British high-street brand, Topshop is the latest retailer to be named and shamed as supporting too-skinny a frame. Two days ago, Becky Hopper went into Topshop in St. Stephen’s Shopping Centre, Hull, only to find that the clothes were being showcased on stick-thin mannequins. If you can describe plastic as ‘stick-thin’, that is.
She tweeted a photo with her friend and shopping companion, Georgia Bibbly, who stood next to the mannequin, looking larger, despite having an 8/10 dress size. Both girls wanted to reveal this incident, as they felt that the mannequins in store represented a poor message, justifying an unhealthy and unrealistic weight and size.
Twitter is going crazy with many taking to the keyboards to express their distaste and annoyance. But Becky hit back at those who accused her of body-shaming skinnier people, by saying that she just felt that all shapes and sizes should be fairly and equally represented.
And I agree.
Whilst it isn’t a great message to send out, especially as Topshop is a brand worn and loved by many young girls and women internationally, it would not be so much of a problem, if next to that ultra-skinny mannequin, there was a regular-sized one and a slightly more curvaceous one.
I personally know many naturally skinny girls and in this day and age, it is all too easy to brand them as anorexic or bulimic. Labelling someone like that is not a good message to send out either. However, I also know plenty of curvy girls: girls who have muffin tops and love handles, and it is nothing to be shy or ashamed of. So if Topshop want to use stick-thin mannequins, I advocate it, as long as a fair representation of women is given. As long as a variety of the clothes sold in the store are dressing mannequins of different shapes and sizes, there is no problem, in my eyes, as they would simply be showing how the clothes look on different body types.
This is not the first time for fashion to be accused of sending an ill message with fellow high-street brand, Urban Outfitters, hosting Japanese-designed t-shirts with messages reading ‘Depression’ and ‘Eat Less’. The items were met with a hurl of infuriated and outraged responses, causing the retailer to make a public apology via Twitter and to remove the clothes from the website.
Regarding the recent incident, a spokeswoman from Topshop commented:
I personally disagree that the mannequin in the photo is a size 10, but then again, photo distortion could have played a part here. Either way, we shouldn’t validate eating disorders, nor should we should we give the thumbs up to obesity either. Fashion has such an impression of the younger female population, in particular, that the message sent out to them is crucial. There has to be a healthy balance and fashion needs to learn to cater to diversity in body shape.
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Disclosure: Photo credit from The Mail Online
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