I don't know whether to be patronised or pleased. John Lewis is introducing a limited number of size 14 mannequins into just one of its regional stores later this year. At first, when you read the headline about size 14 mannequins being used in John Lewis, you think, "Great!" but then when you realise how rare they are going to be (hen's teeth?) it makes you wonder why they are bothering.
According to the Daily Mail, "It follows the company's ground-breaking decision to challenge conventional images of beauty by using a size 12 model to front its high-profile swimwear campaign."
GROUNDBREAKING?
No. Groundbreaking would be using a size 16, or 18, or 20 in a shop window. Even the Evans models just look like a size 14/16 with the clothes pinned back to fit. I may be wrong but I don't think I've seen many plus size women in high street windows. Simply Be use bigger models in their catalogue, and you should see my husband when it arrives, he's straight in there sizing up the lingerie collection.
"Spokesman Mark Forsyth told the Daily Mail's sister paper, the Evening Standard: "We will be introducing a small number of size 14 mannequins into our Peterborough store at the end of this month.
"We're going to trial them to see how our customers respond to them and how they work in the visual landscape."
If the trial is a success the mannequins could be rolled-out across the company's other stores. But Mr Forsyth stressed they would not replace the company's more conventional army of size 10 dummies."
Call me a sarcastic old bag, but when we get to the stage where shoppers are 'responding' to dummies, we are in big trouble. Have you ever felt moved to stride into the manager's office in Debenhams and have a go at her about the size of the shop dummies? No, funny that. How do you respond to a mannequin? Will they do a pointless survey where people just tick the box and hurry off to get their Starbucks fix?
At the same time, Jen Hunter, who won the Make me a supermodel competition despite being a hugely fat size 12, has quit the agency she won the contract with and gone to a plus-size agency. Apparently she'd had enough of catwalk knockbacks. I don't know about you, but most *real* plus size girls would love to be able to wear a size 12, and here we have the fashion industry rejecting the stunning Jen Hunter for being too big. Where, exactly, is this woman too big?
.
A spokeswoman for eating disorder charity Beat said: "We are very sad to hear that Jen Hunter feels she can't succeed in the mainstream fashion industry. This shows that there is still a lot of work to be done. It is only through the fashion industry acting as a whole, from designer to retailer, that changes will be made."
Yeah. And the day that happens, the Devil is going to be needing some very warm clothes....
The fashion industry is like a vicious circle that will never escape from its malicious negative effects that it has on lots of people that do not fit the lines drawn by well known fashion figures.