American Apparel's feud with photo contest winner heats up

Being overweight is UNHEALTHY and expensive/taxing on our medical community. Let's stop tip toeing around this issue. No, being overweight does not make you less or more of a person on the inside but stop trying to make us believe that it is okay to be fat - it is not.

i love her photos... she is a gorgeous woman who didnt sit back while some crappy overpriced company tried to belittle women who are in need of a larger size. American Apparel needs to wake the hell up and start to cater to all types of women and men, not just the skeletor creeps that try to be edgy and cool.

When did 12 - 14 become plus sized? You look at the models from fifty years ago and they would be plus-sized by today's 'model standards.' This campaign and references are very much a reflection of the way that the clothing industry and their designers have become detached from their true customer base.

The images pushed by the apparel industry, in general, due their ubiquitous appearances in multiple media, have become a part of the norm of our culture. Girls become anorexic and obese while trying to deal with not matching those images and the pressures that they feel to match those images.

American Apparel should be ashamed and embarrassed by even putting out that casting call and furthering the idea that anything over a size 6 is fat.

The only fat I see here is in the heads of people who conceive of and publicize such ideas.

--isobel

......maybe they should have used a Guinea pig instead of a chicken....or a rabbit......or even a live chicken.

.......and someone thought this would sell clothes, huh? Thought this was sexy or something? (well, the one of her stuffing a whole chicken down her gullet was a little bit) Can't imagine an overweight girl going in there and asking to be shown the "chicken throat-stuffing" attire. Yeesss, the pics are humorous, in a fashion.....but hideous at the same time. I think someone in the ad department needs their walking papers. Anyway, we don't go there anymore. The daughter thinks it's overly priced cheap crap and the clerks are snots.

Nancy Upton...YOU GO GIRL!!!!!!! Thank you fore speaking up for all of us "overweight Women". As for American Apparel, First you need to take the word American out of your name. You most definately DO NOT speak for or represent us in any way, shape, or fashion. Everyone has the same rights in the USA, that's what makes us who we are. I can guarantee you that you just ruined your own business as I for one will never and I do mean never step foot in your store again. I will also make sure that everyone I come in contact with knows how you really feel about the " larger women" in the USA. Anyone who reads this...please make sure everyone you know knows how _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Apparel really feels about US!!!!!

How do they figure that 12 and 14 are plus sizes. Please I WISH I was a size 12 to 14. Anything ABOVE size 14 is a plus size. Who would want to buy clothing from American Apparel anyway? They are being a bit snotty these days about who they want to wear their clothing right? (Remember that Jersey Shore thing?) I think AA needs a total overhaul of their image. I couldn't care less if they provide plus sizes. I just think their image need help.

Probably a tasteless promotion but I hope some company moves forward with style for the larger sizes in women's clothing. A lot of the promotion really needs to be to build the confidence of their target customers. Most women look best (in my opinion) when their clothing emphasises some aspect of the traditional hour-glass figure rather than consisting of artfully decorated sacks. Not all figures are hour-glass shaped but most have an "hour glass feature" that is truly remarkable. The skinny girls have learned that by drawing attention to the most attractive feature the other features seem to fit quite nicely. Notice that skinny girls seem to be ok with wearing bikinis by adding a little that Nature forgot.

Go Nancy Go!
American Apparel really needs a deep reality check. As someone already said 12 is not a plus size. And Marilyn Monroe was a size 14. The only females that can fit into a size 4 are the age of 4. Many of the females on the front page of Cosmo and other self esteem destroying magazine are young teenagers....and its airbrushed. Hey American Apparel...try making clothes that a woman size 22 or 3X can wear that hasn't got a big ugly flower embroidered on the butt like a bulls eye or a shirt that has buttons that don't leave a gap at the bustline, or have sleeves four feet long, or in an ugly color like government building green. Try being impressive and a clothing leader not a follower. As a note 1 century ago (1911) the ideal woman weighed nearly 200lbs and actually ate food. Lillian Russell was the ideal perfection of her age. She ruled the stage and women and girls emulated her.

Love the idea that a 12 or 14 is a plus size. Shows how far size standards have changed and fallen in the past 50/60 years. In the 60's a 12 was considered normal. A pox on all female-hating designers and the retail companies that support them. There are companies who have realized the revenue they have been losing by ignoring 70% of the female population who aren't, and have no desire to be, a size 0 (and just wth size is that?). To them a heartfelt "Thank You"! To those like American Apparel - PHZZZZT!

So American Apparel thinks that they're being magnanimous by making clothing in sizes 12-14? Do they not realize that there is a large percentage of American women who are OVER size 14? Sorry, but they haven't done anything impressive in my book. They're still sizest snobs.

Why does she refer to the thin models as "subservient"? That's an odd word choice.

You go girl! I love it!

American Apparel isn't interested in expanding their line to right a wrong; Their only interest is their profits.

Boycott American Apparel. The plan they had backfired.

Boycott American Apparel. The plan they had backfired.

Those photos are fun and fantastic--American Apparel may want to re-think this diss lest it slowly go the way of the buffalo.

Why do clothing stores always have to open separate lines for plus size clothes? Would it kill them to just add an extra inch or two?
American Apparel is way too expensive for the crap they sell, but Forever 21 is like this too. Many of their clothes just need an extra inch, because I can fit into some of their regular stuff. Many women don't need separate plus size lines at all! Just a tiny stretch or something.

American Apparel has gotten away with TOO MUCH when it comes to appearance. Did you know they have a super strict dress code for employees? They have to be ABSOLUTELY beautiful or pretty in order to be hired? Plus sizes are higher than 18 at max. Their little "catch phrase" for their new line is offensive as well. Not everyone is a stick but not everyone is a plus size either!

Upton had the excellent mind for this photoshoot. You know why AA won't cough up the prizes? Because they're still going to want someone thinner, someone average size that they will consider a plus size and someone who will maintain a well-behaved appearance without "offending anyone" though AA already DOES with their little puns.

"Well-behave women seldom make history." - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

American Apparel must not of understood her reasoning for the shoot. The degrading defining of women in general from 0 sizes to 40 size is what I take from Miss Upton's position. Ladies we do have free will and having no one define us can be an option if we wish. Thank you Miss Upton for a long needed discussion with the fashion industries megalomaniac opinion of us.