“Topshop is at the centre of a row over body image after a photograph which compared the "shocking" skinniness of a mannequin to a "normal girl" in one of their stores went viral.”
It's clear that mannequins aren't always meant to be a representation of real body sizes. The Topshop main demographic is teenage girls, and they're going to see rake thin legs and think that's what they need to be, in order to be fashionable/popular/attractive.
Thus, Topshop are responding to the market, and the market is telling them skinny. People have to ask who is influencing this skinny culture, the fashion industry or the fashionists.
Mannequins, to a certain extent, should be aspirational though. They are there to show off the clothes in their best light, and attract who want to buy them in the same way that models in ad campaigns are.
There is ever more call for the fashion industry to reflect 'real life'. Fat mannequins that hold up a mirror to how obese our society has become aren't necessarily a positive thing. Being too fat and unhealthy isn't something people should aspire to any more than being thin and unhealthy is.
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