Zara - is this the shape women should aspire to be?

[TanyaTonyaMargaret]

I was just looking for a dress for my teen dd for Christmas. I looked on Zara www.zara.com/uk/en/sequin-dress-p00387169.html?v1=7386534&v2=1074622.

My dd is average (size 8) and has what my mother would refer to as a ‘good bust’. She’s a similar shape to most of her friends. It’s almost impossible to gauge whether these clothes would look good on her. I have lots of ‘slim’ friends but don’t know anyone who looks even remotely the shape of these women. I know four women who are 6 ft but they don’t look anything like this shape either. To be fair to Zara I then looked at their male clothing to see what their models were like. They were fairly slim but not like the women. I’m not saying they need to use overweight people but just vaguely average would be great.

Hopefully it’s just Zara and I am about to be delighted by what I find on other retailer’s sites. Fingers crossed.

I think the model in that pic looks good. This has been going on for EONS though and is nothing new. I've notice Tu at Sainsbury's recently using a whole variety of body types in their advertising.

My dd is a 12 bottom 14 top and 5ft6.

She is an extra large, or too big for many Zara clothes.

I really can't see what the problem is. The model looks healthy and not skeletal thin. She has small breasts and long legs.. As most models.
But she doesn't look androgenous or anorexic.
She looks like I imagine most models nowadays look and as most of us aren't models you just have to take the pictures with a pinch of salt and try the clothes on for yourself

That dress will not look good on anyone with a reasonable bosom. I like Zara though - the stuff fits my straight up, straight down child.

Hmmnnnn...I'm touchy because I was certainly as thin as that until I was in my thirties, so was my sister (she still is) and my DD's stepmother kept giving them leaflets on 'How to recognise you have an eating disorder' when they were teenagers. Some people are just thin, and it seems to be more socially acceptable to make remarks about their shape than it is about people who are overweight.

She looks fine to me.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with how she looks. She’s a similar build to my dd and how I was at that age except dd’s legs are about 2 inches longer than mine are.
Slim people are equally differently shaped and not all have a good bust as someone who was a teenager with a small bust and struggled to find clothes that fitted nicely on my top half because they were made to need more filling it’s nice to see people like me and my dd being catered for in clothes now. There’s loads of clothes more suited to my shape now than there was when I was young b

She’s basically my shape (if I wasn’t eight months’ pregnant). Tall, slim arms and legs, small boobs. Healthy BMI.

I find threads criticising how ANY woman looks so depressing. We all come in different shapes and sizes.

I didn’t say she looked anorexic just nothing like any women I know.

I’m pleased to report I have been looking on other websites and the models there are slightly more average. Although rarely have average sized boobs! Smaller boobs seem to be de rigeur.

Oh and I wasn’t critising how she looks. I deliberately made no comment about her. Just that all the models are the same physique, very tall, very slim, small busts.

I know one teen who is that shape (although not quite as slim as the model). I know dozens who aren’t. I don’t know any adult women who look even close to that (although on these threads there always seem to be dozens ).

If your point is that it would be good for online retailers to photograph the same dress on say 3 or 4 different women, of different heights/shapes, I agree.

If you are saying there is something wrong with that model, I don’t.

I’ve noticed a few online cosmetic retailers I visit posting pictures of several people with different skin tones/hair colour/eye colour wearing e.g. the same lipstick or look from the same eyeshadow palette. That’s really helpful, helps you decide if something suits you. Especially as you can’t try a lipstick and send it back if you don’t like it.

Online retail is different and it does need to evolve a bit.

Cross post

I should think her legs have been photo shopped. I actually know a young girl who models for companies like Zara. She was spotted at 14. She is notably thinner than all her peers (none of whom are remotely overweight ... they are all typical slim teenage girls) and has had disordered eating since she was a toddler. By that I mean extreme fussiness and general food refusal. When she hit 13 she got into Deliciously Ella and afaik is now a vegan. She has been hospitalised with a stomach disorder before now during which time the consultant in charge of her care was concerned about her very low weight. But, hey, she doesn't have an officially diagnosed eating disorder and does have the sort of body Zara like to hang their clothes on so it's all good right?

Yy Janet - that would be awesome. And ages too. In the men’s section there was an older man. None in the women’s (dresses anyway!).

I just think that an ‘ideal’ women being very tall, very slim and with small boobs alienates the 95 % of us who aren’t!

I don’t want my dd to never find anyone who looks like (figure) her deemed attractive enough to be a ‘model’.

Good point about ages too Tanya.

Are you saying that all the women you know have "a good bust"? I am pear-shaped, an a-cup. Should I be feeling weird?

Also that model looks like many others (their shape makes the clothes look unattractive IMO). Not sure why Zara are being singled out?

Zara is a slimmer fashion brand more suited for Spanish/french figures, I would say. It's always been more for no curves at all/no hips kind of clothing, and the UK is typically NOT pipecleaner thin you know? When I lived in Europe it was far more popular than over here simply because more women could actually WEAR the clothing over there than here.

Models rarely have reasonable sized boobs - the clothes don’t hang as well

As pp said this dress isn’t great for a girl w boobs, V neck better

A580Hojas

But, hey, she doesn't have an officially diagnosed eating disorder and does have the sort of body Zara like to hang their clothes on so it's all good right?

Just because one person you know has an eating disorder - although it sounds more like she has a problem with her digestive system - that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with all thin people.

If it's not OK to criticise people for being overweight, then it's not OK to criticise people for being thin.

alltop10.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Twiggi.jpg

The entire M&S limited collection range is modelled by this very thin model

She looks fine to me. Slim, yes, but her legs look normal and strong and she does not appear emaciated at all. It's like you've just discovered that there is a model body type and are hanging it on this one girl...?

And yeah, this dress won't look good on a girl/woman with large breasts. Other clothes will look better on a woman with breasts. So? Teen girls often have small breasts.

“Smaller boobs seem to be de rigour”

About bloody time.

I once read on MN that all men like big boobs.

I think the Zara model looks great. In my teens I was skinny. My teenage sons are very skinny and are very self conscious about it.