Why are all clothes modelled by stick thin 20 yr old women?

[Ineedacupofteadesperately]

Haven't needed a smart outfit for years, but need one now for a wedding so have been looking at dresses online. It's just depressing that even the supposed 'mother of the bride" outfits are modelled by stick thin teenagers / twentysomethings. Given they presumably want me to part with my cash, I don't get it. I want to see what an outfit looks like on a more middle aged woman like me. Someone who's had kids and hasn't had a personal trainer afterwards.

The only company I've found that has one older model is M&S (Twiggy, modelling 3 or 4 of their dresses), they also had a younger 'plus sized' model. Obviously no larger AND older models. But still, well done M&S. I'm so fed up I may find someone to make a dress from scratch from a pattern.

Luckily, I'm very happy with all my saggy bits since they're the result of my two wonderful DDs but it does concern me for their future that there will just be this monolithic wall of advertising basically saying that there is only one body shape that is acceptable / catered for in the fashion industry. An alien from outer space would conclude after looking at these webpages that middle aged and older women or any women larger than size 8 are vanishingly rare. Just makes me so fed up / depressed. I shall just have to resume my general attitude of not giving a stuff what I look like and ignoring all advertising asap.

They're not stick thin.

People have lost sight of what a person with a normal bmi looks like as most of the country is now over weight with 1/4 being obese or higher.

My post partum hips are wider than my teenage hips were, and they were like a barn door. I mean my hip bones, I'm not talking about fat.

Look at the ancient Venus carvings. Post partum bodies look different from teenage bodies. We are a different shape after childbirth and as we age, and thats partly down to our genetics.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_figurines

I have a normal bmi, but also a tummy and boobs (2 csections and very large babies, breastfeeding 4 years in total so far). Why are all the models so young then? Even, as I said, the "mother of the bride" dress models.

www.jjshouse.co.uk/Sheath-Column-Knee-Length-Chiffon-Mother-Of-The-Bride-Dress-With-Ruffle-Beading-Appliques-Lace-Sequins-008102674-g102674?utm_term=102674&utm_size=06&ggsub=pl&ggntk=g&ggcid=94720230156&ggkey=&ggpos=1o4&ggdev=t&ggdevm=&ggplm=&ggtgt=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI2pu61fre2AIVETwbCh3HygV7EAQYBCABEgJWQPD_BwE

I was told by someone in the fashion industry that it is because then all clothes models are a standard size and they can be sure everything will fit. The bigger a woman is, the more variation there is in shape.

Don't know how much truth there is in it

Do you expect the retailer to pay for a lot of different models?

That would push the price of the clothes right up.

How about using some older women to model dresses designed to be worn by mothers? They are designing dresses to be worn by a specific demographic, after all. They employ multiple models - if cost is a factor they could just put them on a dummy.

I'd rather see them on a plain dummy than a very young women.
Putting them on a young model doesn't make me think 'I'll look like that if I wear that item'. It makes me wonder if I'm buying something thats too young looking for my age group.

I make my own clothes and I can assure you it is all about fit. A slim 20 yr old is a doddle to fit. Everything looks good. Nothing pulls in the wrong place. As we get older things start to drop and bump and we become more asymmetric.

@ineedacupofteadesperately-

How can they do that?

It is a business specialising in wedding/proms/formals.

Each season they will get the new styles in and do the photos, the same couple of models will do all the photos. Very few of those dresses will be mother of the bride. They have to cater to the audience that gives them the largest revenue stream.

You cheered M&S in your opening post but they have done the same thing, the older woman is their main revenue stream.

It just seems pointless to design something specifically aimed at middle aged women then not actually advertise in a way to encourage them to buy. These ads put me right off. They won't get my money. Pretty sure I'll get something custom made - actually cheaper too from the quotes I've had so far!

blacktea But I said M&S only had 4 out of about 230 dresses modelled by an older woman. If older women are their main source of revenue why not have the majority? Answer that. Also, some of their dresses are displayed without any model at all, presumably cheaper. So, why?

I get what you're saying about the age, she is very young to be a mother of the bride and that's how they're selling the outfit. It shouldn't be too much of a hardship to hire a model who doesn't look too young to have an, at least, 18-year-old daughter.

Not as sure about the size, I don't think she's stick thin at all (although there has been some dodgy photoshopping around her knees in one pic so who knows what she actually looks like?).

Yeah, maybe stick thin was the wrong phrase, probably what I meant was a young body shape. As fancy says womens' bodies change as they age so something designed for the average 20 yr old will not look good on the average 40 yr old.

"Do you expect the retailer to pay for a lot of different models?"

Do you expect (in the interests of cost-efficiency) that there should be only one model who models all the clothes in the whole of the UK?

As soon as you admit to a need for more than one model, why shouldn't they (for commercial reasons) reflect the same range of body shapes as the customer base?

And no, it's not about normalising growing levels of obesity either - a size zero model has a waist size of 23 inches, which is not normal in a healthily slim adult woman of pretty much any height. (I was a very slender, athletic young woman, and very short - 5'2" and I have never been anywhere even slightly close to a 23 inch waist). Catwalk models, by any objective standards, are thin to the point of unhealthiness. So there is a real question as to why they are held up as a model to aspire to, never mind the fact that the customers won't fit into any of the clothes that look good on them.

The same reason why hey don’t show it on the average 5’4 frame... clothes don’t look as good. Does my head in.

As my mum says "if you have a great figure, you can wear a binbag and it'll look great."
"Designing" for someone with a perfect trim 20 year old body means that even terrible clothes will look ok.

That's a good point, Storm . I've done a bit of clothes design for friends as an amateur thing, and it requires a lot more thought and effort to get the "cut" right on curves. (Not that it can't be done - it can, but it is harder).

Also economics drives the clothes industry in all sorts of ways. For example, all those cap sleeves which look terrible on older women like me (I have wobbly upper arms, and wrinkly elbows, due to being what I am, which is middle aged). You ask yourself "how hard would it be to put 3/4 sleeves on instead of cap sleeves. Surely it can't be any more difficult?" No, it wouldn't be any more difficult, but it would increase the amount of fabric in the blouse by about 60% (if you've ever done any dress making, you will know that each sleeve on a full-length sleeve blouse is almost as big as the back panel of the blouse). So we're stuck with rack upon rack of cap sleeved efforts that only suit teenagers.

We may be own worst enemies in this. My daughter organised focus groups for plus size women who all asked for some of the clothes to be displayed on women larger than size 16-18 ,as they felt they were under represented.Clothes were available in sizes 14-32.
The company then began to advertise some styles modelled by size 20-24 women.
The styles modelled by the size 16-18 models outsold the larger size models in all sizes.
We're only human it seems and prone to wishful thinking

Apparently clothes look better on a certain body type...

Which kind of makes you wonder what their priority is when designing clothes if it's not to make people look good in them?...

@Pricklyball Catwalk models are now rarely if ever under an 18.5 bmi. Which is a healthy weight. In France it is now law that they can't be.

The model given as an example isn't even close to that though. She is around 19.8-20 BMI.

Far, far from "Stick thin"

@ineedacupofteadesperately Apologies on the M&S comment, I skimmed it and just read that they had older models.

As for being a different shape in your 40s to 20s, I'm not. My shape has stayed the same despite breastfeeding and having children.

Prickly thanks for articulating what I was thinking so well, As soon as you admit to a need for more than one model, why shouldn't they (for commercial reasons) reflect the same range of body shapes as the customer base?

I used to be than 'thin' when I was in my 20s and even post DD1 in my 30s. However, as a post menopausal woman in her fifties I cannot even begin to wonder what a younger woman's body has to do with mine. I need structure and support in good quality clothes now. I loathe bras though as most are not supportive and are uncomfortable - even Mary of Sweden.

I now have a different shape. To compensate for this, I look at material, the style - bodycon is now out, and I wore these into my 40s - plus I also think colour and pattern work massively as well. I do understand that not all women of my age get this.

It would be good to see an older woman who is not tall and thin, display clothes for the majority of older women.

I hear you OP!
What does my head in is High Street retailers bemoaning lack of sales and blaming the internet or whatever. You only have to read MN to find that the problem is them and their poor design - dresses that are cut to only suit size zeroes, lack of sleeves, cheap fabrics, shoddy finish, etc.

I would happily buy if there was anything worth buying.

I think cap sleeve caps only suit a very slim and slender arm that is attached to a non curvy figure, regardless of your age.

I don't mind seeing wrinkly skin on women. It doesn't bother me in the slightest and it never did either.

I think the deeper question is who decides what looks "good". Apparently, when pregnant I looked good enough to cater to with many brands using models with a pregnant body shape even though their market is much smaller at any given time than postpartum older women.