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In light of recent visual merchandise choices the fast fashion clothing brand made, some issues need to be addressed perhaps in a better manner than that of Misguided.
The latest upcoming trend in Visual merchandising primarily focuses on mannequins and displays featuring a wider range of sizes and products evidently showing inclusiveness diversity, traits which are now fundamental in the makeup of a brand. Other smaller independent labels such as Swiss brand Pro Infirmis have even gone as far as seeking out mannequins which feature people with bodily limitations, now this is something the consumer can evidently relate to and is a kind gesture towards all types of people. Misguided felt the need to jump onto this eroding trend is VM and decided to feature : Mnnequins of different skin tones in an attempt to feature diversity and inclusiveness. Now heres where this all took a wrong turn; Mannequins are there for the sole purpose of giving the consumer an idea of what the garment or product looks like on the body ( not just the ideal body but also a realistic one, hence why mannequins are now made in a wider range of sizes.) Misguided are already notorious for their infamously bad styled displays however to top it off, the already budget friendly looking mannequins now come in 3 different shades of brown and one with the rare skin condition of Vitiligo! Ofcourse although they made some evident changes in their approach to VM in order to be more inclusive, they kept all mannequins at a size 0! And not to mention the wigs and makeup which actually renders these mannequins eerie, cheap and distasteful, kind of what you expect to see if in Poundland if they started making life sized sex dolls.
But worry not! atleast you know what that crepé blouse looks like on a 6 foot tall size 0 A-cup girl with vitiligo! because at the end of the day the customer obviously doesn't want to know that that blouse will actually work for their body type, they would rather see it against a rather scary looking doll with in a darker skin tone; Not the case at all. Although the brand may have meant well through the campaign, it all read across terribly wrong and missed the target by miles. Somebody on the inside will hopefully pick up on this soon, and if not it just sets an example for other brands as what not to do if you're planning on launching a marketing campaign around inclusivity.