All I ask of online retailers and catalog sellers is that the models not be Photoshopped and the clothing not pinned. I always wonder whether tops are boxier than depicted. It would also be nice if they gave the models' statistics the way that Zappos does. And in my dreams, they would show the clothing on a variety of body types and heights. . .I really like that Zappos shows most of its footwear on actual feet and in motion, even though my feet and legs look quite different.

It is always so much fun to see pics of lemmingwear on YLF -- the same item of clothing on a variety of bodies! I still need to find my body double, however.

Honestly, for me it doesn't matter what the clothes look like on others, no matter the body type. No one else has my proportions or posture or attitude. I do have a few almost - body doubles here :), but the true test is to fit it on your own body!

Sure models have great bodies for showing off clothes but not even the models look like the models until they have been worked on for hours

Caro and Thistle nailed it. Photos are an illusion, the work of many people to create an image.

Maybe I'm being silly, but I don't really see that big of a disconnect between how the clothes look on models (or on Angie, or anyone else) and how they look on you, iron, or anyone else. I think clothes all look about the same.

Of course, we're not followed around by an expert team of stylists to make sure our hair is billowing just enough in the wind, and that the sun is at the perfect angle!

I find the biggest disconnect in jackets, because sometimes they just don't hang open the way they do in the picture (probably because we dont' walk around with a bunch of pins in the back!)

In a silver lining kind of way, maybe my eBay and discount store shopping saves me from this. Most of what I buy I don't see on a model or mannequin. Usually it's laying flat on a bed or hanging on a hanger smushed between a bunch of other stuff lol. I have no preconceived notions of its fit!

I might be delusional, but I'm regularly amazed at how much better my ylf friends look in an item over how it appears on the model. It's common that someone will post a link to an item they're considering and I think, meh, and then they buy it and wear it and I find myself wanting it.

Janet, that was a great link. C'mon ladies, don't worry about this. You are all amazingly fab, and just wanting to look your best and have fun with fashion is a worthy goal.

I find these feelings help with my compassion training. For instance, when you see a woman wearing something unusual, bold, or strange, just be glad she has some self-esteem intact. Be proud of her. They didn't beat it all out of her yet. Give her some credit for stepping outside the box and just trying something different.

The model vs true fit issue is heightened with on line shopping. A dressing room mirror can be deceptive but a young tall skinny model in a picture is much more so. I think you have to learn to translate the garment to your own body, using your best visualization skills. And even then it's so easy to be wrong.

I understand the desire, I really do. But I'm finding it has less and less of a grip on me as I become more confident in my style and, yes, in my body.

I do get frustrated sometimes, especially when shopping for pants and jeans, but I never expect something to look on me like it does on a model. However, I am sometimes pleasantly surprised that even though something looks *different* on me, that doesn't necessarily equate to *worse*. In fact, sometimes I've actually liked an item better on my body than the model's, and believe me, it's not because I think my body is better, it's just because the cut happens to suit one of us but not the other.

All of this goes back to that conversation some time back of feeling somehow like our bodies are wrong rather than the clothes. It's *always* the clothes that are wrong.

Another thought: models are a type - a tall thin leggy IT, generally. I don't expect clothes to look the same on me as they do on a pretty pear or an hourglass, so why would I expect them to look the same on me as a model? In fact, I can usually look at clothes on a model and tell whether they will suit me as a shorter busty IT.

For instance, I do not expect a Burberry coat to look on me as it does on a model - I had to learn that the hard way. I get what you are saying, but I think it's impossible - sometimes the same item doesn't even look the same on two different models.

http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/eq.....y-personal

I hear you!

And if I understand, then....what Elsa said. How to translate. Better if you are seeing a kind of general appeal since then you are aiming to " evoke" the look. To get the look of jacket A , I might have to buy jacket B. jacket B might not look like it will look like jacket A when on me unless I try it on. Hence the need to experiment and not assume how something will look.

Confused now?

I bet that with a good photograph you would look like one! It's not always about a certain type of body shape!
I know we all look strange in our home made photos, with the wrong light!

LOL! Love the question!

Yes for all the constructive comments, BUT then it's not only about height/weight/shape/age or pins at the back, there is a certain careless but chic posture I can never ever get for myself:-)

What Rute said is so true. I look so much better in professional photos than I do in home shap shots. Now that my DH has a really good camera, I look a lot better in family pics. I'm sure I'd look even better if my photos were airbrushed like they do in the fashion magazines. It would be nice to make people think my face doesn't have any pores, lol.

(Traci, I'm with you. If we are delusional, let's be delusional together. I can't imagine a better place to be.)

ETA: One of the things I love about the forum is seeing real women of all body types, which run the gamut and include "model" body types too, working with real clothing and real clothing issues for their everyday lives. Our posts aren't about a fantasy life and body and clothes, they are about us, which is so much more interesting!

Girl, have you ever seen what the model looks like from the backside? All duct tape and clips. She can't go outside either.

Great link, Janet! It's almost laughable how so many of us know what goes on behind the scenes to create those images but still succumb the illusion of, to use IK's words, "an effortless combination of posture, cut and proportion". We all know that there is nothing effortless in those pictures. Those images are the end product of long hours; talented tailors, stylists and photographers; and a serious dedication to creating and upholding a desired image. It's fun to look at beautiful pictures of food, locations, and fashion, but when illusions become so strong that the reality of eating the food, seeing the scene with my own eyes, or wearing the item in question seems second-best, I get worried. I want to live, and be happy, in the real world--and not spend my time and money chasing a marketing illusion.

I think we all share your frustration. Did you ever read the "WhoWhatWear" books? I thought they had a really terrific idea to try and identify a celebrity "doppelganger" They picked a group of celebrities with totally different body types. Since these women can afford the finest stylists to help them translate current trends onto their different body types, they suggested using them as as a guide make that trend work for a similiar figure. It's not a perfect world since you need to find someone who has a similiar aesthetic as well as body type but I thought that the advice was very astute and it has helped me adapt some ideas to a 5'3" slim rectangle frame.

I agree with everyone on the tailoring comments. I tailor a lot of my clothing, thankfully I know how to sew well enough to do my own. My husband has always had his shirts and work trousers tailored. It's very normal for men to have their work clothes tailored but women expect to wear right off the rack.

I agree with all the bespoke comments.
Growing up in India and even now I have all my Indian clothes custom made : and they fit me perfectly and the clothes look gorgeous on me as opposed to me looking gorgeous in the clothes.
And I take my true religions jeans to my tailor in India as well and with a nip and tuck in the right spot it hitches my butt up just so and makes the loose baggy upper thigh just perfecto.
It really is the only way to 'fit' like a model.

I shudder to think what custom-made clothing would cost here in the States. My mother is no longer around to sew for me. Fortunately, off-the-rack clothing usually fits. The only tailoring I have had to have done involves hemming things up, as I'm quite a stickler about PPL, sleeve length, and shirt length. Even back when my mother made my clothes, most patterns would fit except for length, so the tailoring I now pay to have done is not anything my mother used to do for free. She always remarked about how easy it was to sew for me.

That said, certain brands fit me very well off the rack, as if they were custom made for me, while most brands don't. I always go on safari hunts to pick and choose what works for my body type, personal coloring, and style.
I don't go into a store expecting clothing to fit me. It usually doesn't. Again, it depends on the brand; and even with a certain brand, certain things don't fit. It's a royal pain, but I somehow manage to find well-fitting garments.

I think what most people don't understand (but we YLFers surely do) is that cultivating a wardobe of properly fitting, stylish garments takes a lot of time. Some people don't want to spend the time necessary to look as good as they could. Thank goodness we have Angie to help us! She makes things a lot easier.

This is why I started to try my hand at sewing. I envisioned myself making perfectly fitting Helmut Lang type clothing. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find nice fabric locally. Also, I could never find a pattern for what I wanted & my pattern drafting did not go so well. I agree with the others that I think tailoring is the key.

I've never seen you before but I am willing to bet you look a lot better than the model. Some of those models just look scary. I saw one the other day whose legs terrified me. They were bones wrapped in skin, no muscle. That's not sexy!

Magazines and Pinterest and fashion blogs are great for getting ideas of what we like, but nothing commercial is custom-made for individual body variance in this world. Oftentimes you may need to get your items from the mall altered to fit your body.

If I didn't have to work I would so be taking a sewing class and learning how to make my own fashion tailored precisely for MY BODY!

LOL, I am short and was significantly overweight for most of my life. So I am still just pathetically grateful if the clothes fit and look reasonably good. Looking like the models is so far off my radar it would never even occur to me as a possibility!

Another useful skill to learn is how to know what can be easily altered and what can't. Since my mother was a professional, she taught me all this stuff. This knowledge has kept me from purchasing items that would have been expensive or impossible to alter. Yes, a tailor is great, but there are certain alterations that simply aren't worth doing.

Also, knowing your body type and what styles look best helps minimize buyer's remorse.

While I'm no model, I take comfort knowing that a stick thin model would not look good in my clothes, which are for a more shapely body. Just sayin' I've learned to be thankful for what I have--flaws and all.

About sewing, my mother taught me how. My problem is that I don't have time, and that it's impossible to find good fabric these days. I know I sound like a frustrated little old lady, but the fabric just isn't the quality it used to be. Because of this, I don't think it's cost effective to make my own clothes, particularly when clothing prices have dropped so much in recent years.

It's interesting that so many of you are focusing on the thin part of being a model, when that's not really my issue. For me, it's more looking at a pic like this

http://www.barneyswarehouse.co.....ns-jackets

And knowing that it will never really look like that on my frame. Not because I'm not skinny. But just... because.

So annoying.

I guess for me, I don't understand why one would expect advertising to mirror reality. Whether it's the model wearing the clothes or a Burger King burger on a TV ad looking way more scrumptious than it does when it's handed to you in a cardboard box out the drive thru window. Advertising is not reality. Never was, never will be. Its one purpose is to get you to Buy Their Stuff.

Okay, now I'm not sure I'm understanding you. Is your question "why don't this item look the same on me as it does on the model?" OR "why don't I look like a model in my clothes?"

Or something else? I mean, an item on ME is not going to look the same on you - never mind a model!