Does anyone else feel disenfranchised by models?

I think the size 6, 5'10"+ models disenfranchise virtually all women. My daughter is 5'10" and very slim but still double the size of these scrawny scarecrows. She looks far better in clothes (and I'm guessing without clothes) than these women.
I don't suggest that all clothes are displayed on chubby women (or grey-haired women) but at the moment there are just no clothes that I like on sale.
Women like myself are a large segment of the market and don't want the clothes displayed on size 6 models or the tented frumpery considered appropriate for women of our age.
I'm sure I'm not alone in having adopted the ageless uniform of nice coloured cords and jumpers or t-shirts simply because there is no vaguely attractive alternative.

Blossoming is just pointing out that ‘disenfranchised’ isn’t the correct word to use in this instance.

What do you want to see on a box of hair colour Mummer?
They can’t put on a picture of someone with ‘YUKKY’ hair, can they?

Blossoming

I find this thread title confusing. I thought it was going to be about the parlous state of our ‘first past the post’ electoral system or the dire choice of candidates. How do slim attractive models in clothing adverts affect my right to vote in a free and fair election?

Are you being ironic? Or trying to be funny? Either way you need to get with the programme! No politics just having a moan!

I see where you're coming from, I too have noticed a seismic shift to multicultural and ethnic models, ok by me, but where's the logic in advertising plus sizes with a plus sized model who's probably in her 20s? Very lovely-but alien concept to me! Or a mature model in hair care ads with grey(ING) models who obviously are still professional stick thin MODELS!!!! Not everyone has perfect snow white/steel grey/poker starting waist length hair in their 60s+!!!!! Most olds I know with greying hair have wavy/frizzy/very short/ YUKKY coloured grey hair!! I personally know of TWO laydeez who have fab white/silver locks but they stand out like angels In the rugby scrum of everyone else's badly dyed, dirty grey pepper and salt pates! Come ON advertising agencies, you KNOW. We have the biggest spending power and it's mostly untapped! Try courting us for a change?

I got so fed up with buying clothes years ago as I don’t fit the sizings. If I buy say, a coat in a 16, it’s too tight lower down, and if I go for the 18 my top half drowns and the sleeves come to my knees. Selling fashion has always been a con. When there’s a photo shoot the clothes are pinned and clipped in to give the appearance of being flattering. Women who dress too young look as if they can’t let go of their youth, and then there’s the manufacturers belief that we hit a certain age and want comfy “serviceable” clothing (remember crimplene?)
So my grouse isn’t with the models it’s the designers and manufacturers, plus the appalling cheap quality of materials ( even the blessed St Michael’s stuff)
And another thing is why can’t manufacturers create garments which are labelled as the same size actually be the same size? They must be using laser cutting these days.

And don’t get me started on on-line clothes shopping…

Chrissyoh

JaneJudge

yes, i just hope the cartoon man doesn't go for 500 miles after taking viagra

I pity his poor partner if he does.

You’re absolutely right Fernhillnana. I’m clothes mad and just had a look at my apps - Ambrose Wilson, M and Co, M and S, Dorothy Perkins, John Lewis, Very and a few others (too much spare time, I know). I have not seen one model in her 40’s or over. I think Fat Face had an older lady model and I commented on that recently (woo hoo!). So where exactly are these older models GN ladies are mentioning? A dress that looks good on a 20year old sometimes looks dodgy on older or larger ladies. We talk about equality so much yet, here we are. Cancelled x

Models can't stop you voting!

M and S have a variety of shapes and sizes and ethnicities on their website, to give everyone a good idea of what they might look like in a particular garment. However, looking for a raincoat, the model wearing the design I liked was such a big girl - she must have been well in excess of 20 stone with stupendous curves - that I couldn't even see if it had a belt. I'm all for normal looking women, and get exasperated by the skeletal types with a six inch thigh gap, but going too far the other way isn't a helping to see what the garment might look like on you.

I find this thread title confusing. I thought it was going to be about the parlous state of our ‘first past the post’ electoral system or the dire choice of candidates. How do slim attractive models in clothing adverts affect my right to vote in a free and fair election?

I agree with merlotgran it doesn’t bother me who models the cloths, if I like an item I can decide if it will suit me or not. To be honest I think cloths look far better on younger slender models it catches my eye more so than it would on a grey older more fuller figure.

To be honest I buy what I like and what suits me …. whatever the model looks like. Anyway I think it keeps me buying clothes that ‘others’ may think unsuitable for ne! I don’t do unsuitable…. I do what I like. And I wear purple.!!!

Growstuff nor me! I stopped buying dresses by the time I was early twenties, stick to skirts that are a bit more forgiving when they don't fit properly. Coats have to skim with no waistline.

Sorry Fernhillnana I've gone off piste a little bit with shopping instead of modelling, so sorry. Back to older models - the problem (from a suppliers perspective) with older models may be that younger people wouldn't want to buy stuff that seems aimed at older people? Whereas older people do buy stuff aimed at younger people.

Wow *growstuff"

I wish my shape was thew same as yours!.

AreWeThereYet

I feel disenfranchised by people who think that anyone over 5ft and overweight isn't a real person ?

In fact I've been disenfranchised for years, come to think of it, by the many shops that don't stock clothes for anyone taller than about 5 ft 4". Dresses have waists that are under my armpits. Trousers are always around my ankles. I only buy skirts designed for midi length so they cover my knees. I used to buy a lot at M&S because they sold long lengths, but my local M&S never had them in stock, I had to order them in because "we don't sell many". Of course you don't sell them if you don't stock them woman!

I'm a tad short of 5'11 and a size 14. Considering I have the dimensions of some catwalk models, I still find it difficult to buy clothes which fit. I can't buy anything with a defined waist.

GSM my MIL did that! She was under 5 ft and tiny. She paid next to nothing for many of her clothes, which were just as trendy as adults clothes, and in many cases better made. She didn't wear high heels and the flat sandals suited her beautifully. We always had a laugh when we went shopping because we were two extremes.

Try being my tiny daughter in law who has to buy almost all her clothes and shoes in children’s sizes!

I feel disenfranchised by people who think that anyone over 5ft and overweight isn't a real person ?

In fact I've been disenfranchised for years, come to think of it, by the many shops that don't stock clothes for anyone taller than about 5 ft 4". Dresses have waists that are under my armpits. Trousers are always around my ankles. I only buy skirts designed for midi length so they cover my knees. I used to buy a lot at M&S because they sold long lengths, but my local M&S never had them in stock, I had to order them in because "we don't sell many". Of course you don't sell them if you don't stock them woman!

Boob size is just one of the many attributes that make a dress look good on one person, but not another.

Where the waist on a dress is in relationto where your waist actually is, whether the arm length will be too long or too short on your arms.

I have a problem that my hip bones are very close to my waist and makes fuller skirts bunch up.

There are so many aspects of each of us that can affect how a garment hangs, but surely by our age we can recognise those problems by just one look at a garment, without even seeing it on a model.

I know what you mean there. I have to make the same allowance and sadly a lot of styles hang beautifully on the less well endowed but are not for those with a more ample bosom.

Germanshepherdsmum

You just need to check the length of the garment and use your imagination Blinko! If I haven’t found out by now what does and doesn’t suit me I might as well give up!

Not so much the length, GSM, I can do as you suggest. But the thing for me is, erm..boobs. Non of these models seem to have them and they make a difference to the fit of a garment and the way it hangs.

It’s not a matter of having catalogues full of overweight old frumpy women GSM but to have a few representative of an older age group without the perfect face or figure in fact someone who looks good as an ordinary person with normal older flaws They’ve got as far as including ethnic minorities and sometimes disabled and occasionally larger and rightly so but surely we need clothes that look good on a non perfect face/figure
Just a bit derogatory to think only the perfect ‘need apply’

The online catalogues will only ever give you a very rough idea on how the clothes will look on you, whatever size you are but I have to wonder if it's just a sneaky way of saying "this is what you should look like in our clothes"!
Even such a shop as Yours for size 16+ has models that certainly don't have lumps and bumps where I do !
I quite like watching QVC as they have models of different sizes, ages and they even have one that is I think about 5'4" and a size 18, so it can be done!

oh they are really comfortable. I could never get on with normal tights as I am tall and overweight but I followed their measuring advice and ordered the suggested size and they fit really well. I have some orange ones - I think they were called pumpkin - which are good for embarrassing my children