Fired For Being Ugly: The Dark Side Of Retail
The fashion industry — particularly on the retail side — has a long and illustrious history of superficial hiring and firing practices. But the past few days have seen retail giants like J. Crew and Prada come under fire for particularly heinous examples.
Non-profit group Make The Road filed suit against J. Crew Monday morning, alleging that the ready-to-wear brand discriminated against a transgender person applying for a job at their New York flagship store. According to the complaint, which was filed with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the applicant “was treated brusquely, told to fill out an application, and was never called.” Conversely, their testing partner — who applied the same day — was hired almost immediately. And this follows less than three days after a senior retail manager at Prada Japan announced she was asked to “eliminate” any staff deemed “old, fat, ugly, disgusting, or not having the Prada look.” How very Zoolander of them.
According to The Daily Mail, the firing orders came directly from the top, via Davide Sesia — Prada Japan’s now infamous CEO. Rina Bovrisse, the manager who filed the suit, told the Japan Times that 13 employees consequently left the company after being “issued transfer orders that amounted to demotions, with poor sales cited as the reason.” So far, Prada has refused to comment, and while we hate to weigh in without seeing the evidence, well, where there’s smoke, there’s a fire.
But in Prada’s (and now J. Crew’s) defense, they are not alone. In the great, grand history of discriminatory firings at fashion companies, American lifestyle brand Abercrombie & Fitch indisputeably takes the cake.
While Prada may have cornered the market on anti-ugliness, Abercrombie has proved themselves limitless in their capacity for discrimination. Muslim? Headscarves are so 2007. Prosthetic limb? Not quite the “Abercrombie Look.” Anything other than Caucasian? You can try your luck, but no promises. A brief rundown: in 2008, a Muslim teenager filed suit after the company refused to exempt her from their lengthy and secretive “Look Policy” which, of course, prohibits “headgear.” In 2009, a teenager in London was accepted for a position on their sales floor — with one catch: she had to buy a cardigan in order to cover her prosthetic limb. Unfortunately, the cardigan didn’t quite jibe with their “summer uniform,” which meant that she was banished to the store room until long-sleeves were deemed weather-appropriate. Keep in mind that both of these instances are separate from the $2.2 million the company paid to employees who felt they were unfairly forced to buy A&F clothing, or the $40 million it paid in a settlement over its discriminatory hiring practices.
Following closely in Abercrombie’s footsteps is Dov Charney’s consistently controversial brainchild: American Apparel. In 2009, Gawker received an e-email from a store manager alleging Charney made all stores lagging in sales send in group staff photos. A choice excerpt:
Dov personally judged each person in group photos that were sent in, and if you weren’t to his liking, then boy… watch out. The comments that he made were raging from childish ones to insulting ones. Managers that don’t comply with these new standards are afraid of losing their jobs. Employees who aren’t up to Dov’s “look” and whose work ethic is “just ok” are being targeted and scrutinized and the minute they make small mistakes, they are being fired. But it’s only because Dov wants to weed out the “ugly people.”
So, the takeaway here, at least according to the marketing and research departments of these leviathan clothing companies, appears to be that attractive salespeople make better, well, salespeople — a theory which would be even more offensive if it weren’t just so wrong. As almost every consumer can attest, a helpful, polite, and efficient salesperson has a much better chance of bamboozling me out of my hard-earned cash than the pretty, young thing sulking in the corner, no matter how good she looks in those jeans.
Related:
J.Crew Accused of Discriminating Against Potential Transgender Employees[The Cut]
Prada Bosses in Japan axe ‘Old Fat and Ugly Staff’, Claims Former Manager [The Daily Mail]
We Predict More Lawsuits in Dov Charney’s Future [Gawker]
Lawsuit: Muslim Scarf Not Part of Abercrombie & Fitch ‘Look’ [ABC]
Abercrombie “Banishes” Girl With Prosthetic Arm [Jezebel]
American Beauty: A Brief History Of Abercrombie’s Hiring Practices [Jezebel]
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