London Fashion Week's Skinny Bird Watchers Start Things Off on a Controversial Note

No sooner had Somerset House opened its gates for London Fashion Week than the controversy began. This season, tired of seeing nothing but size-6 models on the runway, retailer Taking Shape (which sells clothing in sizes 14 to 26) set up a "skinny bird watching" box outside the venue, staffed by binocular-toting bird-watchers on the lookout for London Fashion Week models. They've even drawn sketches of these so-called "rare breeds."

The retailer claims this is all in the name of fun and "celebrating the models' rarity," but many people have quickly picked up on the fact it's essentially just body shaming — something many of the retailers key customers have probably been fighting against for years. Is encouraging people to use the hashtag #skinnybirdwatching really starting a valuable discussion or just deliberately baiting people?

We all know that models don't faithfully represent consumers. It's an area of this industry that really needs to change and evolve, but surely the way to do that is to work together, not to add yet more fuel to the "us and them" mentality. How do you feel about this controversial campaign?

UPDATE: Following the negative response on social media, Taking Shape posted the following, with a link to its press release:

"Hi ladies - we are very sorry that many of you felt our stunt today at #LFW had a negative message, we apologize to anyone who was offended and are keen to state that our aim was never to body shame anyone. We believe that all women are beautiful and that all sizes and shapes should be represented in fashion. Check out the following press release which outlines our intentions. We hope you will see that as a brand we are all about empowering women to love their bodies and embrace fashion, no matter what their size."