Full Figured Potential

Shocker! Abercrombie & Fitch Hates Fat Women

Unless you’ve been living under a rock with no internet connection you’ve already heard about the latest retailer to piss off the plus size community. Plus size women are outraged because the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch issued some incredibly shocking [insert sarcastic tone here] statements regarding his disdain for the plus size community and ugly people in general.

Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO, Mark Jeffries purposely doesn’t make clothes above a size Large because anything bigger than that attracts uncool fat people. Before I get into anything else let me start by saying that ain’t NOBODY checking for Abercrombie. The glory days, circa early 2000’s when the brand had a huge surge of popularity are long gone. Hey Mike, the “cool” kids most definitely do not wear your clothes just in case you weren’t privy to that information.

Now on to the important issues, because trust me Abercrombie is not relevant here. The store is just a black hole in the mall that reeks of too much bad perfume. Abercrombie is not saying ANYTHING new here. They’ve never carried plus sizes and their straight sized clothes run small as it is. So let me tell you why the shit that Abercrombie and their PR people are feeding to the media doesn’t matter. It does not matter and it is not relevant because it doesn’t serve any specific purpose other than to create buzz and press for a brand that is looking to jumpstart public opinion with shock value. How do you do that? Pick on the fat and ugly people. Brilliant PR strategies there Mike [insert sarcastic tone once again.]

I am speaking about this not because I am upset at Abercrombie but because I am upset with the plus size community and its reaction. I am sick and tired of the plus size community ready to bring out the pitchforks and burn mainstream retailers at the stake. Yes, I know as plus size women we are limited to where and what we can shop for. Yes, I know we have BUYING POWER. The latter is precisely why I am so upset with the plus size community. Before the plus size community was enraged with Abercrombie, they were pissed at Zara, before Zara it was American Apparel. If a brand chooses to make plus size clothing then cool, but if not FUCK THEM! And for those in the plus size community calling for a boycott how are you going to boycott a store you can’t even shop at anyways? Seriously, we talk so much about having buying power yet we sit there in front of Zara and other mainstream retailers like dogs waiting for scraps when there are a number of independent designers that we are not supporting that are making clothes for us. If a store makes clothes that fit you buy from them if they don’t then simply move on to a store with clothes that do fit you.

Stop complaining that mainstream retailers don’t make clothes for plus size women and start supporting small businesses that do. Start supporting small boutiques that do carry plus sizes. Start funneling your money, buying power and influence into the plus size fashion industry.

Mike Jeffries is laughing right now as he reads all this press about his brand, because let me assure you that he has no intention of apologizing. Or making plus size clothes. Ever. He probably thinks it’s hilarious that he pissed off a bunch of fat people. But let me ask you, what good is it to be upset if you’re not going to do anything except keep crying because Zara or the next mainstream retailer doesn’t carry plus sizes. Hey! Remember Eloquii, the plus size line from The Limited? No? Well they’re having a huge going out business sale after only being around for about a year or so because they didn’t get enough support. Do you see where I’m going with this? The only way we are going to get what we want is if we support our own and show love to those who are showing the plus size community love.

I’ll close with this:


Hey Mike,

I’m your worst nightmare! I am a beautiful, cool ass FAT bitch that wore Abercrombie once upon a time before it was played out. So FUCK YOU, your clothes are shit quality anyway and I’d rather spend my money somewhere else. You lose in more ways than one. Go have a seat in the irrelevant section.

YOU’RE INVITED TO PHAT MAGAZINE’S 1st TWITTER PARTY

PHAT Magazine is a new plus size fashion and beauty magazine and to celebrate the upcoming 1st issue they are having a fashion and beauty Twitter party. I will be co-hosting the party along with other fashion bloggers and PHAT’s editior-in-chief will personally answer all your fashion and beauty questions. You will also get an exclusive first look at the upcoming 1st issue of PHAT Magazine.

So come join me in support of another great milestone for the plus size community and win some awesome prizes since we’re in a celebratory mood!

When: Thursday, March 28th, 7-8 PM EST

Where: Twitter. Use Hashtag: #PHATTMAGAZINE

Be sure to RSVP For Awesome Prizes: Leave a comment with your Twitter Name Here

AND

Give Girls Images of Real Girls: Petition

My Opinion on American Apparel Plus Size Line

*EDIT* This was originally meant as a response to a message I received regarding my post about the American Apparel Next Big Thing Model Competition. It has been brought to my attention that the person who wrote in and was linked in this post has since deleted their blog so I will be removing the link and just leaving you with what I wrote.



American Apparel is no stranger to controversy and consumer complaints about the companies ethics. I published my American Apparel post this morning 8/26 and the reason why you didn’t see much of a personal opinion from me in the post was because first of all I wanted to put out the information and allow everyone that wasn’t aware of this yet to react to it in their own way and form their own opinion. The second reason was because I decided to focus more and share the “curvy” model search for any readers that were interested in that. Now I tried to keep my sarcasm to a minimum in my post and I limited it to me striking out the word booty when I referred to their model search as a booty model search. When I read the contest instructions and guidelines I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and laugh because in my opinion they weren’t really looking for plus sized models they were more focused, and they made sure they mentioned this through out their post, on curvy women and women who “need little extra wiggle room where it counts” by using words like “booty-ful” to describe the type of model they were looking for.

I don’t know if you took the time to look through the pictures of women who had entered the contest. I did, and I not only saw that women of ALL shapes and sizes had entered the contest but even a lot of the popular plus size bloggers who blog on tumblr and other places had entered, and yes it was more than 1 familiar face in the crowd. Now I’m not judging anyone for entering the contest at all because it could be a great opportunity for a girl that has the look they want. My only issue with the contest is that like I said I feel like American Apparel is not looking for plus size women clearly they are looking for women who are no larger than a size 14 and women with a larger butt so it’s misleading to plus size women because they are being led to believe that American Apparel wants them when in reality they don’t. They are looking for women with fat where it counts which means if you have a fat ass you’re good but if you have a fat belly they don’t want you and I think this will only lead to disappointment when women out there see a winner who is nowhere near fat.

Now on to my personal feelings about the size issue. I do agree with everyone that offering an XL is by no means adding plus sizes. Like many people already pointed out an XL is, at least in most American stores, part of the regular size run. I think the way American Apparel went about this whole plus size thing is only going to hurt an already fragile if not non existent relationship with the plus size community. I would have preferred for American Apparel to say they were now carrying a full run of sizes instead of trying to profit off of the plus size fashion community now that it seems to be having a surge of popularity in the media. So no, I don’t agree with the way they went about it.

Now them saying a size 12 is plus size doesn’t surprise me at all because a size 12 has ALWAYS been considered plus size in the fashion industry and most clothing brands’ XL translates to a size 12. It used to be that designers would stop at a size 10 and anything after that was considered plus size, now a days some designers consider anything past a size 8 plus size which we can all agree is ridiculous. So I cant say that I’m upset that American Apparel’s XL translates to a size 12/14 because that is pretty much the norm for most clothing companies that are not exclusively plus sized. From a personal stand point I am a plus size girl obviously and I used to shop at American Apparel (not so much anymore not for any particular reason) while I didn’t fit into every style they offer I did fit into most of the stuff they have, tshirts, hoodies, undies, and leggings. They work with spandex a lot and at a size 12/14 I was able to fit into their size MEDIUM leggings. My bottom half is nowhere near small and I won’t get into my measurements but my butt measurements are way past the 40’s in inches. Where I am getting at with this is that we don’t really know how a size 12/14 in any of these styles are going to fit and this is true for a lot of brands. I fluctuate between a 14 and 16 at my heaviest and I do shop straight sized clothes a lot. We as plus size women shouldn’t just be limited to the exclusively plus size companies because it is IMPOSSIBLE for a handful of plus size companies to cater to the style and taste of EVERY SINGLE plus size woman. Whether American Apparel likes it or not the plus size community generates money and whether they like it or not they NEED our money and more and more companies are becoming aware of that. We as individual consumers are in our full right to support or personally boycott any company we want and believe me there are plenty of businesses that I personally do not support. However, I am all for companies offering a bigger range of sizes because somewhere out there there is a plus size girl who now has more options than she did before.