life
The CEO Said What?!
The past few days my Facebook news feed has been flooded with friends posting about this place:
And my friends were posting more specifically about controversial comments that Abercrombie’s CEO, Mike Jeffries has said. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, read this article on Business Insider and then come back to this post.
Did you read it?
Um, wow…
“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. 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.”
Those comments were made in 2006, so why am I just reading them now?! And of course this isn’t the first time Abercrombie has been in the news for scandalous things (almost naked models and illegal hiring preferences)…so I’m not sure why I’m really surprised.
I’ll be the first to admit that I was by no means popular in high school…so maybe that’s why this bothers me? Also, I maybe owned three shirts from Abercrombie in my entire life. I had hips at 16 and their pants just didn’t cater to those of us who have any sort of shape. I wasn’t overweight at all but I could never find a pair of their jeans that would fit me. I also found (this may have changed since I was in high school) that their clothes always ran small…like a medium at any other store would be a large at Abercrombie. That did amazing things for my self image in high school…note the sarcasm.
I can understand why a company chooses to make certain sizes (or not make certain sizes), and that’s their prerogative. BUT what I don’t like is that he puts down everyone who isn’t “cool” or “popular“. Does that mean just because you don’t have washboard abs or aren’t the lead cheerleader that you’re ugly, overweight, and a loser? No!
I’m honestly thankful for seeing this article because I know where I’m not letting Mabel shop…and that decision isn’t based on me being a crazy mom, it’s based on morals and not wanting to give my hard earned money to Mr. Jeffries.
Mabel will not learn that her self worth, popularity, and beauty is determined by clothing labels or size.
I rarely speak badly about anyone but I suggest you head over to Google and image search Mike Jeffries. And I’m betting the first word that will pop into your is hypocrite.
What’s your take on this? Agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I agree with you! I have 2 little girls 7 and 13 mos…I don’t want them to grow up thinking they are measured by their size. I want to train my girls to have character and confidence in being themselves.
Exactly! 🙂 I’m hoping do to the best job possible in helping Mabel to be 100% confident in herself!
Totally agree with you. That man should really not be one to judge so harshly on apparences! My little girl will never be shopping there.
It’s pretty sad. Obviously he feels badly about himself or he wouldn’t have had so much plastic surgery. You would think that he’d understand and not perpetuate these feelings of not being good enough based on appearance to the youth in this country.
Appearances*
I grew up not caring about sizes. I’m pretty sure I skipped over size 3/4 and went right into 5/6. By 8th grade I was wearing size 9 and pretty much maxed out there wearing size 10 or 12 (depending on brand) at high school graduation. I NEVER thought I was “fat” or needed to lose weight. I attribute that to my mom. I was raised in a christian home and told that I was beautiful in God’s eyes and he made me just how I belong. After recently talking to a mother of a 4 year old, she told me about a church session she went to for moms and they talked about ways to keep your daughter’s confidence and mentioned not letting her daughter see her look in the mirror. That really made me think about my own childhood and I don’t remember seeing my mother look in the mirror except to put jewelry or lipstick on. I want to remember this when I have my own daughters some day. As far as brands, we were a military family and were always given only an allowance for clothes so if we wanted a name brand, we could, but we wouldn’t get many new clothes.
That’s awesome that your mother did such a great job in helping you to feel so confident about yourself. I hope I can do that for Mabel. Also, great advice on not letting your daughter seeing you looking in the mirror…I would have never have thought that such a seemingly innocent thing could have such an effect on little girls. I’m also going to try my best to not say comments about my body, such as losing weight, in front of Mabel too.
I’m embarrassed as a former employee( I work at both Hollister and Abercrombie and Fitch). He focus a lot on looks, in three years I have heard about a lot of crazy lawsuits.fyi I forgot what he looked like, so I googled him after I heard about this, the man isn’t the best looking and you can tell he has had a lot of plastic surgery. The likes that the management has to do when finding employees makes them look just as bad as he is. these people he talks about are the people who work for the company and are on the their phones when customers come in and do not help them. I have had people complain to me about it. I worked them over three and a half years.
Thank you so much for your comment! It’s even more interesting hearing from someone who actually worked there. And don’t feel embarrassed…I worked at Old Navy for a while back in school. 🙂 They didn’t seem to place emphasis on looks though.
I’m glad you posted about this, because I have not heard about it. I personally do not shop there because of their prices and advertising (naked people), but now I have an even better reason not to. I can’t believe someone would make a statement like that, especially given the violence and bullying in school these days. There is already so much “drama” (for lack of a better word) in schools today. I, like you, used to teach so I know. It’s sad that a grown man would fuel the fire. Thanks for posting this!
As a mother of apparently 4 “uncool” kids, we have never stepped foot in this store and have no plans to. Not because we are afraid we are not pretty enough or cool enough to pull off the AF look, we just can’t take the smell!
Michelle. thebashfulnest.blogspot.com