What Kind of Model Do You Respond To

For decades, the fashion world has figured that very young, slim models work best. But a Cambridge Ph.D.-slash-modeling agent (!?) is challenging those beliefs by concluding that women prefer to see models that, well, look more like them. The Ben Barry Agency Inc. has a staff of 25,300 models and an international client roster, and Barry is make his concept the focal point of his Ph.D. work at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School. During his research, he found that in an international study, Western women are more likely to respond to an advertisement if the models closely resemble them in age, body size, and race—versus thin, white young women. The conclusion, he told the Wall Street Journal,is that "Consumers still want an image in fashion that is glamorous, but they're moving away from unattainable aspiration to attainable aspiration."