Fitch Please!!!

Hello again!!!
I know this may seem like a controversial topic, but it is something that bares a lot of meaning to me and I feel like Ellen (from the Ellen Degeneres Show, which I love to watch/laugh along with), hit the nail on the head when she spoke up about it.

I have been shopping in Hollister, which is a 'cousin' shop of Abercrombie and Fitch, as it is more prominent in England, for around two years. I remember at the time, so many of the girls and boys in school would sport their clothes during trips or non-school uniform days and some would just bring the bags in to school, despite the presence of a half-naked man or woman emblazoned on the bag (which I thought wasn't very appropriate at all, but who am I to judge). I remember seeing Hollister as a  fashion icon for teenagers and I felt like I should hop on the bandwagon at some point. So I did.

Initially, I was very excited. The store always had a distinct, look, smell and inability to see anything that you are doing when in it. But, for me, it just added to the aura of it. I myself, am quite price conscious and I was devastated that so many of the more unique pieces were fairly steeply priced. But, nevertheless I was always able to find a discounted shirt or top that I liked. We would purchase it and walk happily out of the store, bearing the bag (the tell-tale sign that I had visited and bought something from this shop). From that day onwards, I would wear the tops on special occasions and I thought I was just following the trend.

However, I remember looking at their website from time to time and it would strike me just how slim some of the girls they advertised were. They were all very beautiful models, but it would scare me, because I was the customer buying the clothes and I knew that there was no way that I would ever manage to pull those particular looks off. I remember always admiring the girls that worked in the store,  wondering how they manage to look so effortlessly 'beautiful'. The sizing would also frustrate me as I wasn't used to being categorised as 'small', 'medium' or 'large'. I never knew which one I belonged in and I remember thinking to myself that it must be extremely difficult for slightly curvier girls to find their sizes, which I thought was completely unfair. Anyway, until around a month ago, I was still someone who looked on their internet and spent hours just window-shopping.

I'm not sure exactly what was said by the CEO, but I remember being completely devastated. I felt like everything that was said about the label only catering for a certain size girl applied to me. The video about the person that has decided to take old clothes to the homeless, despite the CEO expressing his wishes for that not to happen, is (in my opinion), a brilliant way of showing that the consumer and customer should be in charge of what they do with the clothes (they are, after all, the people that buy the clothes). It wasn't a shock to me, it was just disheartening. I know that there are models in the fashion industry that may seem exceptionally thin, but they are catering for a specific audience and not many teenagers I know can afford designer labels. But, for me, it's sad because I realised that I spent so long trying to follow everybody else, hoping that if I wore Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister, I would finally look like one of their models.

But, I have realised that in reality, that is not feasible. But I don't mind because I am happy with the way I look and I have found other places to shop for a style that I like. I hope other girls who have been affected by the recent controversy can do the same.

Best wishes. xxx