damaging to kids, overweight and underweight models should not be used.

I would rather see clothes on slim, tall models, rather than someone like myself. ( middle aged, and a good size 12).
I find both models that are too thin or too big off putting.
Snag tights are always popping up in my feeds but I'd never buy them as I don't identify with the very overweight models they use and certainly wouldn't want to look like them.

It's not something I can get worked up about, so long as the models are healthy. Everything but everything looks better on a tall slim model. Just a fact of life.

Could be to do with proportion. I'm 5'10" but have a longer torso and shorter legs. If I bought tall length trousers they would swamp me, whereas most tops come up short. This is why I sew my own clothes as I can rarely find anything the right length in shops!

I agree as well, sorry OP I want to see clothes on the beautiful people when I’m buying clothes, as others have said they just look better and it’s aspirational, if clothes were modelled by the British average size 16 at 5ft 4 they just would not look as good as a size 8 5ft 10 model it’s just a fact and companies want to show their products at their best. There are companies who advertise regularly on tv who show overweight and less conventional models, Simply Be I think, so it is not as if women of non model proportions are not represented at all.

I'm seeing a lot of plus sized models being used. All hour glass of course, no apples in there
It all feels very extreme. Tiny or big. No 12, 14, 16 models there

I'm a fat woman, but I don't think companies should be allowed to use models with an unhealthy BMI, even though it would mean not seeing any models in my size. Obesity is killing people at an alarming rate, more so than anorexia.

Some more size 10-12 models would be good, too often size inclusive means obese models. Even at my slimmest when I was barely eating, I didn't get any slimmer than a size 8, so size 10/12 seems like a more achievable healthy size for the average woman.

Not all companies only use thin models.
I do agree with pps that some companies take the opposite side to extremes, and there do seem to be more companies with thin or very overweight models. Nothing in between. The models are size 6 or size 20. Where are the 12s and 14s? Or even the 16s?
I'm a 16 up top and don't look like anybody! Except of course the average British woman!
I also agree that we need to stop normalising obesity.

I think this is why SHEIN does so well, people get ‘points’ for reviewing products with a picture of themselves in it, you can then filter the reviews by your size and see real people of your size wearing the clothes. I think it makes people a lot more confident to buy than just having the often photoshopped slim model with curves in all the right places.

You can say it's aspirational all you like but let's be honest the vast majority of women are NOT 5'8 + and therefore, it doesn't matter how aspirational they are they'll not be able to grow the 4/5+ inches to make them that height

Saying it's aspirational doesn't mean that people are actually aspiring to grow in height. It just means people like to look at things and buy things which represent how they'd like to be. It's marketing and it works, so why would companies stop doing it?

Most people can't realistically aspire to live in the kinds of houses you see in decor magazines or lifestyle Instagram accounts either, but that doesn't mean they actually want to get their decor inspiration from looking at realistically boring, cramped or cheap-looking houses. Aspirational content sells products. People like looking at nice stuff and beautiful people!

I disagree that showing models larger than a size 8 is 'normalising obesity'. For one thing, I'm a 10-12 and nowhere near obese so they could easily have models that size who have healthy bmis and for another l, I was a child/teen in the 90s early 00s where skinny chic was in and models were painfully thin. Hasn't stopped my generation gaining weight - I think obesity is rising in every age group, not just young ones.

Anyway, in answer to your question op, I think the answer is that while a lot of us like to see diversity in models, most people don't. I follow snag tights on Facebook who use a whole range of shapes and sizes. You should see the comments from the public on any ad that features a larger / differently shaped person - they are slagged off, insulted, mocked, sneered at. It's men and women both. It's honestly horrible. I do like that snag tights are diverse but I feel really sorry for the models - I hope they don't read that stuff as it's toxic. I generally think people prefer to see the standard, generic, well-proportioned (unless it's big boobs and or a big butt in which case magically people are more accepting, but forget big bellies or flabby arms) model.

I see quite a lot now using curvier models, like Everlane. Personally I actually find it really hard to judge what clothes look like with a plus size model, because as we gain weight our shapes become so much more varied - e.g I carry weight on my lower body, others on their stomach and bust etc.

Much easier to mentally add thicker thighs and arms when I see a model who is slimmer than me (but not skeletal), than make so many alterations on different dimensions.

Take them up via needle and thread :) It's a bit annoying but I don't mind shortening trousers because that's fairly easy. It's the shirts and jackets and coats where the arms are too long that are more tricky because it often isn't really worth the extra expense of paying someone to shorten the sleeves (not a job I can do myself).

Showing clothes on normal people just shows how average their clothes look.

I am 50, but probably wouldn’t buy clothes modelled by a 50 year old . That’s also weird of me!

@User14379 😂. A leg transplant!!

Clothes do look generally better on a slim person.

This is funny because I AM 5'10 and size 8 and I don't think anything on the high street looks good on me either!! Shops like Next for example...even the smaller sizes are baggy and shaped/tailored for hips and boobs that I don't have. Dresses in size 8 always baggy round the middle and hips. There are always long length jeans size 12s in stock but never size 8s. I buy designer clothes second hand on Vinted because they seem to fit. Perhaps they sell them using tall slim women/maniquins in their marketing but the clothes themselves arent really made that way? Not sure.

The funny thing is, I don't think the clothes do look that great on twig-like models alone, because I have no idea if they will suit me. One of my best purchases was from Shein of all places because they upload photos of real people wearing their clothes and I spotted a woman with a shape just like mine, looking really good in a dress I liked. I bought it and it got loads of compliments. Another time I saw a woman in the street lwith my body shape looking great in dress I liked and I went into every high street store until I found it. And again, got loads of compliments for it.

If they had diverse models - not just skinny or Lizzo-sized but medium weights and heights in a mix of body types, to reflect which of their clothes might work for different fdigures, then I'd be more inclined to buy.

Not all companies do. I’m a size 16 and I model for a national company which is not a plus sized company or even do a plus range as such. They just go up to size 18 in their normal range. So I do the photoshoot modelling their stuff next to slim models. The company has a reputation for using a range of models. Ages as well as sizes.

people I talk to who buy from this company say it’s one of the things they love, that they can see what the clothes look like on a range of people

And I’ve just been looking at Victoria Secret website and as well as the usual models there’s one who is definitely larger (again modelling their normal range, not a plus size range). Refreshingly they haven’t photoshopped her tummy rolls out.
They’ve also got a model with a prosthetic leg

I'd love to know which company this is. Good on them. But I'd also love to know if any of the models are average sized but also under 5'5? A short size 12 will wear clothes very differently from a size 16 5'10 woman!

That sounds brilliant - good for that company.
Showing clothes on models who aren't very tall and a size 6-8 isn't 'normalising obesity' FFS.

If not already seen, I thoroughly recommend Chloe dall’Olio’s Insta. She does a ‘Friday Twinning’ reel with Trinny Woodall, where they wear exactly the same outfit. Trinny sometimes tweaks, like wearing back to front, but it’s great to see a larger woman and a tall, thin woman, wearing the same item. I bought a Zara dress straight off the back of seeing how Chloe looked in hers (usually Zara don’t do larger sizes).

Short fat woman here. I would personally like to see clothes on a wider range of body types, tall, short, fat, thin, average. It doesn’t help me at all to see how something looks on a woman 5’8 with a size 8-10 figure. And that doesn’t encourage me to buy.