Dressed to fill as shop mannequins go from a size ten to curvy 16

Published on Thursday 18 February 2010 21:53

DESIGNERS have been whispering it for months. Campaigners have been demanding it for years. But now curves really are back in fashion.

Debenhams yesterday became the first mainstream High Street retailer to replace some of its size ten mannequins with ones that actually resemble an average British woman.

The department store chain has put some size 16 dummies in the window of its Oxford flagship outlet – and plans do the same at shops up and down the UK. Timed to coincide with London Fashion Week, the new display shows some of the store's latest designs on the bigger mannequins, complete with signs asking, teasingly, "I'm a size 16, do you want to see more of me?"

The mannequins at Debenhams are currently showing off a new range of clothing called Principles by Ben de Lisi. The firm has made it clear that it sees normal-sized woman as its core market for fashion: it sells 42 per cent of its clothing in sizes 14 and 16.

Debenhams head of creative, Mark Stevens, said: "We are proud to offer a broad and varied choice for women of all ages, shapes and sizes in store. So we thought we should reflect this in our window displays. If it's popular with customers we would love to roll it out."

Most retailers – other than those specialising in fashions for larger women – only show their clothes on size ten mannequins. The average British woman is a size 16 – which caters for vital statistics of 40-33-42. Scottish women tend to be a bit slimmer – despite the nation's reputation for poor diet and obesity. Under a quarter of Scottish women can fit a size ten or below, more than their English, Welsh and Irish cousins. Just under one in five Scottish women, meanwhile, are size 18 or above.

There are more normal-sized women in this week's London Fashion Week as the industry responds to criticism from those campaigning against eating disorders.

Designer Mark Fast caused a sensation by showing off his collection with healthy women sized 12 and 14 at the last London Fashion Week. Supermodel Crystal Renn, meanwhile, has made huge waves in the fashion industry after returning to her natural size – and looking even better for it.

The one-time size eight earlier this week admitted she had starved herself to get a place on the catwalk. Now a 16 and considered – in the language of the fashion industry to be "plus-sized" – the 23-year-old American took a sideswipe at skinny catwalk fodder. "If I wanted to see clothes on a hanger, I would just look in my closet," she said.

Susan Ringwood, of Beat, the charity that campaigns on anorexia and other eating disorders, said: "Showing that beautiful clothes can come in all shapes and sizes sends such a good message.

"Women often feel it is their fault that clothes don't look as good on them as they do in the shop window, and that can be the start of body image problems developing.

"We know that fashion doesn't cause eating disorders, but the ideals it promotes have a powerful effect and we are delighted when that is used in a positive way."

Tory health spokeswoman Mary Scanlon said: "It really is crazy that so many of the mannequins in shops are sized six or eight when most of the customers are size 14 or 16."

Other firms, including Marks and Spencer and the soap brand Dove, have sought to portray "normal" women.