Abercrombie & Fitch: No Fat Women, Please!

Fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch stocks large clothes for men (their T-shirts go up to 2XL sizes), but why not for women? Because it doesn't want fat women wearing its clothes, of course:

Abercrombie doesn't even list women's XL or XXL on its size chart. Its largest women's pants are a size 10, while H&M's standard line goes up to a size 16, and American Eagle offers up to 18. [...]
It's not surprising that Abercrombie excludes plus-sized women considering the attitude of CEO Mike Jeffries, said Robin Lewis, co-author of The New Rules of Retail and CEO of newsletter The Robin Report.

"He doesn't want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people," Lewis told Business Insider. "He doesn't want his core customers to see people who aren't as hot as them wearing his clothing. People who wear his clothing should feel like they're one of the 'cool kids.'" [...]

In a 2006 interview with Salon, Jeffries himself said that his business was 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.

Jeffries also told Salon that he wasn't bothered by excluding some customers. “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told the site. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."

Ashley Lutz over at Business Insider has more: Link

The NeatoShop, on the other hand, carries Ladies T-shirts up to 2XL (that's the largest size they make). We're also in the process of converting thousands of shirts so they will be available up to 6XL. Because you're all beautiful and cool to us.


Abercrombie & Fitch markets to children. Mine couldn't get enough of the brand name (and American Eagle and Aeropostale) until they were about 13, then they outgrew it, psychologically. Cool is a lot more than wearing a label to announce that you're a certain size (as if that weren't already apparent). And the price doesn't mean much, at least where I live, because Goodwill is full of those clothes.
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I always pitied the sheep that would slap on a brand name to be accepted by the majority flock. It lacks creativity and reeks of desperation to be seen as "O.K." in the eyes of one's peers. I sought out the creative kids, who were innovative with their clothes, (thrift store finds, and modifications). This said a lot more about the person wearing them, regardless of their income or social status. What a sad company policy.
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My crummy business ideas #4391

I'm going to start a brand which only sells to lovely tolerant empathetic people. There will be a quiz. Sadly my customers probably won't display my branding as proof of their excellence, because they wouldn't want to hurt the feelings of hose who didn't make the grade.
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This concept that A&F propagates that only skinny girls are beautiful is why there are so many young women with eating disorders. They will destroy their physical health to try to attain this "ideal" image of beauty.
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True story: when my older daughter turned 12, we went to the city to mall shop with her birthday cash. She picked out a dress from the clearance rack at A&F, and paid for it with a $50 bill. The stunningly-beautiful teenage clerk handed her change back, and I said, "Wait a minute. You shortchanged her $6." The clerk's expression never changed, she just looked at the receipt and gave back six more dollars. The (extremely young) manager was right there, and acted like this happened a lot, no big deal. My kid learned a valuable lesson that day.
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