Zara Shoppers Are Saying It’s Impossible To Shop Online Due To Weird Modeling Poses, Share Screenshots To Prove Their Point
Working that pitch-perfect shot is all about striking a pose. But one fashion giant seems to have taken this idea a little too literally.
Known as a serial offender in weird and controversial fashion choices (read about it in our previous article), the Spanish clothing retailer Zara is leaving everyone baffled again. When someone pointed out how weirdly their models are posing, shoppers started wondering what the heck these girls are doing. From a woman crouching on a stove to another levitating in the air like Spiderman, it seems like someone was tryin’ a tiny bit too hard. Whether Zara seeks to attract a niche customer or is playing it "too cool for school" remains largely a mystery.
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The fashion giant Zara is a part of the Inditex Group, which in 2019 reported a sales growth of 7%, setting new records for revenues, profits, and cash. Inditex’s portfolio includes other successful fashion brands like Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, and more. However, Zara stands out as a particular leader in the pack. It was ranked 29th on global brand consultancy Interbrand’s list of best global brands and surpassed the Swedish giant H&M.
The secret to Zara’s success has to do with its strategy to go hand in hand with rapidly changing fashion trends with virtually no delay. According to Who What Wear, one thing Zara will never do is produce or design the same garment twice. When the product sells out, it’s never going to be remade in the exact same fashion. However, you can spot the same materials, patterns, and decors drifting from season to season, one collection to another.
Zara releases new products about twice a week, which makes it always appealing to returning customers. But imagine how the photo studios are hustling to create the shoots you see on the site. Yes, those odd ones too.
Fashion editor Lauren Eggertsen, who visited Zara’s headquarters to learn how it functions, said that “there are 15 studio sets where all the magic happens, and each of them is accompanied by its own team (photographer, stylist, etc.).” There are many different stylists working to create the fresh and innovative looks to sell on Zara’s website. That’s why the styling never looks the same even if the image features the product.
After one too many days of social distancing, Amelia finally gave a big proverbial "screw you" to the world and turned into a cat.
That is not dotted, mesh, OR a playsuit. And there are no ruffles...
I'm soooo relaxed up here in my executive looking trouser suit. Buy me!
I’m pretty sure it’s the same model that was standing on the stove, so I will agree 100%.
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Not a fan of Zara and yes, it's a bit rediculous. But let's be honest, it's a cool pose
wow i actually like that one. its cool and relatable because i have tall library shelves and i climb them a lot.
I actually really love this pic!! But, yeah, it would be good to see a normal photo to see how the suit actually falls.
Why do they put books backward? Joanna gaines does it too.
Lunacy .. wear Zara and lose your mind and do pointless uncomfortable weird shit
Zara's site is a scroll format so the dotted meshplaysuit with ruffles would have been the previous item
The dumpster shot. That's where these clothes go after 2 or 3 washes
The arm on this coat looks really narrow. She probably couldn't get her bone stick thin arms into it properly.
I just learned that I was wearing a coat wrong my entire life...
When I was a teenager in the late 80s, early 90s, I would wear my coat regularly, but let it slip down to my elbows and that bothered my father to no end. I wonder what he would have thought had I worn it like this.
Oh yeah, I forgot that people used to do that. They also would refuse to do it up in the winter because it didn't look cool. So weird.
Full Name, it was a thing, but I didn't take it that far. I used the coat when cold and wore it around my elbows when I got hot, like in a store.
Zara's marketing department wanted to get attention to the brand. They succeeded.
Yep. Gone viral. Now they can add real pictures again. Could you imagine the meeting where they dreamt up this concept?
Or just an attempt to disguise how unflattering the design is or how cheap the materials are.
I dunno if that worked. It made me never want to look at their site.
Still not buying their products though. But many will :)
Its not bad. But its not good either like so many things \_(•-•)__/
I didn't see a brand on any of those women. A few tattoos, but no brands!
Seriously dude, are you a bot? All your comments make you sound like one 🙄
So who buys these if they can't see what they really look like worn normally?
The whole point of catalog modeling is to show people who aren’t in a store what the outfit looks like, front and back, so they can get an idea of its cut and shape. Either Zara hired a photographer who’s a frustrated artist, or their clothes are so cheap and badly made they need to hide as much of them as they can in order to sell them. Caveat Emptorium. Take heed, people. They’re trying to sell you a pig in a poke.
I'm betting on "cheap and badly made".
Cheap but not inexpensive...
I have never shopped at Zara. And, after this pretentious attempt at being cool and ahead of the curve, I doubt that I ever will. Not that Zara cares about my opinion, of course.
I attempted to a few times, but the quality is extremely poor.
Women, don't buy these clothes. Doing so makes us all look like gullible idiots.
Well, maybe they've finally realized that cheap knockoff clothes made by slave labour in Asia that are all fake fibers that will live in landfills for eternity are a Bad Thing and they're trying to go out of business and save the planet.
@CorgiGirl, you do realize that there are a whole whack of choices in between Zara and Prada, right?
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Oh please do go ahead and buy Prada.. sounds like you can afford that
Do you work for Zara or something?
This seems pretty normal to me. I mean what kind of weirdos don't try on new clothes on top of the stove?
I prefer to crawl into the oven to get a bit more privacy.
Also, Zara hates fat people. Their clothes as tiny,
I've never shopped there. And I never will, after seeing this stupid attempt at marketing.
The problem with Zara is when you get to the clothes up close and see the quality which is very poor. The stitching and sewing are always horrible. And don’t even get me started on the cheap fabrics they use. For the prices they ask, they need to do much better quality work.
I couldn't find nice thing in Zara like never. It's always something wrong with cutting or material or sewing or all the above mentioned.
What is it with so many of them wearing the stuff backwards?
Proving that most models can't dress themselves? I got nothing.
Asking for different, original or artistic to models and photografers that aren't artists at all. Artists have real bodies so they had to choose. Also, they should know that we only want to see what they are wearing. Just stand up, front and back, without poses neither facial expressions. We are there to see if we shop a new trouser. To other things I'd go to an art gallery or a theatre.
Despicable company. Holocaust shirts for children. Swastika design on handbags. They know exactly what they're doing. Melania Trump knew exactly what message she was sending with her Zara coat.
It wasn't Zara. It was Zadig and Voltaire.
Go home, Zara.. you are drunk!
They got a ton of free advertising from people sharing the crazy pictures with friends.
If COVID-19 has thought us anything is that we actually need less of all this junk and clutter. People are addicted to consuming shit we don't need that much...
It looks like they're trying to be edgy, but coming off as incompetent.
This has been driving me crazy for ages. I thought it was just me! Shopping online with Zara is infuriating because I can't see what the clothes actually look like. I just want to see the clothes! I end up closing my browser out of frustration.
But also in many more brands: long hair that catches most part of a t-shirt or arms catching the other part. They aren't arty, nor beautiful, nor charming, nor a good image to women, nor USEFULL.
Trying to be 'cute' or 'artsy' and failing at what they're supposed to do: advertise and sell product. Whatever. Don't shop with them. There's hundreds of other online clothing sellers that do it right.
thank you! i had the same thought when i was browsing zara last time..
How does this company manage to sell anything?
So glad this had been picked up. I was going nuts the other day when trying to choose a nice dress with a gift voucher I recieved. Didn't buy anything in the end because I couldn't visualise what any of them actually looked like. Get over yourselves Zara. You're making yourself seem WAY out of touch. Get real.
I'm starting to think Zara's models are all too skinny and weak to be able to stand upright on their own.
Totally. I‘ve been missing Zara while it’s closed but haven’t bought anything online. Everything is styled and posed hideously on their website.
Advertising is supposed to draw attention to the product you are selling. Oh, boy, It worked, but I bet the majority of people didn't/couldn't relate to the weirdness.
They also have too many close-ups of the model's faces. I want to buy jeans, I don't care what the model's face looks like, I'm not buying mascara. Just show me the damn clothes!
Honestly, I the models were all tripping balls and they couldn't get them to put on the clothes right.
I think Zara marketing department needed attention to their brand...but its all wrong. You don't want to look like that...it looks death, boring, ugly, cheap. I lost my taste to Zara after I see Zombie models wrapping blankets. Please bring back beautiful cloth designers!
Thank you for saying that! Clothes shopping nowadays is a nightmare of weeding through a pile of crap to find one good piece—-and price or label don’t matter. I’ve seen pricey designer clothing that’s as cheap and badly made as stuff from the cheaper knockoff stores. And the designs look like they came out of Frederick’s of Hollywood or drumpf’s wet dream; skintight, too low cut, too short, material so thin it’s virtually sheer, extremely revealing cutouts, logos and graphics when all you want is a plain, shirt, and constructed in such a way as to make wearing proper foundations under them impossible. Some of us are modest and don’t want to go braless or wear clothes that show so much skin. Where can you outfits that are elegant and tasteful when you need them? Where are the well made clothes with good lines, made out of good solid material? Even prom dresses—-marketed to teenagers for goodness sake—-look trashy and way too grown up for 16, 17, and 18 year olds. What happened to understated elegance and class? When did we consent to looking and acting so trashy?
I guess the photographer is WAY before their time. They see themselves as a real 'artiste'!
Just another reason I couldn't care less about "fashion". This is some of the dumbest shit I've seen in advertising.
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Nothing looks worth buying anyway!
At first I thought it was a joke but nope
There's a fine line between getting attention and making your brand look ugly. This would put me off buying anything off them, no matter how much it's shared....just nooooo
High fashion is shit. Always has been.
This is what happen when designers forget everything about function.
I feel a visit to their website coming on.
these are just so stupid i just had to laugh
The problem with a lot of these pics is that you can't really see what the clothing looks like, which kinda defeats the whole purpose.
Sorry, poses are not what bothers me. These models are painfully thin and ugly. Nothing I like to look at. And .. IMHO .. ads should be pleasant to look at (IMHO!)
Wow Beautiful
It's not surprizing, it's Zara... the shop where the male models are over 1m90 even in countries where the average size is 15cm smaller.
Honestly, ZARA has always shown their models in weird poses. Nothing new to me. For years l‘ve been wondering when looking at their pics: “Who’s wearing who? The models are wearing the clothes or the clothes are wearing the models?!”
I would say this is a very clever ploy to ensure that customers can never demand a refund because 'the item they received doesn't match the picture'. The customer has no idea what the item actually looks like.
Sack the photographer😡
WEll one good lesson - never buy from Zara on line
I like Zara but it's gone in a weird direction. The girls are posed so strangely and why am I seeing reflections instead of the clothes? These models look like they were told "pretend you don't know how to take direction and we're doing interpretive dance...and go." I'm imagining there was no photographer and the models were doing selfies because this doesn't look at all professional. It reminds me of cheap pseudo porn American Apparel ads and it's off putting.
Low IQ, no talents, all they got and rely on are skinny genes from their parents. They get paid for “walking” and “posing” and this is the best they came up with? UGLY presentation with sole purpose of getting attention and sell products. Oh, not to mention they covered up most the products? (Oh, I am sorry, it’s the “try to pique your interest 2020” campaign from advertising department) They do anything because designer shoes and $500 half torn jeans are essential for zoom meetings during this pandemic. Don’t you want your company to pay you for walking from your bathroom to Kitchen, stands there, give you this “I am the most beautiful thing in the world but I am totally fucking pissed because this is really really hard work and what?! NO merch?!?!!” Look? And don’t give me all the bullshit about how hard they work, I have two words for you, FRONTLINE WORKERS. Those “models” definitely deserve to get $2 an hour hazardous pay, until end of June, of course.
Hm maybe they are not really selling clothes? Maybe it's just for show :P
Weeeell, good job I already don't shop at Zara
Seeing as this is their attempt at doing "art" I now undertand why they feel the urge to steal other people's artwork. :D https://www.boredpanda.com/zara-stealing-designs-copying-independent-artists-tuesday-bassen/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic
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this would be a good photo if not for the fact she is standing on a couch haha-5ec9b...99d938.jpg
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I am a bit sad though that this seems more like an ad for Zara... Bit of one way reporting. Where are the other voices? About people who make their clothing are not paid a normal wage... Every item is only made once? That is not a pro but a con.. Check the fast fashion docu on Netflix. Yes, the modeling is crazy but the raving words in between 😢
I guess they're trying to hide how effin ugly and poorly made their clothes are?
these are all good insta photos but not a shops. Seriously why go through all that trouble to not even seem to show the acctual thing right.
People sure get butthurt over stupid shit.
They probably do that so it's more difficult for young creators to spot immediately that Zara stole their work.
Is this brand good;
Yes, they are quite good. Don't believe the badmouthers. Check out their website and go to one of their stores; their clothes are made in Spain and/or Portugal, and they are of really decent quality at decent prices.
No. It's cheap and cheesy, badly made out of synthetic fibers and even Goodwill won't accept them as rags. They all end up in the garbage.
Love it!!!
Its pretty funny and gets people talking about Zara so mission accomplished
It is like modern art: doing thing different just for the sack of it, and the result is just awfull...
A company that steals ideas from others? No thanks.
With the coronavirus everybody's working from home, lol.
Super . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Why
Next their going to have a creepy old granny dressed in a nice dress in the ceiling corner like in a scary movie. Or bent over backwards crawling down the stairs all freaky like.
Well.... it's creative, I'll give them that.
A friend of mine is crazy about zara and i don't understand why.
Next thing you know they'll be using "photoshop" and "airbrush." What a world.
I feel like a lot of these photos could be self-shot by the models. That would somehow explain the weird places. If the company just pics out he most outstanding photos, weird pictures would have more chances to be chosen therefor encouraging models to do them.
what i still don't understand though is Zara clothes feel cheap, smell funny look frumpy on and cost quite a bit. guess the reason they have to wear them weirdly on the photos is because they don't look good on?
That is simply untrue.
How can BoredPanda call anything another site does stupid? It’s BoredPanda.
I feel like most of those weird poses were meant to hide how ugly the clothes are, and the rest were because they didn't fit the models.
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Zara's clothes are fashionable, chic and as far as I'm concerned they last a long time. I can vouch for that as I shop there. There is nothing wrong with having stores where clothes are affordable. If you don't like that part, by all means buy Prada, or Gucci ... If you are against Zara you must be able to afford designer.
They're cheap and tacky and they LOOK cheap and tacky. There is a middle ground between designer and that cheap crap. Still.....if you want to look like you dress in the dark, knock yourself out.
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All I can see is a bunch of anorexic girls. I thought big brands were not going to use people like that anymore?
Just because somebody is skinny doesn't mean they're anorexic. I, for example, am very skinny but i eat a crap load of food each day. I do get your point, that they aren't very inclusive with their models sizing, but it's a struggle for us, and I've constantly been called anorexic which is honestly really hurtful and has become a big insecurity.
Thank you for saying that, BoredKid. I've always been thin too. It's just the way I'm built. It's rude when people make assumptions based on appearance. Anorexia nervosa is a life-threatening condition, and not to be mocked.
I just learned that I was wearing a coat wrong my entire life...
When I was a teenager in the late 80s, early 90s, I would wear my coat regularly, but let it slip down to my elbows and that bothered my father to no end. I wonder what he would have thought had I worn it like this.
Oh yeah, I forgot that people used to do that. They also would refuse to do it up in the winter because it didn't look cool. So weird.
Full Name, it was a thing, but I didn't take it that far. I used the coat when cold and wore it around my elbows when I got hot, like in a store.
Zara's marketing department wanted to get attention to the brand. They succeeded.
Yep. Gone viral. Now they can add real pictures again. Could you imagine the meeting where they dreamt up this concept?
Or just an attempt to disguise how unflattering the design is or how cheap the materials are.
I dunno if that worked. It made me never want to look at their site.
Still not buying their products though. But many will :)
Its not bad. But its not good either like so many things \_(•-•)__/
I didn't see a brand on any of those women. A few tattoos, but no brands!
Seriously dude, are you a bot? All your comments make you sound like one 🙄
So who buys these if they can't see what they really look like worn normally?
The whole point of catalog modeling is to show people who aren’t in a store what the outfit looks like, front and back, so they can get an idea of its cut and shape. Either Zara hired a photographer who’s a frustrated artist, or their clothes are so cheap and badly made they need to hide as much of them as they can in order to sell them. Caveat Emptorium. Take heed, people. They’re trying to sell you a pig in a poke.
I'm betting on "cheap and badly made".
Cheap but not inexpensive...
I have never shopped at Zara. And, after this pretentious attempt at being cool and ahead of the curve, I doubt that I ever will. Not that Zara cares about my opinion, of course.
I attempted to a few times, but the quality is extremely poor.
Women, don't buy these clothes. Doing so makes us all look like gullible idiots.
Well, maybe they've finally realized that cheap knockoff clothes made by slave labour in Asia that are all fake fibers that will live in landfills for eternity are a Bad Thing and they're trying to go out of business and save the planet.
@CorgiGirl, you do realize that there are a whole whack of choices in between Zara and Prada, right?
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Oh please do go ahead and buy Prada.. sounds like you can afford that
Do you work for Zara or something?
This seems pretty normal to me. I mean what kind of weirdos don't try on new clothes on top of the stove?
I prefer to crawl into the oven to get a bit more privacy.
Also, Zara hates fat people. Their clothes as tiny,
I've never shopped there. And I never will, after seeing this stupid attempt at marketing.
The problem with Zara is when you get to the clothes up close and see the quality which is very poor. The stitching and sewing are always horrible. And don’t even get me started on the cheap fabrics they use. For the prices they ask, they need to do much better quality work.
I couldn't find nice thing in Zara like never. It's always something wrong with cutting or material or sewing or all the above mentioned.
What is it with so many of them wearing the stuff backwards?
Proving that most models can't dress themselves? I got nothing.
Asking for different, original or artistic to models and photografers that aren't artists at all. Artists have real bodies so they had to choose. Also, they should know that we only want to see what they are wearing. Just stand up, front and back, without poses neither facial expressions. We are there to see if we shop a new trouser. To other things I'd go to an art gallery or a theatre.