Why now, Abercrombie?

I walked into a store recently and immediately was halted by this image in front of me. Mouth agape, I stood and stared at these three mannequins until my shock and mix of complex emotions subsided. You can’t guess what store I was at...

Abercrombie and Fitch.

To be honest I didn’t know what I was feeling in that moment, or even now as I try to flush things out. Shock for sure. Pride? Relief? Awe? Anger? Pity? I guess I could sum things up with the thought, “FINALLY. But why now, why not then?”

If you were around for the height of the 2000s Abercrombie era, you know how surreal it is to see something like this in their stores. There was an entire documentary (White Hot. Netflix) made about how profoundly problematic and deeply hurtful not only the culture this brand perpetuated was, but even the company itself. Fat phobia, xenophobia, and racism, to name a few.

This was all a part of the common fashion business model of, “ We want our brand to be *aspirational,* not founded in reality, or health, or what women actually look like.” This micro minded definition of “aspirational” wounded millions of girls and women. Eating disorders rose world wide in the 2000’s, from 3.4% to 7.8%. There were absolutely no positive representations of women either mid size or plus size in any media while we were growing up, zero transparency on how the few achieved and maintained such dimensions, and the anti health fatally toxic diet industry made billions from it.

What I’ve taken from this moment, and what I hope you do too, is to give yourself some grace and understanding. The culture now is not even close to the culture of our formative years. It’s almost impossible to not only have been traumatized by these messages we were berated with for decades, but to not also have our self image informed by these false definitions. It's going to take intentional, slow, effort to unravel these indoctrinated distortions we see in the mirror.

Looking at this mannequin though, I see our bodies. Captivating, real, glorious, and absolutely NOT A TREND.

( Follow my substack for more… https://pirkritude.substack.com/ )