What do you think of fake models? - YouLookFab Forum

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What do you think of fake models?

krishnidoux

Veteran

H&M uses generated female '' perfect bodies'' (or their idea of it, anyway) to display its products online and then pastes real women's heads on them.
http://jezebel.com/5865114/hm-.....ake-bodies

In Montreal's paper I read about this girl who tried to complain to the company and posted her attempts on youtube. It's in French, but you don't need to speak it to get how it was handled:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v....._embedded#!

I think this is terrible! Aside from being dehumanizing, from communicating a very wrong message to young women, it doesn't help my shopping as a consumer. How can I know how a product looks if it is displayed on a body that doesn't exist? I know this is what already happens with mannequins but at least in the store I can physically see, touch, try on the item. On the computer, I am left with guessing: with virtual bodies, I only get a fraction of the visual of the product.

I'm curious: what do you think?

Shopping

14 replies

Latest reply was from Abi

Queen Mum

Veteran

It makes me think of the movie where people had fake robots of themselves walking around town... LOL What was that movie?

I think if they aren't going to use real models, they need to show them on mannequins like Anthropologie does. It is no help at all to see a garment on a CG body.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I don't shop at H&M much, but as a general rule, I'd be way more likely to order/try a garment modeled on a real person's body, even if that body doesn't resemble mine. Not that any model I've ever seen resembles my middle-aged self!

I know that everything can be manipulated in product photos -- from the model to the drape, color, etc. of a garment. I suppose they're going for a slightly more human touch than the old method of showing something on a mannequin, but to me, there's something a little unsettling about the real/fake hybrid.

Hmm, maybe among younger customers, who are more into the world of video games and virtual reality, and therefore potentially less bothered by the "fakeness," this is an effective technique.

Irene

Veteran

Honestly, I don't feel that worried about it. I know it's fake, but it's not like the real models look like me, anyway. Hey, not even you guys look like me! Yesterday I tried on a dress, it looked super awful and long and just unflattering on me, to the point that I asked myself who on Earth would be able to wear that with dignity. Two hours later, I find that dress on a fashion website, where a normal girl, not a model -yet waaay taller and thinner than me- us wearing that same dress. Guess what? She looked amazing.

http://es.trendtation.com/Pers.....nd_lefties

Honestly, I think clothes look worse on regular mannequins because they are normally white and they don't suit the clothes. They don't look human. But regarding the so called 'perfect body'... I do think it's unfair, and it makes me sad that the skinny look is so popular among girls who are not naturally thin, and how this pressures them into unhealthy lifestyles, but I wouldn't be able to know how a dress would look like on me if any of you were modeling it either, so in terms of practicality, I don't see much difference.

Also, the so called perfect body exists. Not many women have them, mind you, but I've seen totally fit models in person and they are like that. They have flat stomachs, and beautiful curves and perfect bottoms without cellulite. I think it's a matter of genetics, more than anything else. I've had cellulite since the age of fourteen, and have unhealthy friends who eat whatever they like, don't exercise and wear tight clothes and their butts look perfect. Oh well, guess there are things more important than that.

Diana

Veteran

I think it's taking the already dysmorphic fashion industry standards one step too far, although honestly I mostly just think it's weird and ridiculous and have not gotten really offended or anything. Models are already chosen, particularly in high fashion settings, to have "coat hanger' bodies, so it's not like real models necessarily represent an unbiased sample of the population either. I think it's nice to see a model shaped like me, but I don't expect it. I do think the implied element of deception is a little worrying though - I probably am more likely to buy something that appears to be modeled by a real person rather than a mannequin. I haven't looked very closely at the H&M images though, so I can't say whether the CG images are convincingly real.

Honestly, I think that the reason for the H&M fake models is not to make people feel bad about their real bodies or anything, but simply for the sake of saving money. It's got to be a lot easier to just photograph clothes on a mannequin and then add the "bodies" digitally rather than hiring, dressing, and photographing a model in hundreds of outfits.

I also suspect that this practice will become more common as we get more and more digital, and that one day nobody will bat an eyelash. I guess (questions of ethicality aside) if the fake body was convincingly real looking enough it would be just as functional as a real body in modeling and selling clothes.

Di

(website)

Veteran

You know, I'm OK with either mannequins or models, but I'm kind of disgusted at the deceit involved in blending the two.

Although I'm not sure why, now that I think about photoshopping.

*sigh*

I wish we were all more comfortable with imperfection. Or "imprefection," as I started to type it.

Patty

Veteran

Even real models or manikins have bull dog clips running down the their backs~even they aren't the perfect bodies. There goes some modeling gigs!!
If the shots are to highlight the clothes ok--it is the company's loss tho if they don't represent on different size people really. That should be just as easy to create as the perfect body rep if done digitally--making different size models digitally should be easier and cheaper than having real models with the entourage art department and sets and studios--so show them too just like they would different colour garments. Maybe there will be a day when a clothes company site will have the buttons to tailor the models--size, height, skin colour--that'd be helpful and no doubt coming. Doesn't help us now tho hahahah.
I am in awe tho of you women who can see beyond the model/manikins and know what suits you.

ironkurtin

Veteran

It's all fantasy, so it doesn't really affect me one way or another.

Suz

(website)

Veteran

It saddens me to think that my twelve year old daughter will be navigating this territory very soon, trying to imagine what might suit her and perhaps berating herself because an item doesn't look as good on her as on the model, when in fact that model isn't even real! It was bad enough when we had to compare ourselves to real models and now photoshopped models.

I guess it will simply be necessary to teach her the critical skills to recognize what is going on.

For myself, it will make me very suspicious. Because if you are generating the "body" that wears the clothes ex-post-facto, then you don't have to be as particular about the cut of those clothes. You can always make sure it looks good digitally. So I would expect, over time, to see further declines in fit. Not a good thing!

I think those of us who care about fit will just have to become more and more analytic, looking for measurements of the clothing and paying next to no attention to the photos at all!

JennyAnne

(website)

Veteran

My annoyance is that they "paint" the clothes on. I'm not sure how this works, but I really hope it's an accurrate representation of how the clothes fit on a person. I like the websites that show a little video of a model walking in a garment.

krishnidoux

Veteran

@QM: I don't know that movie but am interested of knowing the title too. And you have a point: why not show it on a mannequin, simply?

@Janet: If a younger video-game playing crowd doesn't mind, it is scary. Because it dissociates the idea of your body from the experience of your body even more.

@ Airin: that dress is super difficult to wear! It's too short, and the print is difficult.
About the so-called perfect body: what exactly is it? It is what we are made to believe it is, so that's why I think using CG bodies is treacherous because it teaches us what we should strive to look like. And there is only ONE prototype!

@ Diana: you have a point, models are already an unnatural representation of the body. But at least they are alive! I agree with you, if the bodies were more diverse, and closer to women's bodies in general, it wouldn't be so bad.

@ Di: Well said. And typed.

@ Patty: Love your idea! Yes: click your measurements and get the picture. Then I'd shop online all the time.

@ Suz: or get to know your tailor more! Maybe that is where we are heading.

@ JennyAnne: that is precisely my difficulty as well.

rae

(website)

Veteran

This was my two cents in one of the other H&M threads:
"… we are doing this to show off the garments.”

PFFT! Your logic is not like our earth logic. Behold, H&M:

Statement 1: a "garment" = a product with the function of covering and flattering a human body.

Statement 2: "showing off" an item = demonstrating its functions and qualities.

If 1 and 2 hold true, then "showing off" a "garment" = demonstrating how the garment covers and flatters a human body.

Therefore, a garment cannot be shown off on an inhuman body. If the product CAN be adequately "shown off" on an inanimate object, then it is not, in fact a "garment."

ironkurtin

Veteran

The movie you're thinking of is Surrogates and it starred Bruce Willis. It's also a very good graphic novel (the source material), although the GN is a bit darker.

Sylvie

Veteran

I question there being a "perfect body". We know that bodies come in many different shapes and sizes. The shape of the ideal body has varied over time and by culture. Right now, the "ideal body" is a body type that only a very very small fraction of the population can attain.

I don't care if clothes are shown on people or mannequins or photoshopped mannequins and labeled as "art". I can understand how it's a form of artistic advertising that can maximize brand awareness. But if you're trying to sell me, the ordinary women who doesn't fit the current perfect body standard, your clothes, "art" isn't the right way to go about it.

Get three models with different body shapes and preferably different skin/hair colors. Put the same garment on all three of them. Take photos and put them in your online look book.

That's probably the most effective thing an advertiser could do to help us figure out if the garments are likely to fit our individual bodies.

Abi

This is awful on a lot lof levels, especially making young people thing that now even models arn't good enough. It also makes me think the clothes won't fit a person like they do in the picture because they have been photoshopped on.

Even if it is cheaper to dress a manniquin (sp?) trying to pass it off as a real person is deceptive. Because lets face it they are made of plastic so don't have curves to dress. Elastic etc will cut into curves but not into plasic so it will look different on a person.

And if its such a cost saving to not use a human why can't they show a picture of each size on a corresponding manniquin, then we could make assumptions about the fit, size, shape etc ofeach size not just the tiny sizes.