As if we needed another reason to hate Abercrombie & Fitch.
If you’ve ever sniffed your way around A&F’s chain stores (those mannequins wear more cologne than Pauly D) you may have noticed that women’s sizes only go up to a 10. No XL or XXL for the ladies, and the company’s CEO is happy to tell you why.
Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries’ fat-hate is now common knowledge in the retail world. Robin Lewis, author of The New Rules of Retail, recently spoke to Business Insider about Jeffries’ brand politics.
“He doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people,” Lewis said. “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.’”
Jeffries himself spoke to Salon about the missing sizes in 2006. In his opinion, keeping larger bodies out of his stores was actually getting him more business.
“A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong,” he said. “Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”
He also expanded on that gem about “cool kids:”
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he said. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids.”
For the record, these words came from a grown man’s mouth. This grown man:
Sheesh.
Thank God it’s easy to stop giving him your money. Check out these great bloggers to guide your fat-happy shopping and keep your ass out of A&F.
Thanks to Elite Daily and Salon.
Photos via Gossipy, HelpMyStyle.ie
