So, Lane Bryant has stepped in a big, stinking pile of fat-shaming shit.
OOPS.
I’ve spent a lot of time defending them in the past, even when I wasn’t digging their fatshion. My nascent fat acceptance really sprouted when I worked for them and I have carried that positive glow with me through the years. They’re a reliable source for things I can’t get elsewhere and I wear the hell out of their Cacique stuff. Heck, they were the first store credit card I ever had. I was looking online at their sale stuff just this morning.
What I haven’t felt so good about was their Twitter feed. I mean, sure it was great for distributing free panty coupons during the Ashley Graham Cacique commercial scandal (I still love that commercial). But there’s a lot of stuff I’d expect to find on the pages of a 1980s Cosmo magazine.
And today they’re ragging on definatalie’s kickin’ tshirt.
This is ragingly problematic for a couple of reasons.
a) When a mega-retailer picks on an indie artist, that’s just some bullshit right there. Way to live up to the evil corporation stereotype there, LB!
b) I get that LB can’t be radically fat pos and still reach a mainstream fat customer. But holy shit, do they need to engage in active shaming? Fat is not a bad word. Acknowledging that we have fat is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s a pretty amazingly healthy step for an expanding (heh) number of people.
@lanebryant has stopped responding to tweets at the moment. I suspect they’re trying to figure out what they said wrong. But I think this is actually a really fantastic moment and there’s something that a lot of retailers need to learn:
Don’t fuck with us. Give us options, give us clothes, we will give you our money and our consumer loyalty. But don’t you try to shame us, too.
Clothes, as I tweeted to a twitter friend, are not camouflage – no amount of clothing is going to make me look like a thin person. And, you know, I wouldn’t want it to. I want to wear things that make me joyous, things that make me look like ME, things that kick ass. My idea of flattering probably isn’t the mainstream definition (which is more like: slimming) but COME ON. Are we really still stuck in the days of dressing to hide, to diminish, to disappear?
I damn well refuse to participate in that.
Fat people are not invisible, nor should we aspire to be.
I’m curious to see how Lane Bryant responds – if they respond. But in the meantime, I’m going to point out that I’m in the process of updating my I Give Them My Money page (from which LB is apparently itching to be removed). I’ve added, for example, Lucie Lu. If you shop at any other small/indie fattie retailer and you’re pleased with them, let me know.
And in the meantime, I’m Team Fance all the way.
ETA: “Fance” is fancy, y’all – it’s part of a blog feature called Friday Fance over at definatalie’s blog. @lapocketrocket is, as far as I know, the person who coined the Team Fance hashtag on Twitter.
41 Comments
I was hoping you’d post about this muck super quickly! It cheeses me off that they decided to publicly say something so thoughtless… and about a really rad t-shirt, nonetheless.
I am ESPECIALLY disgusted that they acknowledged knowing definatalie is a fat pos blogger. I mean, talk about biting the fat butt that wears your pants….
They did?! I missed that. That takes it up a notch, for sure.
Yeah, in response to @LindaLunacy calling them on it.
Silly question — what is the “Team Fance” reference? (The t-shirt is awesome, and I’m really surprised that LB chose to pick on it.)
Oh, and I’ve had AMAZING customer service from LucieLu — Kira and I are both big fans now!!
I’ve added an explanation – I should have thought to include it the first time around. *grin*
Fance is, essentially, fancy. I don’t know if she got it from someone but one of her blog features is the Friday Fance. @lapocketrocket is the first person I saw on Twitter to use the hashtag so I think she coined it.
And rock on! I seriously continue to have nothing but good things to say about Lucie Lu – and all of her new stuff is available in the 4X and 5X size range as well so I am even more excited (and broke). *laugh*
Oh, wow — I’m in love with her eye for design!! Thanks for the link, I’m giddily leafing through the posts now! <3
TEAMFANCE-4-LIFE! I responded to this madness thusly:
@lanebryant Yes it’s necessary! Not everyone buys into the old beauty myths. And no pair of pants are going to make my fat ass any less so!
I doubt they will respond to any of it, but I’ve been sick of their two sides to one fat for a long time. But you make a good point: I still but their bras, dammit!
I have long suspected that they walk the “this fat and no fatter” line when it comes to fat acceptance.
Oh, there is nooooooo doubt about that. Lane Bryant’s totes cool with the Crystal Renn/Kate Dillon/Ashley Graham level of fat, but anyone above that? They’re so not interested, and aren’t about to acknowledge that we exist in any sort of publicity/ad campaigny sort of way. Fascinating, since the first sizes that tend to sell out at LB are the 26 – 28s according to that new NY Times article “Plus-Size Wars”.
…the title of which just makes me think of a sci-fi blockbuster about a group of rebellious fatties going up against an Empire made up of CEOs from Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, etc.
Yikes LB! The lovely ladies of Denver shop in Buxom because we are not a chain store. My goal has never been to become the next LB, and the girls here LOVE that. I carry LucieLu, and a few other of my favorite indies are B&Lu and Lotis Clothing, check them out if you don’t already shop them. Also, if you can find a boutique in your area that carries BOOM BOOM jeans…you will become an addict.
-bree
Thanks for the heads up – looks like a kickass store.
Tell us more about BOOM BOOM jeans!
Yeah, I sort of have a cult following for the BOOM BOOM here at the store. Everyone LOVES how they fit and more importantly how they look. You can’t buy directly from them, so you have to find a retailer on-line or brick and mortar. The only small draw back is that the largest size is 22, I wish they went larger. Several of their styles are quite generous though, and I can usually fit up to size 24 in their jeans. Also they make great jackets, but I find them to run bit small.
I am always happy to pass along great finds and share feedback from my customers. I am happy to find your blog here. I love it.
-bree
I really wonder just what Lane Bryant was trying to say with ‘Is this really necessary’; maybe ‘is it really necessary to say the word ‘fat”? ‘Is it really necessary to say fat arse on a t-shirt like people can’t see you have one’? ‘Is it really necessary to confront fatties with how fat their arse is’? ‘Is it really necessary to say that icky word in big letters on a shirt and make our Twitter marketing department uncomfortable’? ‘Is it really necessary to make t-shirts with awesome fat positive statements and threaten to steal our customers even though you’re an indie designer and we’re a big corporation’?
Is it really necessary to tweet about that, Lane Bryant?
Is it really necessary to actually be fat positive and not, you know, spend your money on clothes while continuing to loathe yourself and your fat?
All of the above, I suspect.
Great catch. I’m so on it.
Peace,
Shannon
140 characters really are just enough.
yay!
TEAM FANCE. Lane Bryant are from a very strange school of “size acceptance”, if any. They hate the F word (YES, FAT!) with a passion. Their credit card points programme is called “Real Women Dollars” (WTF), and that sort of smells rotten. Real women are are women, etc. Plus, they sell Spanx and all things “flattering”, “slimming” and other nonsense. In other words, “slim women aren’t women, but we want to be like them”. Awful philosophy.
Support indie designers who are actually congruent, humanist, and body positive. It will give them more power, at some point, in the world of fashion.
I get that, in order to succeed in mainstream retail, they have to appeal to a broad (heh) range of fat consumers and that includes the majority who are still pretty invested in the diet industry and the enculturated hatred of fat. BUT DUDE, YOU KNOW?
I do hesitate to suggest that we all shop exclusively from indie designers – I have a really hard time finding indie designers who make clothes in my size. And I’m a huge supporter of small, women-owned businesses especially, which may or may not translate to indie design.
So I think it’s definitely a good thing to consider – but one reason I have long defended LB is because they are the standby for certain basic items. Until indie designers branch out a little bit (especially when it comes to sizing and price), it just isn’t feasible for some people yet.
I’m rooting for the day that it is, though, for reals. And I’m shopping for that day, too.
Hey, thanks for blogging about this! I knew Definatalie looked amazing in her skinny jeans, but I didn’t know she was a designer with beautiful things for sale. I may have to buy a fat gym bag in solidarity.
I like sassy t-shirts but I rarely wear them. I don’t like inviting people to look longer or more closely at my chest, and I don’t like thinking about how my non-flat surfaces might be distorting the graphic or words.
DIGRESSION, about t-shirts:
Last year the feminist students at my university were handing out shirts that read “This Is What A Feminist Looks Like” and I turned one down… that shirt is not so “subversive” on someone white, female, cis, fat, and over 40…!
I’m wondering if this is either…
A) confusion about what the T-shirt means by the employee that does their social networking. (They thought the shirt was a mean joke instead of a political statement.)
B) a PR stunt to get us to all talk about them. (They KNEW it was an political statement and wanted to get in on the game.)
C) their “anti-fat word” campaign colliding spectacularly with our “reclaiming fat” campaign.
Or some combination of the above.
P.S. About “REAL WOMEN” campaigns (by Dove, LB, The Body Shop, etc)…
I think of “Real Women” as the opposite of “Male-created Corporate-manufactured Airbrushed Photoshopped Fantasy Women” in advertising and media.
Models and celebrities aren’t “un-real” because they’re thin, but because their public personae and images are fictional creations.
It’s unfortunate that saying “real women” to point out the fictional nature of female images in media has the side effect of making thin women IRL feel excluded from “realness.”
This
I want Team Fance buttons and badges for blogs and Facebook pages!
Unfortunately, since my options are limited, and Cacique makes the only bra I truly love, I will continue to shop at Lane Bryant. (Same reason I keep shopping at Old Navy, I don’t have the privilege to shop other places right now).
But if I could I totally would, at least until they apologized. Team Fance.
I’m still twitchy about them posting the link to that article from The Frisky, which has to be one of the few sites that insults both men and women in one clever article. I kid you not, on a list of 20 ways to keep your man, they said stop playing games in one bullet point and PLAY GAMES LOTS OF GAMES (including memorizing his cc # so you can get “revenge”) in another. Ugh LB. Just ugh.
I did a blog post yesterday about some of the new stuff LB has out, and let’s just say that graphic screenprint shirts with fireworks, feathers and a big-ass ugly flower isn’t really necessary.
This would be a great opportunity for LB to actually peruse some of our blogs and get educated that to many of us, fat is no longer an insult. Especially to me. No amount of black is gonna hide the fact that I am a fat fatty fat!
let’s just say that graphic screenprint shirts with fireworks, feathers and a big-ass ugly flower isn’t really necessary.
That sounds like the stuff Fashion Bug carries, which is why I never shop there. I used to go to LB because they had some clothes more suitable for work. Except they started moving towards a lot of deep v-neck and/or clingy stuff which wasn’t work-appropriate.
I actually told a salesperson in the store (politely, b/c it’s not her decision) that I was not buying much in the store anymore because “Not all women have enormous breasts, or want to call attention to our breasts with huge padded/push-up/shaped bras.” She looked totally mindblown that anyone might think that way.
I’m fond of CJ Banks, which is the plus-sized side of Christopher and Bank. Extensive size range, less daring styles than LB, and the stores I’ve been in are not only well-kept but they treat you like a customer, helping you shop, and then giving you a very upscale bag to carry your purchases in. http://www.cjbanks.com
I get that LB can’t be radically fat pos and still reach a mainstream fat customer. But holy shit, do they need to engage in active shaming?
Indeed.
BTW, indie supersize clothing shops I have bought from:
Making It Big http://www.makingitbig.com/
Plus Woman http://www.pluswoman.com/
Love Your Peaches http://www.loveyourpeaches.com/
Big On Batik http://www.bigonbatik.com/
Holy Clothing http://stores.ebay.com/HOLYCLOTHING-EXCLUSIVES-Sizes-Sm-5X
Junonia http://www.junonia.com/
Marianne, the Lucy Lu link doesn’t work.
Thanks for the heads up! I fixed it.
I pretty much need the fat arse t-shirt. A lot. And then LB can KISS the aforementioned fat arse.
Um, did they not realize that they actually got the supposedly offensive merchandise far more attention that it would have gotten otherwise?
I think it’s much more likely to help the artist than hurt her (in sales at least).
OMG! I want that shirt!
I know that no article of clothing, no matter how well tailored, is going to make me look like a size 2. Or even a 12. I don’t care, though. Anyone who believes that there is one look that will shave that extra 100 pounds off their appearance is fooling themselves – and entertaining everyone else by trying.
I also get flack from the trendier folk out there for not caring about what brand of clothes I am wearing. All I care about is that I like it, I like the feel of it, and that it looks damn cute on Me. The rest be B.S. . I would, however, like the chance to rock the red outfit Marilyn Manson wore in the band’s “Dope Show” video. The boots and the faux-fur-trimmed duster alone make that outfit great!
I never liked Lane Bryant’s clothes, really. I will agree that they have much in the way of cute undies, though. I remember as a (fat) teenager not being a fan of LB, save for staples, like jeans. I would have loved to have had a Torrid (which, at 5′9” I am borderline too tall for now!) located nearby.
Another thing that bothers Me: Has anyone noticed that the sizing can differ greatly in their clothes? I mean, I have staple pieces that I wear regularly from there that vary from a 22 to a 32, depending on the item. Also, the sizing seems to vary from LB to LB-owned The Avenue. What’s going on there?
~M
Clothing site I like: http://www.figuresque.com
The sizing does vary. Some things in LB’s 26/28 can be cut small, but I can go to Avenue and it fits properly. I can’t fit into size 26 pants in LB, but can at Avenue. That’s why I sometimes take more than one size into the fitting room to compare.
I’m glad to hear that it’s not just Me!
“Is this really necessary?” What, to say the word, to own it, to be who we are? You bet your ass it is. I’m not that 14 year old being dragged shamefaced into the ‘husky’ section by my grandmother getting lectures about black and slimming stripes. I don’t owe anyone an apology for taking up the space I take up in this world.
I want that shirt. I’m getting one.
Damn, I’m all fired up now.
Wow. WOW.
Get with the program, Lane Bryant.
I know this is radically off-topic, but I need to get something off my chest about Lane Bryant.
I’m 6′. Used to be Lane Bryant was the only place I could find pants in a 14 or 16 tall. All of the major retailers had policies that they would carry some tall pants and some plus size pants, but no tall plus-size pants.
Then, I went in there with a severe pants emergency and found out that they no longer had tall pants in store and they had to be ordered online (which is NOT OKAY, because: pants emergency.)
And, it just really sucks to feel like there are ZERO stores that treat your body like a thing that exists and is worth making clothes for. And it sucks to be having a pants emergency.
The Avenue has tall pants in stock. Petite, too, usually. I know, a lot of good that does you now, but you never know what will happen.
But then again, even the lengths can be off. I’m 5′ 9”, and sometimes I wear the average, sometimes the tall. My mother was not quite 6′, and sometimes the tall would fit her, sometimes it would be a bit short. My 6′ 1” aunt will skip all that and just get men’s jeans (which is what pants she’ll actually wear!)because they come in more lengths.
~M
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