A popular UK fashion brand has agreed to stop using unrealistically tall and skinny mannequins after a social media 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".
She wrote: "This mannequin is quite 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 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.
"I'm old enough and wise enough to know I will never be this size, but as we've all been impressionable teens at one point, I'm fairly certain 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."
Ms Berry, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, was shopping in Cribbs Causeway Mall 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.
Her post attracted more than 3000 likes and hundreds of comments.
Topshop said the model was based on a size 10, but admitted it had been tailored for effect and agreed not to order it again.
They 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.
"That said, we have taken yours and other customers' opinions and feedback on board and going forward 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."
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