Oh the wonders of being online late at night when you should be sleeping, the things you find!
As if it wasn’t disgusting enough when that ugly CEO from Abercrombie & Fitch said his clothes weren’t for fat people…check out this youtube clip to see what I am talking about…
but the owner of Lulu Lemon is saying his yoga pants are only for women who have a gap between their thighs?
Check out this news clip to see the initial Lulu Lemon incident…
So ok, to give the benefit of the doubt a person could assume there was a glitch in the manufacturing of these pants that made them see through. Embarrassing for the ladies who inadvertently wore them in public but no lasting harm done right? However, the benefit of the doubt is quickly whisked away when you hear what Chip Wilson, the founder of Lulu Lemon has to say about the pants, this is an exert from an interview on http://www.bloomberg.com
Wilson: There has always been pilling. The thing is that women will wear seatbelts that don’t work or they’ll wear a purse that doesn’t work or, quite frankly, some women’s bodies just actually don’t work for it. And I can’t be —
Regan: They don’t work for the pants?
Wilson: No they don’t work for some women’s bodies.
Regan: So more likely that they’ll be see-though on some women’s bodies than others?
Wilson: No, I don’t think that way, because even our small size would fit an extra large. It’s really about the rubbing through the thighs, how much pressure is there, I mean, over a period of time, and how much they use it.
Regan: Interesting, so not every woman can wear a Lululemon pant.
Wilson: No, I think they can, it’s just how they use it.
Here is a link to the full interview:
I never knew this about Lulu Lemon and I feel a little sad to learn that a company that promotes healthy lifestyles is discriminating against people who are not the stereotypical size 4 or smaller yogi. I did some more research and learned that Lulu goes up to size 12 only (average size of a women in the US is 14) and the sizes 10 and 12 are harder to find in the stores, not as well organized/sorted and basically ignored by the staff. When staff members are interviewed they confirm the store caters to smaller sized women and for the most part tries to ignore anyone “larger”.
Lovely.
What is it with these co-founders and CEOs blatantly discriminating against an entire section of the population? Why are they allowed to get away with it?
I don’t buy Lulu Lemon pants, I did, once, I loved those pants! I bought them at one of the outlets so they weren’t quite as expensive as normal and I thought when I get to my target weight I’ll buy another pair because hell no was I buying a pair for each size I would become as I went down the scale lol that’s waaaaaay too costly. Thing is, I discovered Costco Yoga Pants, those are awesome! They are never more then $20, they last forever, don’t pill, aren’t see through, never lose their shape, don’t need to be babied as much as Lulu pants and I don’t live in fear of staining or somehow ruining them because hey, if I need to replace them it’ll only cost me $17! But I do love Lulu hoodies, in fact, if I could afford it I’d buy a new one right now because both of mine are too large (a nice problem to have but still a problem lol).
My new dilemma though, is should I buy from Lulu ever again? I don’t like the idea of supporting a company that purposefully excludes any section of the population, it is discriminatory and wrong. It seems even more twisted considering they are selling work out clothes. Uh hello, do they not consider the possibility of an over weight woman wanting to lose weight who wants to wear nice work out clothes vs an old t-shirt and sweats? By ignoring this demographic I feel the company is doing harm to themselves. The world is getting fatter, shrug, why aren’t the clothing companies recognizing this and adapting for the shape that society is becoming?
What I mostly worry about though is the lady who works up the courage to go in to Lulu Lemon for the first time, who is a bit larger, who has self esteem issues, who has decided to start a healthier lifestyle that includes working out and who decides to buy cute clothes to wear to help her feel better about herself when she hits up the gym. How will that lady feel when she can’t find something, in a store that sells work out clothes, that fits her, or that fits her and isn’t see through, or pilling, or designed to only last and look good on someone super tiny? How will her experience in a store that caters to size 10 and smaller affect her self esteem? How will the lack of sizes, the lack of choices affect her decision to go work out?
I know for myself, I get discouraged easily when it comes to my size. If I am in a store and don’t find things in my size that look good quickly I leave because I get embarrassed, I think I must be too fat for that store and walk away. Even though I fit in to Lulu Lemon clothes, and even though I love the hoodies, when I walk in to a Lulu store I automatically feel embarrassed and fat and like I don’t belong, just by the design of the store, the look of the staff, the size of the clothes, the fact that I swear every time I’m in one of those stores I am the biggest person in there and I feel like I am being stared at and judged. I know this is on my shoulders, it is my own problem, knowing that helps push me to go in to the store, to look at clothes, because I know it is my own insecurities making me feel that way. But what about that lady at the beginning of her weight loss journey, who feels all those things but also has the added problem of finding the pants she wants in a size 12?
I’m not saying companies should be patting us all on the head and trying to make us feel better about ourselves but I do think companies need to be more mindful of the varying demographics in society and stop purposefully excluding a group, any group, because that decision is most likely going to end up kicking them in their ass.
The Amazing Shrinking Woman 
i understand what you’re saying but a company has the right to cater to a specific demographic, it’s called a niche and tons of people do that. It is definitely more cost effective for lululemon to not have to carry up to a size 22 just to make everyone feel great about themselves. They also have a brand image to maintain. Might seem wrong to some, but getting so big in the first place is really out of the norm.
I also think it’s fine for him to say the problem some women are having with the product is simply that their thighs may be too big for it. I see larger women squeezing themselves in things they clearly were not meant to be squeezing in, and then they turn around and complain about the product?! Loudly too- like on social media and stuff. I can understand that CEO’s frustration. If you want to look sexy in lululemon, suck it up, buy that thigh gap hack book on amazon (yes, this is an actual book) and slim down
Hi! Thanks so much for reading and commenting! 🙂
Lol, that is an actual book?! I’m so amused at the thought of that being a book I’m definitely going to go find a copy and have myself a little afternoon read-fest sometime soon. 😀
I’m curious, do you also defend Ambercrombie & Fitch the same way when the CEO says “certain people” don’t belong in their clothes – discriminating against women over a size medium, because they want to focus on the niche of “beautiful people”?
To me there is a difference between a day-to-day clothing store and a fitness clothing store being so size restrictive.
I understand companies focusing their efforts on a niche, depending on what they are selling that decision could make sense, but fitness clothes? Fitness clothes being made by a company that focuses on creating fitness products, that promotes exercise and healthy eating, deliberately excluding women who are overweight from being able to wear their clothes while exercising…this just seems to me like a poor business decision.
If a woman who is a size 12 (for example) decides to start exercising and goes out shopping for fitness clothes she is (generally speaking) going to look for something to wear that she likes, that is comfortable and that makes her look and feel good. She won’t find that at LuluLemon, so she’ll go elsewhere and buy clothes from a different company. As she loses weight where do you think she is going to go when shopping for more fitness clothes? The store that implied she wasn’t good enough to wear their clothes or the store that had something for her when she was a size 12 and has options for her at whatever size she gets down to? People become loyal to a brand. By snubbing women over a size 10, who one day may be smaller than a size 10, they are effectively cutting themselves off from a group of consumers and their wallets.
What size are you referring to when you say “getting so big in the first place is really out of the norm”? For North American women the average size is now 12-14 with an average weight of 163 pounds. When I wrote my post I wasn’t referring exclusively to women who are classified as obese, I was referring to any woman size 10 and up. Statistics show, in North America people are getting fatter. It sucks, but the stats don’t lie, as much as I wish they did. In the U.S. 2/3 of Americans over age 20 are overweight and nearly 1/3 of Americans over age 20 are obese. The larger sized person is fast becoming the new niche market.
Oh, and quick fact, the women complaining about the see-through pants were not all large women squeezing themselves in to sizes that were clearly too small for them. All sizes of the pants were see-through, all women wearing them, tiny and not as tiny, discovered they were see-through. The pants weren’t see-through because the wearer was too fat for the pants, they pants were just see-through. Chip came out with his whole, “the women wearing the pants are too large” when repeated attempts at fixing the pants didn’t work and he kept getting questioned about the quality of his product.
Hi, the first time I ever went into a lulu lemon store was to buy a hoodie for a friend, who asked me to while I was on vacation. I knew nothing about Lulu lemon and I found a size 12 hoodie but it looked a little small for my friend so I asked a clerk if they had any bigger sizes. He looked at me and said honey, there’s not a single item in this store that will fit you. You might as well shop somewhere else. I was a size 14 and wasn’t even shopping for myself. I left the store and was so shocked and sad that I started to cry. What a way to leave a first impression!