The folks at American Apparel love them a good pun.
The also, apparently, love their shapely customers. Jezebel noted that the retailer has debuted plus-size, which means size XL. Which for American Apparel is about a size 12/14 -- so giant!
Not.
To introduce the new, so-husky size 12, American Apparel is letting customers judge each other's bodies in a contest called "The Next Big Thing."
Curvy gals are encouraged to upload a photo of themselves and write a blurb about why they are "bigger, better and more booty-ful than the rest." Then people can log onto americanapparel.net and rate each girl from one to five on how, er, booty-ful they are.
Sound sort of messed up? At least American Apparel is even acknowledging the existence of women sizes 12 and up. The retailer received some bad press last year when it told customer April Flores, who inquired about plus-size items, “That’s not our demographic.”
Blogger Lillian Behrendt heard about April's anecdote and published it on her website, writing:
"I am in my early 20′s. I will wear stupid pants. So will just about everyone else who is my age. Stupid pants are an important part of human development. By not catering to the enormous market of plus-sized/fat/whatever young people, American Apparel, the INDUSTRY LEADER in stupid pants (not to mention stupid shirts, stupid shorts and stupid nipple-baring leotard things) is missing out on a lot of money."
Now American Apparel is cashing in and making a spectacle of it in the process.
Want to enter yourself in "The Next Big Thing" contest? Or just shop for clothing in sizes 12 and up (if, of course, you can "fill these babies out")? Head to americanapparel.net.
Here's a preview: