In a shift away from stick-thin mannequins, some stores are making significant changes, which may come as a surprise to many.

Some are going as far as to even use mannequins with areas of fabricated 'back fat', acknowledging that women's bodies are often not represented in the mannequins in the store windows. Breasts are also being reshaped to be flatter on top and fuller underneath in order to be more 'life-like.'

Does this mark a change in the culture of the companies themselves or merely a method to sell more product? Are mannequins intended to be 'aspirational' symbols of how we want to look or how we do look? I remember being in my 20's and female friends of mine with curvy bodies being able to tell me exactly which specific stores on which streets had models that actually looked like them, and how uplifting it was to see such a site in a store window. And that was years ago.

Seems like many from retailers to wedding gown makers are finally catching on.

-Alok Appadurai is communications director of A Beautiful Body Project, co-founder of Fed By Threads, a public speaker, father, environmentalist, and business coach. Learn more about him at www.AlokAppadurai.com