Abercrombie & Fitch Refuses To Stock Larger Sizes For Women
May 8, 2013If you’re a woman and you wear a size XL or larger, you can forget about shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F). You are not welcomed there.
The controversial, yet popular, American retailer has made it very clear that they don’t want larger women wearing their clothes. Thin and beautiful is their target market and A&F CEO Mike Jeffries is not shy about voicing those very facts.
Rumor has it that the youth-focused retailer doesn't consider plus-sized women to be “cool enough” to be wearing their brand. OK, that’s not a rumor. Jeffries has even stated as such. In an interview with Salon.com, Jeffries admitted that his business is built around sex appeal.
“It’s almost everything. That’s why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don’t market to anyone other than that,” Jeffries said. He went on to say that a lot of people don’t belong in their clothes and they can’t belong.
“Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."- Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries.
Interestingly enough, Abercrombie & Fitch does sell XL and XXL men's sizes. But that’s only to cater to the athletic and toned beefcakes that fit the brands intended image. You readers are well aware that women can’t be athletic and toned and need to wear XL and XXL sizes right?
With more brands featuring “plus-sized” curvy models and 67 percent of the apparel purchasing population being plus-sized, Abercrombie & Fitch may soon become a dinosaur in American retail. Their idea of conventional beauty is just that…their idea.
Note to Abercrombie & Fitch and Jeffries: Beauty and sex appeal comes in all shapes and sizes. And you are a retailer that simply put…is not so cool. And definitely not cool enough for us to spend the money that we work so hard for on your marketing campaign that is the very essence of discrimination and exclusion.
Photo Credit: Adam