14 DAY TRIAL // The Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries recently came under fire for saying a while back that their clothes were only for the cool kids – that is, skinny and beautiful. Blogger Jes Baker is challenging this brand exclusiveness by turning tables on it.
The photo attached to this article is of Jes wearing an A & F shirt. She’s mimicking the A & F promos, as part of a campaign she retitled “Attractive & Fat,” in which she’s seen with a male model who is skinny.
Speaking to OMG! Insider, Jes says she doesn’t care what Jeffries thinks about her campaign, which has already gone viral, because her goal is to just send out the message to all women like her that they should never believe such statements, that beauty is dependent on size.
Check out the video below for the interview.
“I don't really care what Abercrombie really truly thinks about this, to be honest with you. I don't have the energy to dislike Mike Jeffries,” she says.
“There's so much negativity in the world, it doesn't need to be perpetuated,” Jes adds.
She also reads a fragment from her open letter to Jeffries, which she posted on her personal blog, as the perfect companion for her original campaign.
“The only thing you've done through your comments (about thin being beautiful and only offering XL and XXL in your stores for men) is reinforce the unoriginal concept that fat women are social failures, valueless, and undesirable. Your apology doesn't change this,” she says.
In the same letter, the blogger notes how contrasting body types are never used in the same image: it’s either fat with fat or skinny with skinny. This particular clothing line always goes for the latter because, as Jeffries said, they’re selling only to the “cool kids.”
“I challenge the separation of attractive and fat, and I assert that they are compatible regardless of what you believe,” she writes.
“Not only do I know that I'm [gorgeous], but I also have the confidence to pose in ways you don’t dare. You are more than welcome to prove me wrong by posing shirtless with a hot fat chick; it would thrill me to see such a shoot,” Jes urges the A & F CEO.
So far, there’s been nothing but radio silence from Abercrombie & Fitch.