Primark forced to remove skinny-looking mannequin with protruding ribs after customer complaint
Just a few months after lingerie brand La Perla apologised for its controversially thin store mannequins, Primark is slammed for a similar dummy in its shop window.
Recently, there have been big steps made in the fashion industry towards a healthier-looking body image. Real women have been presented in catwalks during fashion week at shows like Jean Paul Gaultier and department store Debenhams announced in November last year that it would be rolling out size 16 mannequinsacross the country alongside its standard size 10. However, there is still a trend for models and mannequins that could be considered too thin.
The budget fashion house sparked controversy after a customer shared on Twitter a picture of a mannequin with jutting ribs and concave stomach in the window display of its Glasgow branch.
Concerned shopper Mel Fraser tweeted the image of the dummy to Primark bosses saying: “Dear Primark, is it really necessary that these new mannequins have protruding ribs? … I’d just like to see mannequins in all different shapes and sizes in all stores rather than young girls thinking this is the only way to be.”
Primark replied promptly promising an investigation, but her picture had already spread quickly on the internet with over 1400 shares and social media users slamming the use of such mannequin as “shocking”, “disgusting” and “utterly terrifying”. Yesterday the store announced it is currently changing its window displays. The store was forced to remove the dummy and in a tweet it said: “The mannequin you describe will not be used in this way again.”
Primark, however, is not the first store to be slammed for promoting unhealthy bodies. Earlier this year the luxury lingerie label La Perla was strongly criticised after a customer tweeted a picture of an ultra-thin mannequin in its Manhattan boutique, and those were also quickly removed. High street giants Gap and Zara have also come under fire in the past, and in 2007 Spanish brand Mango agreed not to display mannequins smaller than size 6.
© ACADEMIA ARALAR. Estella, Navarra.
I find this article really interesting. I think that it is a big problema because of the effect it can have on young girls.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot deny that nowadays models are too thin and it is completly unnatural. However, there are lot of girls that see this type of dummies and whis to be that way. Yesterday, in fact, I saw a Twitter account of a girl that posted a photo of a girl with her ribs completly jut and she said: Here it is the perfection sum up in a beautiful image.
In my opinion this type of details can cause a lot of pain because it’s all about an ilness. Something must be done promptly.
I have already read about this topic before and it is an important issue to deal with. On the one side, many people know that dummies and models use to be really thin, sometimes skinny. It is essential not to compare our bodies with theirs and not to have them as something to look forward to.
ReplyDeleteOn the other side, if we always see thin bodies, we get used to them and people can think that that is a normal woman body when it isn't. Sometimes some of them see them as "perfection", what is utterly dangerous because it can cause many illnesses.
I am glad this is changing but there is still much to change. I hope that in the future the perfect body not to be just bones.