Shein shoppers baffled after spotting model posing with water bottle to promote plus-size tights

Shein shoppers have been left baffled after photos of a model posing with a water bottle to promote plus-size tights went viral on social media.

The online retailer is well known for its unique items of clothing and affordable items, but this time it is hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Photos of the model bizarrely posing with the water bottle went viral from Twitter user @karmaxkarmm, with the post sitting on over 275k likes and 30k retweets at the time of writing - though that is increasing by the second.

The Twitter user captioned the image from Shein's website with: "SHEIN y’all couldn’t find y’all a plus size model??????? Wtf is THIS?"

The screenshot shows a model posing in beige coloured tights, but oddly, she has a large blue tanker bottle by her side which is covered by the excess material.

Many people have been left confused with the online retailer's actions and have told them they should source more plus-size models to demonstrate the clothes without the need for props such as a water bottle.

The viral post has sparked large debate on social media, and it is fair to say the photo is not exactly a popular one.

One woman said: "Really!! That thing is empty!!! It needs to hold girth and weight!!! Y’all act like we haven’t been around forever!!!!!!"

Twitter

A second added: "it's amazing how common this is, to 'prove' that clothes fit on fat people, many brands make people who are not fat stretch their clothes as much as possible, in several different ways.

"For the love of god hire REAL plus size models soon. What a bummer."

While many couldn't believe it was real: "This has to be fake, " one said. A second added: "Tell me this isn't real."

Shein

While many are critical of the photos, some have suggested the water bottle may have been used to show the flexibility of the material.

One person wrote: "In their defence, it's probably to show that the tights are really stretchy. The person in the photo looks around my size and I'm plus sized, I'm just on the absolute lowest end."

Tyla has contacted Shein for comment.