A lot of people ‘can’t belong’ in our clothes

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10 May 2013, 6:10 pm

I'm not sure what this has to do with us. Just because, like fat people, we're treated with disrespect? I mean, he's a jerk for trying to profit from people's superficial and prejudiced attitudes, but those attitudes were already there. We have it a bit better than fat people in that we don't usually get identified and judged until we start talking.

Ai_Ling
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10 May 2013, 7:58 pm

Yeah I read about that, and thats just plain horrible. And this is coming from someone who on the slimmer side and I can fit well into there clothes btw. I dont like there clothes anyways, I find there ads stupid and there store sucks. I have always detested that fashion. Whatever was never a cool kid anyways. pssst

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11 May 2013, 2:43 am

scarp wrote:

StarTrekker wrote:

I understand and have suggested to my father in one of our many philosophical debates the idea of making clothes virtually unavailable in larger sizes, but that was for the sole purpose of forcing this ludicrously obese into a health change.

That sounds needlessly cruel. What would they wear while they're trying to loose weight?

Well, I didn't really give it a lot of thought, it was more of a passing idea really, the point would be to prevent people from getting overweight in the first place. Not like it's ever going to happen though, so a debate on the issue is relatively pointless.

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WestBender84
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19 May 2013, 7:24 pm

eric76 wrote:

From http://fox13now.com/2013/05/07/abercrombie-ceo-a-lot-of-people-cant-belong-in-our-clothes/:

Quote:

Robin Lewis, author of “The New Rules of Retail,” spoke to Business Insider this week about Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries and the kind of people he wants wearing his clothes.

“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.’”

...

“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,” he told Salon.

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he told Salon. “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.”

I guess we all know who aren't the "cool kids".

I'm certain that plenty of us look cool until we speak or have to make eye contact!

I've found that wearing sunglasses and pretending to speak with someone on a cell phone are helpful aids in maintaining that illusion of coolness!

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Drehmaschine
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20 May 2013, 8:08 am

Good. I don't want people all up in my clothes anyways. Those are mine!

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20 May 2013, 12:14 pm

VIDEODROME wrote:

I to see a bunch of fat naked people waving money banging on the store front.

Now that would be a protest.

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20 May 2013, 2:30 pm

Okay, my 2 cents.

I can understand their position.

If you want to be a trendsetter, you don't want some 250 lb woman modeling your garments. As ugly as it sounds, the people setting the fashion trends are moderately thin and sexy (they don't use fat men...big men maybe, but not fat).

Hence, they don't want to sell their products so that they fit "undesirables."

It's their right. I own nothing of A&F. Indeed, I think their catalog qualifies as soft porn at times. I've never owned anything with a "trendsetting" label on it just because I don't like to feed such moronic commercialism.

It hasn't stopped companies like these from making a fortune.

How popular are Oakley sunglasses? Know how they got that popular? The company practically gave their glasses to people in the limelight. That encouraged average people to want to spend a lot of money for what (at best) amounts to maybe a nice looking pair of low-quality sunglasses.

So long as enough people wanting to dress like the "in" crowd will pay inflated prices for mediocre fashions, they will always make money. The instant they try to market to the "unwashed masses," the value of their product disappears.

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20 May 2013, 5:29 pm

zer0netgain wrote:

So long as enough people wanting to dress like the "in" crowd will pay inflated prices for mediocre fashions, they will always make money. The instant they try to market to the "unwashed masses," the value of their product disappears.

Then where do plus sized stores come from? How do they make money if nobody wants to wear their cloths. Obviously certain people have no choice because they can't use the products made by trendsetting retailers.

If 90% of the population can't even use your product you better charge 1500% more to the 10% that can in order to make a profit greater than what you would've made otherwise. Given the growing trend of obesity I could easily see a situation close to that one. Enough people are skinny enough right now but if things change the wrong way exclusively sized clothes could become unprofitable to market even when everyone wants them.

zer0netgain
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21 May 2013, 5:36 am

seaturtleisland wrote:

zer0netgain wrote:

You are correct on both points.

There are people who cater to the niche market of obese customers. However, their fashions have never been, and likely will never be in the near future, "trend setting."

Likewise, look at the big labels that only sell to "beautiful people." Their labels come at a premium cost.

Again, they aren't losing money....indeed they make sales to a lot of "average" people who can fit their products, but don't look like their models. The strategy is to market in sizes that beautiful people can wear so that average people of the same size will want to buy in the subconscious belief that wearing the clothes will make them as beautiful/sexy as the people in the ads.

It's emotional manipulation through imagery.

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21 May 2013, 5:37 am

seaturtleisland wrote:

zer0netgain wrote:

lacycurtains
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21 May 2013, 7:02 am

I read the opening paragraph, and immediately had the 'toys r us' theme in my head. The 'I don't want to grow up" part.

'Cool' people set their own fashions and don't care what others think.

I think the market he's reaching for can be compared to packages of those tomatoes bred to for shelf life, and their looks are the only good thing about them. Me, I'd rather be homegrown, fresh-picked, and still warm from the sun.

1000Knives
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21 May 2013, 1:18 pm

Today I wore an Abercrombie shirt while being unshowered and unshaved with crazy looking messy hair. I wore it to the auto parts store. The sleeves and collar were frayed and the fabric was separating from the points. It also had holes in it, and some random remains of car grease that didn't wash out.

Reppin' that brand well.

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21 May 2013, 1:19 pm

neilson_wheels wrote:

They would have to pay me to wear their clothes.

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21 May 2013, 2:33 pm

I had a pair of their jeans once. Someone was getting rid of them and gave them to me. They were ok.

If I was buying jeans I'd rather buy them at a thrift store. The names on the labels mean nothing to me. What's most important is how they feel, and maybe how they look. I'm not paying loads of money to have a different brand name on my clothing.

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