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.

All this talk about what 'looks good'

I said that but if you read it how I intended, you'd see I was being more critical of the brands/manufacturers in that their clothes are mass produced for cheap and therefore will not 'look good' modelled on a variety of body types. E.g. a waist of a dress will not be in the right place for everyone as some people are 5ft2 and some are 5ft8, so there will be odd bits of material sticking out just above the hips. Same with any darts sown into bust or skirt areas.

The model is fine. Not everyone has large breasts. Trying things on is the best way to know if it will fit right for you.

No issue with this model at all. She looks very healthy.
My DD and I are both size and fit Zara clothes just fine.
If the stuff doesn't fit then shop elsewhere.

Tbh I don't see much wrong with their choice of model for this particular dress but what I do wish clothing brands would start doing is varying their models a bit more according to the different styles of clothes, cuts and shapes etc. With far too many sites it is just one body type showing all of the clothes, even when its actually detrimental to the selling potential of the product.

For example, the other day I saw on a fashion website a midi length wrap dress with a tie waist. Now this is the kind of thing that suits me to a tee, and I imagine women like me - shorter end of average height, large of bosom and bottom and thunder-thighed and slender-ish of waist. That shape is my absolute failsafe. However the model was a standard six foot tall, extremely slim, no boobs or curves. Nobody of her shape would want to buy the dress because it just hung off her and did nothing for her whereas a dress like the zara one that op shared would have looked fabulous on her. And probably no one of my shape would buy the dress either because even if we know that's usually a foolproof option, it can still be really difficult to tell if it's safe when the model is the opposite of our body type (both within the range of 'healthy' body types btw - so not about judging anyone!)

So I just think a bit more variety would be helpful for everyone and they'd probably get fewer returns! Then again I should probably concern myself less with this since the world really doesn't need more online fashion retailers

ElectricMonkey - are you for real? do you need it spelling out for you? The advert is designed to encourage the overweight to take part in Park Run. It is saying "exercise is not just for the Zara models of this world". Have you seriously not been able to put that chain of thoughts together in your head?

Im a 32HH and a size 14/16 and the sort of comments us bigger boobed women have to put up with is "anything more than a handful is a waste"

i was a 46 G and a size 28 before i lost weight.

Electric Monkey how do you think overweight people lose weight. Would you rather they didnt excersise in your eyeline.

This thread is more suited to AIBU than Feminism.

Electric monkey that model is not seriously overweight.

She is though. I know why they've used a 'normal' sized model here and that's fine and there's good reasons for it as A580 says. But to deny she is overweight is as unhealthy as denying the Zara model is at or below the bottom end of the healthy spectrum. It really would be much better if the images the media exposed us to were of a range of healthy BMIs and not either tall and very skinny or obese.

I think I understand why TanyaTonyaMargaret found the model for Zara a bit concerning.

My take is that it isn't about what size the model is or isn't. But that only one type of body is considered to be beautiful/acceptable,

Most women in their lives have dramatic changes in our body shape (puberty, pregnancy, menopause, etc) but only our teenaged body is considered the "ideal".

In a way the fashion industry and media advertises what it wants from women and it wants us to all look the same, act the same.

It isn't about healthy bodies or unhealthy bodies (too fat or too thin) as really it's about making us spend our time, energy and money on our bodies.

We are all so consumed with trying to fit an ideal that we can never achieve. All that time, energy and money isn't going into more important stuff, like politics, business, education and just being ourselves and happy.

I think the OP is noticing this for her female child, seeing that her teenage daughter is being groomed into this life of self-hatred. You all have shown in your posts that you think of yourselves as too fat or too thin, too tall, too short. Even worse, when women become the guards of this system too.

We should be thinking - what has the obese woman achieved, what potential and intelligence does the anorexic woman have? This is the important point.

Overall point to my massive rant - we are not our bodies, we can only control our bodies to a certain point. We are being pushed an impossible ideal, that none of us can achieve - it is sexist, ageist, racist (white, western, thin, tall, mid teen). The opposite is a non white, non european, short, fat, old woman - have you seen this woman being feted and acknowledged as being worthy and beautiful and have an equal place in the world?

Well said HamrunHarpie.

I’ve moved from a mainly male team to a entirely female. The amount of time wasted on self hate, I wish I was thinner, I’m on a special diet, I’m so fat talk that goes on, it’s just such a waste. This is from women of 20 up to 60. Wattless energy.

I understand. I always thought I had the wrong shaped body for fashion and that this was because I was fat and disgusting. I recently saw a photo of myself when I was younger and with my eyes now I see I was lovely and slim but curvy and just did not look like a typical model.

I’m not slim anymore because I’ve spent my whole life telling myself I’m fat and hating myself so I don’t feel I deserve to look after myself. That self hatred is reflected I feel whenever women talk about their bodies or fashion (not all women).

The world would not end or be plunged into a bigger obesity crisis if more clothes were shown on a size 12, 5’6 model.

large of bosom and bottom and thunder-thighed and slender-ish of waist. That shape is my absolute failsafe. However the model was a standard six foot tall, extremely slim, no boobs or curves.

Please would people take a moment to consider the possible effect that describing small breasts as no breasts might have on young women developing a sense of themselves as women.

SomethingOnce apologies, yes you're right. That was thoughtless - I meant the kind that wouldn't need to be accounted for in terms of supplying extra fabric for them to fill if that makes any sense but yes that was a bad way to say small breasts! Sorry - can see that would be offensive and give the wrong message to young girls

Thanks, Seamus.

I didn’t really mean to single you out, sorry about that. In my earlier post I pointed out other similar uses of language from the thread, it happens all the time.

My ‘best friend’ and other girls did this to me as a teen and it really impacted my body image and confidence, despite the fact I’d had really positive messaging about bodies in general from home. I was happy with the small breasts I had, didn’t aspire to larger ones, and couldn’t understand why others perceived this as an absence.

@hamrunharpie - yy to your whole post.

The issue is lots of people want to be models, modelling agencies can pick and choose. Clothes companies effectively want human hangers.

My DD goes to be measured by a big modelling agency every six months, with a view to signing her if she reaches 5'9" by 15. She has a body shape like the Zara model. She eats well (although she eats too much crap like most teenagers), she is just naturally extremely slim. DH and I were both the same as kids.

I feel incredibly ambivalent about it all. The best thing to come from it for me, is that it makes DD more positive about her very small bust. I can confirm that comments about "no boobs" are deeply hurtful for teens with body shapes like DD. She feels very unfeminine because of it. It's hard to watch her upset when her friends have "joked" about it again.

The model is a completely healthy size.

I really like ewa michalak underwear, and their site is great for showing different ages/sizes/shapes
I'm a plus size model but I don't often do fashion stuff, the latest published photos I had were head shots. I'm 5ft 10 and a size 16 ish, 34JJ bust