Snag clothes will get 100 complaints a day that fashions are too fats, says boss | EUROtoday

The boss of on-line clothes model Snag has informed the BBC it will get greater than 100 complaints a day that the fashions in its adverts are “too fat”.

Chief government Brigitte Read says fashions of her measurement 4-38 clothes are steadily the goal of “hateful” posts about their weight.

The model was cited in an internet debate over whether or not adverts displaying “unhealthily fat” fashions ought to be banned after a Next advert, during which a mannequin appeared “unhealthily thin”, was banned.

The UK’s promoting watchdog says it has banned advertisements utilizing fashions who seem unhealthily underweight slightly than chubby as a consequence of society’s aspiration in the direction of thinness.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) obtained 61 complaints about fashions’ weight in 2024, with the overwhelming majority being about fashions who seemed to be too skinny.

But it solely had grounds to research eight complaints and none have been about Snag.

Catherine Thom learn the BBC report concerning the Next advert ban and acquired in contact to say she discovered it “hypocritical to ban adverts where models appear too thin for being socially irresponsible, however when models are clearly obese we’re saying it’s body positivity”.

The 36-year-old from Edinburgh was considered one of a number of individuals who contacted the BBC with this view, whereas a Reddit thread had greater than 1,000 feedback with many alongside the identical theme.

Mrs Thom says she was “bombarded with images of obese girls in tights” after shopping for from Snag when she was pregnant.

“I see Snag tights plastering these morbidly obese people all over social media,” she says.

“How is that allowed when the photo of the Next model isn’t? There should be fairness, not politically correct body positivity. Adverts normalising an unhealthy weight, be it obese or severely underweight, are equally as harmful.”

But Snag founder Ms Read says: “Shaming fat people does not help them to lose weight and actually it really impacts mental health and therefore their physical health.”

She thinks the thought of banning adverts displaying fashions with greater our bodies is a symptom of society’s “fat phobia”.

Of her 100 workers, 12 are devoted “just to remove negative comments and big up those promoting body positivity”.

“Fat people exist, they’re equally as valid as thin people, they buy clothes and they need to see what they look like on people that look like them,” she says.

“You are not worth less the bigger you are. Models of all sizes, shapes, ethnicities and abilities are valid and should be represented.”

Sophie Scott is a 27-year-old salon proprietor from Lossiemouth in Scotland who has modelled for Snag, and obtained constructive and unfavorable feedback about her measurement on social media.

“I get either ‘you’re so beautiful’ or ‘you need to lose weight’. When I started modelling I was a size 30. Having lost weight since then I’m still on the receiving end of hate comments because it will never be enough for some people.”

Sophie is used to on-line feedback telling her she is “unhealthy”, however says, “fitness is not measured by the way you look. They are making assumptions, they don’t know me or my activity levels.

“People say ‘you are glorifying weight problems’ however I do not assume anybody is me and saying ‘I need to appear to be that’. Perhaps some persons are me and saying ‘she has the same physique sort to me’.

“When I get a message from someone saying ‘we are the same size and you’ve inspired me to wear what I want’, it takes away from every hate comment I get.

“If I’ve helped one individual settle for their physique then the hate feedback do not actually trouble me.”

Fashion journalist Victoria Moss believes the “miserable” debate shows society is not used to seeing bigger bodies in advertising campaigns.

“You’d be fairly exhausting pushed to seek out real plus-size fashions on retailers’ web sites as a result of even a mid-size is a ten/12 and plus is 14/16 which is definitely across the common measurement for a girl within the UK,” she says.

“The challenge with adverts displaying very small or very massive fashions is the context and the provocation. We know folks with consuming problems hunt down pictures of very skinny folks as ‘thinspiration’. But if anybody sees an image of an even bigger individual they don’t seem to be going to drive to purchase 10 McDonald’s to attempt to get fatter.”

Jess Tye at the ASA told the BBC the watchdog gets about 35,000 complaints a year about all advertising, and in 2024 received 61 complaints about 52 adverts relating to the model’s weight.

She says an advert will be investigated if it could be seen to be encouraging people to aspire to an unhealthy body weight. Adverts simply promoting body confidence and using a model who is relevant to the product’s size range would not be investigated.

“It’s to do with the broader societal context. We know within the UK at the moment society tends to view thinness as aspirational and that is not the case for being chubby.”