I was browsing LL Bean online, and decided to give the Virtual Model a whirl. You can try it yourself here: http://www.myvirtualmodel.com/
I put in my weight and height and played with the body shape, and couldn’t get anything that looks anything at all like me, and the sizes it was picking out for me had little or no relation to what I actually buy in the store.
So I carefully took and entered all my measurements: bust, waist, hips, thighs, inseam, and full torso.
And it says that my jeans I am currently wearing are EIGHT SIZES TOO SMALL. :dubious:
I will fully admit that I have a freakish body type. I have massive shoulders for a chick, and a long waist, and, well, in general, I’m think I’m just kinda funny lookin’. People often do a double-take when I tell them my weight. My doctor had to look up my height and weight on my chart and compute my BMI for himself before he’d believe it.
So is this Virtual Model thing a crock, or is it just my weird bod? I’m thinking that catalog shopping just isn’t for me.
I only use it to double check my dysmorphic body image and to see how much skinnier I would be if I would lose a mere 15lbs.
I find it is very helpful for depressing the fuck out of me. But for sizing, it’s not good. It’s like the maniquins at the plus size store. They may technically be a size 14, but they defy gravity, so they look great in everything. That will be great if I’m ever buying an outfit to wear to outer space.
I got a blank page, but no matter I already know I have a weird body. Once I was doing a drawing lesson. I was to measure my own different body parts, not like for clothes, just floor to knee, knee to hip, hip to waist, waist to nipple, nipple to thriod notch, to chin to ear… you get it… Then I was to draw a figure using the using relative distances. Well, my drawing came out looking like a fat dwarf. I took it to my husband , told him what I’d done and asked if he could figure out where i went wrong. He said “Honey, you didn’t do a thing wrong it looks like you. It looks just like you.”
I am, much to my surprise, a 5’4"tall dwarf. Good, sturdy, peasant stock, my Grandmother would say.
Is that the same model Landsend uses? I tried theirs and then got told that nothing in any of their ranges would fit me.
Now I know I’m not a perfect size anything but I can (and do) buy clothes all the time. And they fit, even if my waist is thicker than I’d like and a bit short. I’ve even bought stuff from Landsend and managed to wear the items without causing a riot.
Makes me wonder if anyone outside the perfectly proportioned modelling industry can get those virtual models to work.
I’ve used the Land’s End model before. It doesn’t look just like me, but it’s not too far off. Well, except for the gravity thing. But it’s got the width and thickness about right, and the way my head looks too small for my body (or is that my body too large for my head?). I’ve never bought clothes from Land’s End, though. I just use the Virtual Model when I feel like window shopping from home.
And that’s the maddening thing. If you’ve got normal proportions to start out with, you have a much easier time buying off the rack. If you’re on the tall side or the short side, or have broad shoulders or broad hips, or if you are less curvy than average, or what have you, that’s when the virtual model would be really handy, to see whether a certain style would actually fit your frame.
I suspect that the technology just isn’t there yet. How do they make a computer model of the clothes? It can’t be too terribly sophiscticated. You can’t select the size you want to try to see how it looks if it’s looser or tighter, which is what would be really handy.
Thank you. That made my morning. And, it was already a good morning! What a great story… I’m always surprised, myself, that I look so chubby in photos – but other people standing next to me look exactly like themselves.
Hey, I tried the virtual model, and they definitely need something flatter than what they describe as “small to medium” breasts. Perhaps a “less defined” button would help. But it’s really fun to see the changes every twenty pounds make.
I picked a female model just to see how it would show various dimensions- though I wish they had more choices for the boobies. They didn’t have the holy-cow-I-can’t-believe-those-things-are-real size bust
And when I added the weight, the model just kept looking hotter! Where is her gut? I got her at 200 lbs and she still looks like a knockout!
It works okay for me - makes me look like a soccer mom, but I guess that’s the Lands End default. My problem is that they don’t hardly offer anything in extra small, and the model dosen’t warn me that it’s gonna be a tent on me. You’d think my dimensions for the model would warn them that I do have a waist and I’m not afraid to use it. I’m not really in the Lands End demographic anyway, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to buy nice professional clothes cheap! Oh, well.
I think the models are designed to be a lot more flattering than you really are. I don’t mean to insult anyone here, since I’m definitely including my own model in this opinion. The more weight you add on, it gets larger, but not… blubbier; there aren’t any folds in the waist or back or anything, which usually happens with more weight on a frame.
And for me, a person who has 34F boobs, the medium/large boobs are so not big enough. Why not have a virtual model where you give them specific numbers for measurements?
I agree. I even exaggerated my weight, and the model still looked really buff. They have “muscular” or “regular” body types, but they don’t have a “really out of shape” option.
Levi.com lets you put in measurements. However, I put in my hip size, then changed it to 100. The model didn’t change at all I did try smaller increments to no avail. I think the technology’s not there yet.
I asked my husband about the model and he said it looks similar to me except I’m somewhere in between the two sizes I was playing with. And Levi said they didn’t have any fashions that would work for my body type
I thought it was a decent representation except for the boobs practically in my model’s face.
Yeah, they need buttons for “mommy tummy” and “prego-hips” (you know, that extra bubble of fat above the hips that it seems only women who have given birth have?), as well. But it was pretty close. Mine doesn’t seem to have options for giving it my actual measurements, though. That would be nice.
I am genuinely surprised as to how close the virtual model actually came to the real thing, just based on the specs I gave it.
I created, for your enjoyment, this picture (the link of which you’ll probably have to copy and paste) which has the “virtual model,” and the “virtual face,” right next to my actual face (as of last year - shorter hair now.) See for yourself.
The page doesn’t work for me, so I can’t say whether the virtual model makes me look funny.
But I already know I don’t photograph well. Depending on the day, I can look pretty hot when I’m checking myself out in a mirror. But as soon as a camera appears, it’s like magic - hottie to woof in 0.8 seconds. I don’t get it.
Man, I am so abusing this right now.
Why can’t I choose her cup-size?
But, yeah, it gave me a pretty good resemblance to myself.
(that is, if I did 500 sit-ups everyday, benchpressed 300 pounds and wasn’t all pasty white)
Other than that, yeah, it looked like me.
I did try smaller increments to no avail. I think the technology’s not there yet.
