Cinched in perfectly at the waist and flawlessly tailored at the thighs;
my eyes were immediately drawn to the mannequin at the entrance to the clothing
store and I could not hide my horror. It had nothing to do with the clothes
that they were wearing; it was to do with the body proportions of the model
they adorned.
I am no stranger to the world of fashion and the techniques used in
retail to showcase garments, but it still never fails to infuriate me. The
health of catwalk models is a heavily debated topic with changes starting to be
made in France with the introduction of a medical note to confirm a normal body
mass index before being booked for a job, yet in the UK we seem to be going
completely the other way. Not only are changes still not being made to ensure
the health of models in the high fashion area of the sector, but also alarming
messages are now being communicated in high street stores.
I am sure I am not the only person that has seen a garment on a
mannequin and fallen in love with it, only to try it on and find that it does
not fit me in that same way whatsoever. It is a horrible feeling and maybe it is
because I am predisposed to certain thoughts, but I know that I instantly begin
to question my weight, my body size and compare my body to that of the
mannequin. However, on this particular occasion I am describing right here, I
immediately questioned the reality of any of the clothes in the store fitting
this mannequin in the beautifully tailored way that it did. Sure enough my
suspicions were confirmed.
Walking around the back of the models I has horrified to see the amount
of fabric that had been folded back and pinned securely in order to fit the
mannequin. Like I say, I am aware that retailers need to showcase their
products beautifully to encourage sales, but do they really need to go to
lengths of using unrealistically proportioned mannequins that are not even the
right body size to fit any of the clothes that they are selling? A study
conducted recently identified that 100% of the female mannequins inspected from
a sample of high street retailers were representative of an unhealthy body
size. This is worrying and frustrating, but I think it also highlights a
potential contributing factor that could be escalating the issues with body
image that face society today. It is also important to note that the male
mannequins were noticed as being unrealistically muscular, which shows that
this is an issue that needs to be addressed across all sectors of fashion
retail.
I know that there is never going to be an industry where mannequins are available
that represent every body size. I know that there are lots of other factors
that affect people’s perception of self and body image. However, I do believe
that changes need to be made. To be promoting clothes that do not even fit the
mannequin without the process of folding fabric and using pins, in my opinion
that is not ok.
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