Marks and Spencer is a very old British retail store chain, dating back to Victorian times, which became famous for supplying the nation’s underwear for anyone from Royalty to chambermaids.

In recent years it has fallen on hard times, largely because it was regarded as old fashioned by many younger women, and dated even by the middle-aged.

However, in the past two years, under the guidance of Stuart Rose, it has rebuilt its fortunes. The store company now wows the public with its ultra-classy, yet populist TV adverts. The secret? Fifty-something model Twiggy, the darling of the 1960s cool scene.

The formula is simple. Take an old 1960s song in its original version and parade the ever-young Twiggy together with a few other younger women in M&S’s new fashionable clothes range.

Result? Huge reverse-exodus back to M&S. Their current adverts are probably the only ones on UK TV that viewers look forward to. And the company’s bottom line is booming.

Who says fifty-something women don’t have sex appeal?

Recently we wrote about a University of Missouri study that said that women develop feelings of inadequacy about their bodies when viewing images of magazine ad models. Now this story in the Daily Mail says that a third of all women are so self-conscious about their bodies, that they won’t even get naked in front of a husband or partner.

One woman in ten won’t undress unless all the lights are out and one quarter of women won’t enter the bathroom if her husband or partner is already in there.

But while women are becoming more body-shy, men still enjoy being naked and spend nearly double the amount of time per day without clothes that women do.

The results are from a survey of 3500 women taken by SHUC.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re thin or plump, blonde or brunette, tall or petite, every woman is likely to have bad feelings about her body after viewing photos of models in magazines.

A study conducted at the University of Missouri surveyed women on their feelings about themselves, their bodies, hair, weight, etc. One group of women then looked at neutral images and a second group viewed models in magazine ads. The women’s attitudes towards their own bodies were measured again after viewing the images. The women who viewed images of models experienced a drop in their level of satisfaction with their own bodies.

The assumption that only overweight women would be less satisfied with their own bodies was incorrect. All women, regardless of weight experienced an impact in self-image after viewing the magazine models.

Because these images are often computer-enhanced, partially computer-generated and have all imperfections air-brushed out, it is not surprising that no woman feels she comes up to the standards of beauty that are held up by the media.

The study - “Predictors of Media Effects on Body Dissatisfaction in European American Women” - was published in this month’s Sex Roles: A Journal of Research.

Women of All Sizes Feel Badly about their Bodies after Seeing Models