One girl took on Topshop for their ‘tiny’ mannequins… and won

Jul 28, 2015

It's not often that retail giants take the feedback of individual customers on board, so we were delighted to hear that Topshop had done just that this week.

Customer Laura Berry issued a complaint via Facebook after seeing a mannequin in her local branch of the clothing store that she felt was a "ridiculous" representation of a normal woman.

"[H]aving been paid yesterday, I decided to spoil myself by purchasing a new pair of my favourite Jamie jeans. However, I was stopped in my tracks by the mannequin in the picture I've shared with this post," she wrote on Topshop's official page earlier this week.

"I'd love to hear how you can justify the ridiculously tiny mannequin in your Bristol Cribbs Causeway store? We come in all shapes and sizes… this mannequin is quite frankly ridiculously shaped. Young women aspire to the somewhat cult image your store offers. Which I'm sure you're aware by your sales figures and hashtags on Instagram. Yet not one mannequin in your store showed anything bigger than a size 6," she added.

Clearly realising that the anger and frustration expressed by Laura was a sign of a bigger problem, Topshop responded within 24 hours to say they would no longer be using the offending mannequins in stores. A response posted as a comment to Laura's original post read, "We have taken yours and other customers’ opinions and feedback on board and going forward we are not placing any further orders on this style of mannequin."

In defence of the mannequin the store said the style was "based on a standard UK size 10" although "the overall height (187cm) is taller than the average girl and the form is stylised to have more impact in store."

Earlier this year a similar image went viral after a size 8/10 woman posed next to a "standard" Topshop mannequin and posted the results on Twitter: