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?

I don't think showing a variety of body types wearing clothes is normalising obesity.
It just seems sensible if you want to sell as many clothes as possible to give people a realistic idea of what they might look like if they buy an item.
There is a style and beauty thread started by a poster wondering if she should buy a dress from one hundred stars when she has generous boobs.... She can only guess because the dress is only shown on models with tiny boobs.
What's the problem with just giving your customers some idea of whether it's worth buying an item?
As a pp mentioned, Nike have some larger models on their website... Isn't that encouraging for people who want to lose weight or get fitter, to see that they can wear these outfits too?

It feels weird walking past mannequins which all look tiny and emaciated, I think.. who looks like that!? Hardly anyone does so why do we have teeny mannequins. It's damaging. I guess they are cheaper to make and take up less space

I'm put off clothes when I see them modelled by someone who is obese.

This sort of range of models is ok.
Organic Cotton Jumpsuits & Boilersuits | Lucy & Yak (lucyandyak.com)

Dove’s sales apparently fell when they used their ‘normal people’ campaign. I don’t know what that says about people in general!

Same. I want to see healthy looking people. Some overweight, different shapes, but not clinically obese.

My view is that Is ee the models as aspirational. I want to buy the clothes that make me look like the models. I don't find that seeing the clothes modelled on a larger person inspires me to picture myself in the same outfit.

They've had lots over the years - which one exactly?

allypally33
When they started doing the kind of ‘everyday people’ ones, so the real human beings ones

@allypally33 a quick Google throws up some results for increasing sales following the real beauty campaign - like 10% increase in 1 year. And another reference to profits in USA rising from 2.4 bn to 4bn in 10yrs of the campaign. So doesn't sound disastrous?

Yes I had a quick Googl and there were several. Was it the one with 'real women' in their underwear?

Funny how no matter how fat, thin, tall, short or ugly the women are they all had uniformly beautiful professionally styled hair. Not buying it.

No advertising with a bald woman, THAT would be really brave considering shampoo is their mainstay ?

I thought Dove was soap. I didn't know they made shampoo.

They do shampoo and conditioner (really good actually but with col is gone up, used to be really affordable) I think they moved into shampoo after soap and shower gel

Dove isn't a soap, it's a cleansing bar. It's detergent.

Sadly clothes are always going to look great on a young slim person, businesses want to sell so they want their products to be seen in the best light.

I do find it annoying, I rarely buy clothes online from bigger companies anymore because just looking through their clothes makes me feel fat and old (I’m over 40), I like to see a range of ages and sizes wearing clothes, I want to know what a short ass 42 year old would look like in it, not a size 8 5ft10 18 year old 😬.

I’m finding it much harder to buy clothes now over 40, I’m at that stage where most shops seem too young for me but I also feel too young to be shopping in white stuff or M&S (though M&S has got better).

Quite a lot of places have started letting people upload their own photos in various clothes online, so you can see what it looks like on different people, heavily curated. Ikea does the same for their products! In the younger age sector, they are using natural or consumer produced images more than only carefully selected models (they still use the models, but then show them on real people who bought the item).

The problem I have with buying anything online isn't the actual size of a model but their shape. Almost everyone seems to pick the flattest chested models they can and for someone with a 32G bust it really doesn't help. I'd be happy enough to see clothes on a size 10 model with an hourglass figure so I can see if the company is actually able to cut for a bust. There was an interview with the head of M&S ladieswear about a year ago - she was a straight up and down figure - boasting that they had got rid of "frumpy details" like bust darts - seemingly unaware that if you are a bit top heavy then not putting darts in means that you end up with your dress hanging off your boobs like a maternity sack - not a good look.

I think one needs to find a brand that suits their shape. I'm not straight up and down and like a pp a style for straight up and down tends to hang off my boobs.

A friend with a generous posterior wears skirts that are noticeably shorter at the back.

@londonmummy1966

Trouble is, I've found few clothes fit an hourglass well as they are designed for a woman with a hip measurement three inches bigger than bust. There's no such thing as a size 10 hourglass figure unless you mean a 10-12 top and a 8-10 bottom?

You wear whatever the hell you like! You're talking like you have to change your fashion taste at 40. Just be you.

My body shape has changed so sadly there are a few things I just can’t wear 🤔. I do tend to wear what I like and I have a pretty quirky fashion sense but when it comes to formal clothes I find it harder to know what to wear.

One of the problems may be that we are all confused about formal clothes- I can dress for daytime, but I find wearing my 'old' workclothes, such as dresses/knee-length, quite untrendy looking now and I'm not sure what shoes go with them- it seems easier to dress more casually, which is what most young people do, but then what do you wear to important work events? I haven't cracked formal clothes at all since Covid and looking around a lot of my colleagues are confused too (some are in jeans, some doing the suit thing, all making it up as we go along).

I just wear black jeans, nice top and a black jacket with heels and nice jewellery. Or black gothic style dresses.

Given models are usually at least 5'8 I think a size 8 is definitely veering towards underweight.

@LivingDeadGirlUK , the models probably have slight builds, so won't necessarily be underweight.

@@LivingDeadGirlUK i’m 5 ft 10 and a size 8, BMI is 21. Not remotely underweight!

I don’t want to see obese women modelling clothes - I just skip over those images as they don’t relate to me at all. And the clothes don’t look as nice 🤷‍♀️