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Recently, fashion aficionados realized that there’s something very odd when you scroll through Zara online shop. It’s not the clothes per se that look out of this world but rather the posing which is unlike anything shoppers have seen before.

And when we are talking odd, we really mean it. Like, a model standing on a stove with her eyes set onto the abyss of the kitchen, or like, another model curling in a ball, making sure the beige coat swallows her entirely. Both hilarious and oddly wonderful, the Zara awkwardness became somewhat of a social media hit with entire pages dedicated to collecting and making fun at the weirdest Zara pics out there.

Awkward Zara” is one of these insanely popular accounts with 40.4k followers that set on a mission to “round up all of the questionable Zara images out there.” So let’s see what the fashion detectives have dug up, and I can promise, it’s gonna get funny. Psst! After you’re done, don’t forget to check out our previous post with the weirdest Zara poses.

#1

When The Twenty Minute Wait For The Cloakroom At The End Of The Night Did Absolutely Nothing To Sober You Up

When The Twenty Minute Wait For The Cloakroom At The End Of The Night Did Absolutely Nothing To Sober You Up

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Daria B
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Plot twist. She will turn her head 180 degrees to look you straight in the eye and steal your soul while making a sudden loud noise.

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#2

Zara Models Really Know How To Sell An Outfit

Zara Models Really Know How To Sell An Outfit

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To find out more about the Awkward Zara Instagram account, which collects some of the weirdest Zara pictures and shares it to its fanbase of 40.6k followers, Bored Panda reached out to its creator. The 27-year old from the UK, who works in marketing industry, told us that they haven’t ever really released their identity on the page “because the page is all about the awkward poses/products/website quirks, not about me.”

#3

When Yesterday Was Arm Day At The Gym And Now You Can’t Lift Anything Over Your Head

When Yesterday Was Arm Day At The Gym And Now You Can’t Lift Anything Over Your Head

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The author told us that the project started off as an escalation of a funny WhatsApp conversation they had with two of their friends during lockdown in 2020. “We were sending each other screenshots from the Zara website of models doing bizarre poses and asking ourselves what on earth was going on.”

“Models 6 ft up teetering on bookshelves, crouched on top of the cooker, half-submerged in a swimming pool… I’m quite an impulsive person and I knew there was a gap for a dedicated Instagram parody page, so within minutes, I had set up the handle and started cataloguing some of the weirdest poses I could find,” the author recounted.

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#4

When You’re 12 Champagnes Deep And The Wedding Venue Happens To Have A Pond 🦆

When You’re 12 Champagnes Deep And The Wedding Venue Happens To Have A Pond 🦆

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#5

When You Feel A Fart Brewing During Zoom Pilates And You’re Desperately Trying To Check You’re Still On Mute 🙃

When You Feel A Fart Brewing During Zoom Pilates And You’re Desperately Trying To Check You’re Still On Mute 🙃

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Justin G
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is ridiculous ... how are people supposed to know what the dress looks like???

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#6

When You Volunteered To Stack The Chairs After Assembly But Your Teacher Is Refusing To Give You A Gold Star For All Your Hard Labour

When You Volunteered To Stack The Chairs After Assembly But Your Teacher Is Refusing To Give You A Gold Star For All Your Hard Labour

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Lisa Yario
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Is this a real person?? Never mind the pose, look at those legs. How does she walk?

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Fluffy Griffin
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Question: are they selling A: boots, B: mini dress, C: chairs, or D: Deluxe fur overcoat

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Duchess Raven Waves
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lol she is looking directly at the person forcing her to do this. And she hates them so much that I'm a little afraid lmao

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Michelle C
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When you have a clothing line but can't tell your amateur photographer boyfriend "NO"

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Znaya
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Praying that you don't fall and embarrass yourself 😀

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Deal _Anneal
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I could imagine her mind going "DON'T FALL OFF, DON'T FALL OFF, DON'T FALL OFF!" (>人<;)

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Antonia Schofield
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't know what she's thinking but I'm sure she's just as confused as I am

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Dragon girl
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She's thinking she is hungry but fears that a cracker and a teaspoon of water is too fattening.

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Vicky Z
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If she is selling the boots it's ok you can clearly see them

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But the captions at Awkward Zara are as funny as the images themselves. “It’s just so inexplicable and impossible to fathom that I thought they required an alternative caption with a parody explanation or imaginary scenario behind the pose, hence why each image is accompanied by a caption which is (hopefully) humorous and relatable.”

At first, it was just friends who followed, but within a couple of months, the page had blown up and been featured in the Sunday Times’ Style Magazine, The Independent, Sheerluxe, ‘At Home With…’

When asked what they think of these bizarre poses, the author of Awkward Zara believes that the brand is trying to set itself aside from its high-street counterparts and elevate the brand to a higher level. “It leads to them shooting less catalogue/commercial type shots, and adopting a much more editorial style more natural to designer brands or the pages of Vogue.”

“They obviously have some pretty inspired and ambitious minds running the shoots, and they have huge budgets—it’s not unusual for them to bring in huge names such as Anja Rubik and Palomija to model £20 stretch jersey dresses.”

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#7

When You Turn Your Back On A Toddler For Approximately Five Seconds

When You Turn Your Back On A Toddler For Approximately Five Seconds

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#8

When The Person Behind You In The Queue Doesn’t Know What 2m Looks Like So You’ve Got To Enforce It Yourself

When The Person Behind You In The Queue Doesn’t Know What 2m Looks Like So You’ve Got To Enforce It Yourself

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Rowlie
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And a Second later she punched the photographer in the face

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#9

When You’ve Just Spilled An Entire Mug Of Coffee On The New Beige Carpet And Your Mum Wanders Into The Room

When You’ve Just Spilled An Entire Mug Of Coffee On The New Beige Carpet And Your Mum Wanders Into The Room

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Moreover, according to the Instagrammer, “awkward poses and unusual styling/staging naturally sparks conversations—they traditionally have never really engaged with influencer marketing or paid social (this is starting to slowly change though as Inditex shifts their focus on digital growth), so to an extent, it’s really free marketing for them when people share the poses on TikTok, Instagram, and elsewhere.”

Having said that, the author of Awkward Zara believes that the products speak for themselves. “Zara has such a cult following of loyal customers who are unlikely to be put off by awkward poses. Just look at how many influencers do Zara haul videos, etc. without ever being given anything from the brand!”

The issue with the weird poses is when there aren’t alternative product shots available, they said. “For example, when all of the product shots are either exclusively shot on models doing awkward poses, shot in B&W, or not shown on a model at all—that makes online shopping, which has been the only way for many people to shop during the pandemic, really difficult, and many people will give up trying to decode the mystery of what a piece of clothing might look like in real life and just abandon it altogether.”

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#10

When The Conference Venue Has A Pool And You’ve Had Enough Of Listening To Steve From Corporate Drone On About Falling Sales Margins

When The Conference Venue Has A Pool And You’ve Had Enough Of Listening To Steve From Corporate Drone On About Falling Sales Margins

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#11

When Your Brother Brings His New Vegan Girlfriend Along To The Family Christmas Gathering

When Your Brother Brings His New Vegan Girlfriend Along To The Family Christmas Gathering

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#12

When Your Roll-On Deodorant Is Taking Ages To Dry And You’ve Got Places To Be

When Your Roll-On Deodorant Is Taking Ages To Dry And You’ve Got Places To Be

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Moreover, Zara seems to be expanding a lot of resources on cultivating their image and increasing digital sales, but the website has still to catch up. “I think quite a lot of people find it difficult and counterintuitive to use; Awkward Zara gets a lot of people venting in the DMs about how they’re getting pretty fed up with the website,” the creator said.

The reactions to Awkward Zara are really positive, assured its author as “there are a lot of funny interactions in the DMs as followers love to share their frustrations about how difficult the website can be, how weird some of the items are (hello shopping trolleys and arm warmers!), and they also regularly send in strange things which they’ve spotted on their Zara adventures.”

#13

When Forgetting Your Towel And Having To Sit On The Sand Means Ending Up With Half The Sodding Beach Down Your Pants

When Forgetting Your Towel And Having To Sit On The Sand Means Ending Up With Half The Sodding Beach Down Your Pants

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#15

When You Leave Your Toddler To Get Dressed All By Themselves And Discover They’re Not As Advanced For Their Age As You Previously Thought

When You Leave Your Toddler To Get Dressed All By Themselves And Discover They’re Not As Advanced For Their Age As You Previously Thought

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Turns out, it’s a really engaged community, and people love putting their reactions in the comments or tagging their friends because they can relate. Simultaneously, the author knows that’s when they’ve come up with a good caption.“

Aside from the humor, I have also had some more serious conversations with followers about diversity, cultural appropriation, the consumer experience, the fashion industry as a place to work, and much more, so it has become a really supportive space where people can share their frustrations, observations, and funny anecdotes.”

#16

Cambridge Students Dialling Into Their Online-Only Classes Next Year 📚

Cambridge Students Dialling Into Their Online-Only Classes Next Year 📚

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#17

When Your Head Is Saying You Should Queue For The Club But Your Leg Just Wants To Get A Mcchicken Sandwich And Go Home

When Your Head Is Saying You Should Queue For The Club But Your Leg Just Wants To Get A Mcchicken Sandwich And Go Home

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#18

Trying To Work Out Which Shopping Bag Is The Least Heavy Before You Offer To Carry One Into The House For Your Mum

Trying To Work Out Which Shopping Bag Is The Least Heavy Before You Offer To Carry One Into The House For Your Mum

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#19

When Your Housemates Refuse To Turn The Heating On And It’s Been Five Days Since You Last Felt Your Toes

When Your Housemates Refuse To Turn The Heating On And It’s Been Five Days Since You Last Felt Your Toes

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#20

When You Try To Follow A Makeup Tutorial On Youtube

When You Try To Follow A Makeup Tutorial On Youtube

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#21

New Extreme Sport: Keeping Your Expensive Makeup Collection Out Of The Reach Of Your Thieving Little Sister

New Extreme Sport: Keeping Your Expensive Makeup Collection Out Of The Reach Of Your Thieving Little Sister

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#22

Me Making It Rain On Payday vs. Me The Rest Of The Month

Me Making It Rain On Payday vs. Me The Rest Of The Month

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#23

When You Spot Someone You Know From High School In Your Hometown Tesco’s

When You Spot Someone You Know From High School In Your Hometown Tesco’s

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#24

When The Public Toilets Look Like They’ve Never Been Introduced To The Wonders Of Bleach So You Have To Levitate Above The Seat While Doing Your Business

When The Public Toilets Look Like They’ve Never Been Introduced To The Wonders Of Bleach So You Have To Levitate Above The Seat While Doing Your Business

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#25

Trying To Stretch Out All The Trousers You Swear Have “Shrunk In The Wash” Since The Start Of Lockdown

Trying To Stretch Out All The Trousers You Swear Have “Shrunk In The Wash” Since The Start Of Lockdown

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#26

When You’ve Got To Win A Game Of Twister At 10 But The Wedding You’re Officiating At Starts At 11

When You’ve Got To Win A Game Of Twister At 10 But The Wedding You’re Officiating At Starts At 11

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#27

When You’ve Had Way Too Many Margaritas At Happy Hour And Need To Sit Yourself Down To Sober Up

When You’ve Had Way Too Many Margaritas At Happy Hour And Need To Sit Yourself Down To Sober Up

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#28

Day 1 Of The Job vs. Day 3 Of The Job When You’re Done Pretending You Care About Seeing Photos Of Tracy From Finance’s Cats

Day 1 Of The Job vs. Day 3 Of The Job When You’re Done Pretending You Care About Seeing Photos Of Tracy From Finance’s Cats

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#29

When You’re Walking The Fine Line Between Binge Watching Selling Sunset During Working Hours And Not Getting Fired From Your Job

When You’re Walking The Fine Line Between Binge Watching Selling Sunset During Working Hours And Not Getting Fired From Your Job

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#30

When The Hen Do Has A Hot Tub But Your Mission To Get Quaran-Toned In 2020 Went Out The Window Back In June

When The Hen Do Has A Hot Tub But Your Mission To Get Quaran-Toned In 2020 Went Out The Window Back In June

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Viviane
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What to wear to stay warm in the hot tub... Why does that sound redundant?

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Note: this post originally had 111 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.