American Apparel Director Sends Nasty Letter To Plus Size Contest Winner

by Julia Rubin | 3:20 pm, September 14th, 2011

Um, wow. Nancy Upton, that kickass model who turned the offensively worded American Apparel XLent plus size model contest on its head, WON. But she won’t be receiving any of the prizes, says a ridiculous email from creative director Iris Alonzo.

Alonzo sent an open letter to Upton, which our friends over at The Frisky received. You can (and should) read the whole thing below. We bolded the key parts, and think Alonzo totally misses the point Upton was trying to make. We’re also pretty sure no other brand makes us shake our heads quite like American Apparel.

Dear Nancy Upton,

My name is Iris Alonzo and I am a Creative Director at American Apparel. Along with four other women, I conceived of the Next BIG Thing campaign for American Apparel. Firstly, we are very sorry that we offended you. Our only motive was to discover and celebrate the many beautiful XL women around the globe who enjoy our brand, and to promote the recent size additions to our collection. Nothing more, nothing less. We would also like to assure you that no one is getting fired over your stunt, as you expressed concern about in a recent interview. We are fortunate to have a great boss who trusts and believes in our instincts and ideas, and we are still very excited about all of our Next BIG Things and looking forward to meeting our new XL brand ambassadors.

It’s a shame that your project attempts to discredit the positive intentions of our challenge based on your personal distaste for our use of light-hearted language, and that “bootylicous” was too much for you to handle. While we may be a bit TOO inspired by Beyoncé, and do have a tendency to occasionally go pun-crazy, we try not to take ourselves too seriously around here. I wonder if you had taken just a moment to imagine that this campaign could actually be well intentioned, and that my team and I are not out to offend and insult women, would you have still behaved in the same way, mocking the confident and excited participants who put themselves out there? Maybe you’ll find it interesting that in addition to simply responding to customer demand and feedback, when you’re a vertically-integrated company, actual jobs are created from new size additions. In this case, for the XL women who will model them, industrial workers that make them, retail employees that sell them and beyond. That’s the amazing reality of American Apparel’s business.

Though I could spend hours responding to your accusations and assumptions, this isn’t the appropriate forum for that, so I will only briefly address a few issues here. In regards to April Flores’ “that’s not our demographic” experience, I don’t recall the name of the confused employee credited with saying that, but he or she was sadly uninformed, and our company certainly does not endorse their statement. For as long as I can remember, we have offered sizes up to 3XL in our basic styles, and as far as adding larger sizes to the rest of our line is concerned, if there is the demand and manufacturing power to support it, we’re always game. There are thousands of brands in the market who have no intention of supporting natural – and completely normal – full-figured women, and American Apparel is making a conscious effort to change that, both with our models and our line. If every brand that tried to do this was met with such negative press, we may have to wait another decade for the mainstream to embrace something so simple.

In the past, American Apparel has been targeted for various reasons, many times by journalists who weren’t willing to go the extra mile to even visit the factory or meet the people in charge. Dov is a great executive director and American Industrialist, but there are hundreds of other decision-makers in our company, over half of whom are women. I suppose you have read a few too many negative pieces about us that have helped to form your opinion of who we are and what we stand for, and perhaps this has clouded your ability to give us a chance. I get it. I read some of it too. As a creative who isn’t always the most tactful and tends to stay away from the limelight, maybe I haven’t spoken up as much as I should have over the past 8 years that I’ve worked at American Apparel. Perhaps I could have shed some light on some issues that have been left cloudy over the years. However, sensational media will always need something to latch on to and success, spandex and individuality (and mutton chops circa 2004) are certainly easy targets. And who knows – maybe the PR ups and downs are all part of our DNA as a company. What I do know is that after all the years I have been working for this company I can wholeheartedly say that American Apparel is an amazing and inspiring place to work. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can represent of a ton of people I know when I say that we really like Dov and we passionately believe in his vision for a beautiful factory with sustainable practices. We are the largest sewing factory in North America, after all…10,000 jobs is nothing to sniff at. A lot of people would be very sad if this company wasn’t around.

That said, we realize that we are in no way perfect and that we’re still learning. We want to do better or differently in many areas, and we are actively working on them every day. You’re literally witnessing a transparent, sincere, innovative, creative company go through puberty in the spotlight of modern media. It’s not easy!

Oh — and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company.

Please feel free to contact me directly anytime. If you want to know the real scoop about our company before writing a story, I’ve got it (or if I don’t, I can put you in touch with the person that does!).

Best of luck,

Iris Alonzo
Creative Director
American Apparel
iris@americanapparel.net

Why yes, that IS her email address right there! Write away, folks…

[via The Frisky]

American Apparel American Apparel plus size Iris Alonzo Nancy Upton XLent

allison

I enjoy that the first bolded sentence isn’t grammatically correct. Nice one, Iris.
Anonymous

I cannot believe that this actually came from the desk of a creative director. For shame…
http://www.creativebarcode.com M J Horn

Interesting letter. American Apparrel should know by now – you’re brand is not what YOU think it is but what others think it is.

It’s hard to decipher whether Iris is masking her over-whelming desire to slap Nancy’s face or is genuinely mortified that AA’s campaign went so horribly wrong PR wise (and in fear of losing her job over it hence the sycophantic pracise of Dov).

I have some empathy for a brand attempting to broaden it’s market – and indeed when size 0 models have caused equal outrage at times (that’s not normal!) however, let’s be honest, they got the language and positioning wrong, even if their intent was right.

Iris gives away her true feelings over that matter in the last bold paragraph ‘we have decided to give our prizes to contestants that are beautiful both inside and out’. And there’s the slap
Bikerk

You said it perfectly, MJ. ”You’re brand is not what YOU think it is but what others think it is.” I’ve been in Retail most of my career. Your statement should be on a plaque hanging on every executive’s wall!
Ocanana

So, let me see if I got this right. Nancy won the contest with the popular vote but Iris did not like her entry so she is giving the prize to someone else. Who does she think she is Florida? Been counting the hanging chads? I must remember this company’s name and avoid their products.
Stacey K

Dear Iris,

As a 54 year old woman who is unable to find clothes that fit me in most clothing lines I was happy to hear that your brand had added more sizes to envelope a larger group of persons. I am sad and sorry that your ‘contest’ to find a ‘real person’ model was such a fiasco. I am even MORE sad to learn about your letter to the winner. I have some thoughts and while they may never reach your ‘iris’, I feel the need to at least unburden my little ‘bootylicious’ self.

Your ‘lighthearted’ words to describe who you were looking for were indeed insulting. Think about women in particular who have the opposite problem of too much weight. Think about calling anorexic, bulimic women cute little ‘pet names’. You wouldn’t do that would you? Yet why do you think it’s CUTE to make light of those young women who have another kind of eating disorder? As someone who has struggled a lifetime with this, I don’t find it the least bit humourous. Would you have written ‘send us photos of you and your skeletal backside to back it up?’ I don’t think so. Yet somewhere there seems to be a disconnect with you. Using ‘cute and clever’ terminology to describe anyone’s body parts is not okay. Just make the damned clothing in bigger sizes and put a little banner across your ad that states such. Stop patronizing us, stop thinking you are doing US a favor by adding a couple inches to your tank tops.

I think, maybe, I know what the problem is here. You are not selling like you did 5 years ago. You simply need to expand your customer base. Now, there are a lot of plus sized models in the business, and kudos to them. So, you really weren’t looking for fresh faces were you? You were getting the word out via an often used marketing tactic, and hey, it worked for the ‘Dove’ people. But the thing I find most depressing and sad is that your company (who really truly doesn’t like plus sized girls) will now be shopped by these poor girls. You continue to damage their self esteem with your consumer patronization. You don’t see it and they may not even know it, but you and your marketing team need a good shrink who specializes in eating disorders to come in, and help you. Maybe a day in an eating disorder clinic would benefit you and your team. Or maybe you need to add minus zero and minus minus zero sizes for the girls who ‘can’t seem to keep weight on.’

You owe an apology for writing the letter you wrote to the winner of your contest. You owe an apology to all young women upwards of size 14 for insulting their intelligence. You owe an apology to everyone in the fashion buying world an apology for being judgmental and assuming ‘bootylicious’ was too much to handle. The only thing that was too much to handle was your naive thinking that these intentions were positive. They were not. I hope your boss likes you a lot, if I were your boss you would be gone.
http://abigailgardner.tumblr.com/ Abigail Gardner

Does AA have a PR department? How did they let this spin so wildly out of control? AA made a bad decision with their poorly-worded model search. When the internet revolted and clearly backed Nancy Upton, AA needed to extend an olive branch, not send a 900+word (!) snarky email defending their poorly executed model search. Either try to bring Nancy in on it and show you can take a joke, apologize and say “we’re going in a different direction” or quietly go away and pretend the model search never happened. Do not do what Iris did. Do the opposite of what Iris did.
Joyce A

“…my team and I are not out to offend and insult women”…REALLY????????? This woman works for Dov Charney who is a tow legged insult AND offense to women! “we really like Dov and we passionately believe in his vision for a beautiful factory with sustainable practices”–doesnt she mean with discriminatory practices and sexual harassment???
Maria

Jeez. If you are upset about some pun-ny language, you need to deal with your personal feelings on the subject before trying to change others’ behavior and word choice. Unfortunately, the only thing over which we have control in this life is ourselves… It’s muc more effective to change your reaction or the motivation for such a reaction than it is to try and demand something different of others. There’s nothing wrong with their ad campaign, you all need to relax a bit…
milosh

I don’t think the email from Iris Alonzo is snarky or inappropriate in anyway. Are you guys serious? Aren’t you just looking for reasons to take issue with what she’s said? Why on earth would they allow a person who is also, obviously, not supportive of the company or the brand. It just doesn’t make sense. Would you want some one who was not supportive of your brand to be the face of that brand. Nonsense. Utter nonsense. Don’t be so naive.

American Apparel Director Sends Nasty Letter To Plus Size Contest Winner

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