Fashion retailer Topshop has been forced to remove mannequins from their stores, after a UK customer shamed them on Facebook for promoting ‘ridiculous’ body ideals.
Laura Berry brought the store’s attention to their mannequin choices after posting an image of the model on show in her local Topshop.
Posting a picture of the mannequin taken inside the store, Laura wrote:
“This mannequin is frankly ridiculously shaped. Young women aspire to the somewhat cult image your store offers. Which I’m sure you’re aware by your sales figures and hashtags on Instagram. Yet not one mannequin in your store showed anything bigger than a size six.
“In fact, I’m not even sure the one in the picture is even that. So today, I’m calling you out Topshop, on your lack of concern for a generation of extremely body conscious youth.
“I am old enough and wise enough to know I will never be this size, but we’ve all been impressionable teens at one point, I’m fairly certain that if any of us were to witness this in our teenage years, it would have left us wondering if that was what was expected of our bodies.”
Laura said she decided to leave the store after seeing the mannequin, using her ‘size 10/12 legs’ to shop elsewhere.
Responding to the Facebook post, Topshop said the model was originally based on a size 10, but had been altered to give it a ‘stylised’ look.
A spokesperson for the clothing giant said:
“As the mannequins are sold fibreglass, their form needs to be of certain dimensions to allow clothing to be put on and removed easily; this is therefore not meant to be a representation of the average female body. That said, we have taken yours and other customers’ opinions and feedback on board and we are not placing any further orders on this style of mannequin.
“The views of our customers are extremely valuable and we apologise if we have not lived up to the levels of service that we aim to deliver.”
While the store has vowed to stop ordering the mannequins, they have yet to confirm whether the current models in store will still be in use.
Lead image via The Telegraph
