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Halloween Shop Pulls ‘Anna Rexia’ Costume From Online Shelves

by Justin Fenner | 9:38 am, September 22nd, 2011

Do you know what would just be the absolute best? If people stopped using anorexia jokes to make money, which is exactly what the people at costume and makeup shop Ricky’s had planned on doing this Halloween season.

Until yesterday, the Ricky’s Halloween website, where you can find a plethora of sexy costumes and other Halloween accoutrement, featured a getup it was calling the “Anna Rexia” costume, a clever but unfunny take on the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. So how do you dress like Miss Rexia? By wearing a skintight black minidress silkscreened (cheaply, no doubt) with a ribcage, spinal cord and pelvis. Then, you put a saucy bow/bone in your hair and walk around all night obsessively measuring how small your waist is. So small you can see your own ribcage!

But the costume’s saga gets worse. As it turns out, this is nothing new — it’s been floating around since 2008 thanks the the brilliant minds at costume distributors Dreamgirl Direct. (They even make a plus size version.) That they would even think to make such a costume is unconscionable; that they hadn’t stopped selling it three years after it initially stoked the fires of controversy is just embarrassing.

Ricky’s wasn’t actually selling the costume — according to Gothamist the offensive duds were “coming soon.” We get that people wear some pretty messed up stuff on Halloween, but the idea that no one in the Ricky’s buying office thought this one in particular was going a little too far makes us wonder about the judgment the company applies to its other products.

But hindsight is always 20/20. The company said in a statement yesterday: “We seriously apologize if this costume has offended anyone. The costume has been taken down from our store due to the complaints and we didn’t realize the kind of harm this would cause.”

Clearly.

[The Village Voice via Gothamist]


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  • Jon Bershad

    That costume doesn’t even make sense. Put it on a woman who isn’t incredibly skinny and it’s just a skeleton dress.

  • http://www.facebook.com/serena.perfetto Serena Saverio Perfetto

    they could have called it “Skeletrina” and it would have been not offensive and cute >.<

  • http://twitter.com/bittertwitteyr Leah Sparks

    You kidding? This is pure gold. Hilarious. “Unfunny”? You crazy.

  • Anonymous

    i would wear it, looks cure :)

  • Anonymous

    People really need to lighten up. I have a bunch of costumes on my site which might be considered ‘in poor taste’ including a Casey Anthony costume http://myhomemadehalloweencostumes.com/  

    Halloween is supposed to be about having fun and being creative. I don’t think people wear costumes to make a political statement. 

  • Charisma

    Its a costume. There are stuffed ones 2 make ppl look really fat ones that make u lretarook dead ones that make u look retarded blind & so on. U name it & they make it. Prisoners junkies costumes u can wear 2 look like someone famous and slain butchered. You have 2 have thick skin. These ppl aren’t doing anything wrong. They merely are trying 2 have a gud time.That’s It. Nothing more nothing less. They don’t think the real life stuff is funny at all. I bet the majority would feel really bad it someone was truly hurt by their costume. 99% of time ppl are just trying 2 have a gud time. God Bless Everybody and have a safe fun Halloween. :-)

  • Openyoureyes1986

    Halloween is about dressing up, not mocking a serious mental illness. I think it’s disgusting. Fine taking the meaning behind it, you have a cute skeleton dress, but the meaning is there! Every time we try to take steps forward with women’s liberation, we take leaps back by advertising dresses and images like this. This costume “represents” anorexia. Anorexia is cute. You look hot. You have big boobs and a tiny waist. At least that’s what children will be thinking when they walk into a Halloween store and see this image. Isnt it hard enough for girls to grow up without bombarding them with images like this promoting anorexia. And it is promoting it. If it were a joke she would not have big boobs. If it were a joke they would not be glamorizing the model. And most importantly, they would not put a tape measure CHOKER on her. I’m disgusted with anybody who says people are too sensitive, people overreact, and stating the dress is “cute.”. Look t the numbers of teens suffering from anorexia and images of girls suffering from the disease and see if you don’t overreact.

  • Katcarvin1

    Please include Kathryn Carvin.

  • http://www.facebook.com/komori.aimi Aimi Ko

    I’d call this your average Hollywood chick

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