Topshop criticised for ‘ridiculous’ mannequins

A high-street fashion brand has agreed to stop using unrealistically tall and skinny mannequins after a shopper’s complaint went viral.

Laura Berry posted a photograph of a mannequin used in a Topshop store in Bristol, slamming the “ridiculous” shape, and asked the store to consider the “impression you have on women and young girls”.

“This mannequin is quite frankly ridiculously-shaped,” Ms Berry wrote. “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 6. 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.”

She said that while she was “old enough and wise enough” to know she would never be the size of the mannequins, “we’ve all been impressionable teens at one point”.

Ms Berry was shopping for a pair of jeans, but used her “size 10/12 legs to walk straight out of your store” when she saw them on the mannequin.

“Numerous studies have been carried out on the effect of unrealistic mannequins in stores and numerous stories have been shared in the media too,” she wrote. “So what makes you feel you can ignore everything that’s been said and considered by other high street stores and even some high fashion designers?”

Topshop said the model was based on a size 10, but admitted it had been tailored for impact and agreed not to order it again.

It said: “The overall height (187cm) is taller than the average girl and the form is stylised to have more impact in store.

“As the mannequins are solid 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.”