Abercrombie CEO Says He Doesn’t Want Fat People Wearing His Clothes

I think by now everyone knows that Abercrombie And Fitch doesn't care any sizes bigger than a L in their store (unless it's guys clothing, in which case they go up to a XXL to cater to the bigger athletic types), apparently no one really questioned it until recently and it turns out that their CEO is kind of totally douchey. I've struggled with my weight my whole life (If you really want to know here's a brief background!), it's something that I don't talk about very easily or very much, but every once and a while something comes out that just blows my mind, and makes me bring this up.  This is one of those times.

Clothes shopping is hard enough for teens, especially if you're an overweight teen, trust me I know, I've been there.  They don't make those clothes that the "cool" kids wear in big sizes, I can't tell you how many times my mom and I left a dressing room with me in tears. For teens, shopping for clothes is usually about what the cool kids are wearing, and what fashion magazines are saying.  A lot of times it comes from the store Abercrombie and Fitch.  I mean hey if you like smelling an obscene amount of cologne, and don't mind paying outrageous amounts of money for last seasons polos then yeah, that's the place for you! But don't you dare try to shop there if you are overweight...

There is a reason Abercrombie doesn't carry anything higher than an L in women's clothing, it's because their CEO Mike Jeffries doesn't want overweight women wearing his brand.  Not cool.

Business Insider recently brought light to this situation in an article that has gone viral and outraged many on the web. Robin Lewis, the co-author of The New Rules of Retail told Buisness Insider that "He 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.'"

When Business Insider asked Abercrombie for a statement they weren't available for comment, but the people at Business Insider found a 2006 interview that Mike Jeffries the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch did with Salon, in this interview he said about 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.  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."