{"id":1691,"date":"2013-05-14T02:07:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T02:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/?p=1691"},"modified":"2013-05-14T02:07:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T02:07:04","slug":"thanks-for-the-truth-mike-jeffries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/2013\/thanks-for-the-truth-mike-jeffries\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks For The Truth, Mike Jeffries!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Recently, Mike Jeffries, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is taking heat for comments he made about his brand<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During an interview with Business Insider<\/a> on Friday, Robin Lewis, co-author of The New Rules of Retail<\/em>, claimed that Jeffries, “doesn’t want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people. 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.'”<\/a><\/p>\n

In a 2006 interview with Salon<\/a>, Jeffries said,<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cgood-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don\u2019t market to anyone other than that,\u201d<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bloggers, Moms and some of Abercrombie & Fitch\u2019s customers are up in arms about these comments.<\/a> I, on the other hand, am thrilled to have this insider\u2019s perspective. And I think many brands share his view. Now the fashion industry makes sense to me! I\u2019ve wondered why so many designer brands and boutiques only carry sizes up to an 8 or 10\u2026now I finally get it! It\u2019s because they and their customers don\u2019t want to be associated with a woman my size. If I were to wear their pieces, I would be a detriment to their brand and undermine their status. They see me as a threat to their market-share.<\/p>\n

Up until now I\u2019ve been all wrong about this\u2026thinking that they don\u2019t understand how to flatter the fatter, or that they are more concerned with their art than with my options. Finally I know the truth, they don\u2019t want me.<\/p>\n

Whew! Now I can relax and just ignore any brand that is only available in size 00 to 10 (where the 10 is really an 6 or 8).\u00a0I can feel great about just investing my money, klout and media \u201ccurrency\u201d with brands that want me! There\u2019s no need to invest energy trying to show the exclusive brands the huge market they are missing (no pun intended, 67% of customers are now plus size) or try to assist them in making flattering clothing so they can tap into this market that is hungry for fashionable flattering clothing.<\/p>\n

I appreciate the brands that embrace me even more. I no longer feel like I\u2019m missing out on something. With the assistance of my tailor, I can make anything off the rack look like a designer piece that flatters my figure and supports my self esteem.<\/p>\n

Thank you Mr. Jeffries. You freed my mind!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO Mike Jeffries is taking heat about his comments about not wanting plus-size women in his stores. I, on the other hand, am thrilled to have this insider’s perspective and embrace what he has to say. Here’s why…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,363],"tags":[817,818,68,10,816,384,819,7,9,815,791,792],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1695,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1691\/revisions\/1695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sarahshah.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}