Comments on: Deskilling Modeling: H&M’s “Virtual Mannequins”

By: Miss Tand

Miss Tand — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:36:00 +0000

This is the best website i discovered the last 2 years! Thanks for this!

By: Erin Mulhern

Erin Mulhern — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:47:00 +0000

DO IT! I’ll do it too!

By: eeka

eeka — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:00:00 +0000

Damn you. Now I’m wanting to photoshop a viola into some sexy clothing instead of doing my work.

By: eeka

eeka — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:58:00 +0000

I agree with what you’re saying at the beginning, but I think the point here is that these are actual photos of people’s heads pasted onto CGI images. It seems MORE objectifying, because now the actual model really is only a pretty face, and they aren’t using her for the acting part of modeling in which she poses in certain ways to communicate a certain attitude that enhances the intended style of the outfit.

(FWIW, I have all the usual reservations around the modeling industry, but I do also recognize that they’re usually doing some amount of acting and aren’t just entirely mannequins.)

By: eeka

eeka — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:54:00 +0000

Yeah, there are websites that do a “virtual me” thing for trying on clothes, but it doesn’t have an actual photo of a head pasted on it.

By: Yrro Simyarin

Yrro Simyarin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:02:00 +0000

The technology you describe sounds really cool, and I would love to see it. I can actually think of a couple different ways to implement it, although simulating it to the point where you could see “fit” rather than just “does this color combination go with my eyes” would be fairly challenging.

However, what is shown in the pictures above is nothing like that. It’s just a picture of a model that they paid an artist to cut and paste a head onto, and then touch up until it looked nice.

You could automate *that* with your own head (or perhaps choosing the most similar model), but it would *look* copy and pasted, and you’d have to take separate pictures of a model in each size sold to still get a good facsimile of what it would look like on “you” (and even then, there’s a lot of variance)…

I guess what I’m saying is that Coilhouse’s post sounds like a great idea, and I’m actually slightly tempted to play around with writing something to do it… but it’s nothing like what is shown here, really.

By: Jugger

Jugger — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 15:25:00 +0000

I’ve been coming to this website for about three months now and there is one thing I’m certain of: the phrase “unrealistic body expectations” can be shoehorned into every article. It’s used in such an ad-nauseum fashion that it’s becoming banal and losing it’s power. Rather than spending so much time attacking advertising agencies for selling a culturally-perceived ideal (that is their job, ya know), why not use that energy to educate the masses on what the word “expectations” means, and how it should be properly applied (without trying to make yourself out to be a victim).

And since I’m finally commenting, let me add…

I understand the point of coming together and meditating on social issues. I think the purpose of websites such as this is to aid in the creation of ideologies that provide a framework upon which a better world can be built – regardless of your race, religion, or culture.

However, perhaps it’s the pragmatist in me that finds half of SocImages articles to be unhelpful, narcissistic, victimism. Furthermore, I increasingly feel that if SocImages got its wish, and got to be king for a day, and got to implement its collective ideology on the world… that world would suck sooooo bad. It would actually be worse than the one we live in.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:18:00 +0000

She’s wearing an age-appropriate outfit and being picked up by her father, who is a figure who is supposed to love and cherish her. It looks like the father daughter dance traditional at weddings, and not unlike how many fathers, including my own, treat their young daughters. If that was implied to be a mother snuggling her child, it wouldn’t be assumed to be sexual. I am sad to be in a world where my wonderful relationship with my father needs to be invalidated because a father showing any affection, no matter how benign and familial, is taken as a normalization of child abuse.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:12:00 +0000

Interesting. I know a few beauty websites do this for hair and makeup, though I guess it’s easier because only faces need to be generated (though they generally still suck at inclusiveness re; hair texture, hair length, and skin tone). I do feel I’d be more likely to shop online were this technology implemented.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:34:00 +0000

It would be awesome if you narrowed clothes by size and the models changed, and you could pick hair color and skin tone to match yours. Or if you could upload your own mug.

I shop a lot online and would find this a boon.

By: Blix

Blix — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:42:00 +0000

Maybe we should just start making our own fabrics and sew them. Or just don’t look at catalogues.

By: Erin Mulhern

Erin Mulhern — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:12:00 +0000

Voila…not viola. Violas are a completely different matter. Though, now that I think of it, why not add violas to the Photoshopping? Think of the endless possibilities!

By: Erin Mulhern

Erin Mulhern — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:11:00 +0000

I think that this could become a highly profitable comedy routine. Just start Photoshopping different parts of different people onto mannequins and viola! Not only does it subvert the beauty myth, but it is amusing as well. It could be an interactive game or something.

By: Lunad

Lunad — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:50:00 +0000

I think that the general problem people are having with the images is that it goes beyond photoshopping: every piece of clothing is on a model with the exact same pose, without even the slightest difference in body. If the faces were blank, or all the same, I don’t think there would be as much outcry, but the fact that there are different faces and skin tones pushes the idea that “lots of people look exactly like this, why don’t you?” Even if that is not what was intended, and people consciously think “that’s just a mannequin, I shouldn’t be held up to that ideal” subconsciously it makes a difference, especially with impressionable tweens. Just look at the impact animated characters have in Asia, even though everyone knows that they are animated?

By: karo

karo — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:43:00 +0000

http://jayebirdproductions.com/daddyido.html