The clothing company Revolve recently received some serious backlash for a horrible body-shaming shirt sold on their website. It was a $168 grey sweatshirt that read, “Being fat is not beautiful, it’s an excuse.” The sweatshirt was part of “The Capsule Collection” in partnership with Lena Dunham and its parent company, LPA. The phrase is supposedly an insult that was said to Paloma Elsesser, a plus-sized woman herself. The exposition of the insulting top led to immediate outrage among the media, with users questioning the designer’s intentions and the message it sends to young people.
This is gross..who even thought that would be a good idea
— Ang🇨🇦 (@IA_NYC) September 12, 2018
But what do you think this does to impressionable young teenagers when seeing things like this? Yes as grown adults we are supposed to be more responsible for our actions which I agree with too.
— The Deaf Passenger (@deafpassenger) September 13, 2018
Renowned plus-sized fashion model, Tess Holiday, reacted as well calling the Revolve company “a mess”.
https://twitter.com/Tess_Holliday/status/1039903581426438145
To make matters worse, the website featured a sample-size model wearing the sweatshirt, which only reinforced the insensitivity of the matter. This ignorant choice of model gave the impression that it was not an empowering form of expression, but a malicious insult directed at all curvy women.
The shirt clearly promotes fat-phobia, mistreatment, and bullying on the premise of one’s weight, so it’s no wonder people reacted negatively. The question is, why was it even made?
The line was conceived by LPA alongside Lena Dunham, Emily Ratajkowski, Cara Delevingne, Suki Waterhouse and Paloma Elsesser, all influential models with the hopes of fighting cyber-bullying. Yet somehow they managed to offend more people than they’ve helped with this awful and ignorant idea. The concept of the line was to put mean quotes on clothing, inspired by real messages said to these women to shed light on the horror of internet cruelty. More pullovers like this were scheduled to be released, but the collection was canceled after this disaster.
In response, the parties involved have issued individual apology statements, excusing themselves for the offense. Revolve released a statement to Fox News that the series was “prematurely released.”
“The capsule collection – originally conceived by LPA alongside Lena Dunham, Emily Ratajkowski, Cara Delevingne, Suki Waterhouse and Paloma Elsesser – was set to debut tomorrow as a direct commentary on the modern day ‘normality’ of cyber-bullying and the shared desire to create a community for those most affected by the epidemic. Proceeds were set to benefit ‘Girls Write Now’, a charity focused on mentoring underserved young women and helping them find their voices and tell their stories through writing,” the statement read.
“The prematurely released images featured on Revolve.com was not only included without context of the overall campaign but regrettably featured one of the pieces on a model who’s size was not reflective of the piece’s commentary on body positivity. We at Revolve sincerely apologize to all those involved – particularly Lena, Emily, Cara, Suki and Paloma – our loyal customers, and the community as a whole for this error,” Revolve continued, before noting that the collection had been pulled and $20,000 was donated to the charity.
Lena Dunham also released a statement on her Instagram account to state her responsibility in the controversy. She admits she was central to the production of these harmful shirts, but she blames Revolve for the choice of model, claiming that, “Without consulting me or any of the women involved, @revolve presented the sweatshirts on thin white women…”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnovvKPHn_X/?hl=en&taken-by=lenadunham
Florence Given, a U.K.-based artist reached out to LPA, the clothing designer, via Instagram direct messages to learn their intentions and they responded similarly.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnoYbfenDnC/?utm_source=ig_embed
This unfortunate episode was certainly not the first, nor will it be the last time an article of clothing has offended a community. It seems to happen increasingly more often and consumers are getting sick of it. What designers must realize is that clothing is a form of expression, and they must recognize the messages the clothes they design are saying.
