An open letter to Forever 21, on the subject of Faith 21.
Backstory: Forever 21, purveyor of inexpensive trendy garb to slender teens, announced a couple months ago that it would be launching a plus-size line this May. On to the letter:
To Forever 21/Faith 21/WTFE:
It’s May! The flowers are blooming. People are shedding their heavy, full-coverage winter apparel in favor of warm-weather clothing. Oh, it’s just fucking beautiful. Also, you have your plus-size line, Faith 21, appearing in stores! Trendy fats nationwide eagerly lean forward into the glow of their computer monitors, awaiting the bounty, hands clasped, eyes wide, shivering in anticipation, as it were.
So what the fuck is this?
That’s the size chart for the “new” “plus size” line! Look y’all, it goes ALL THE WAY TO JUNIOR 2X! It’s a bleeding fashion revolution, is what it is. Thank you, Faith 21, for slightly expanding your size range so that marginally larger people can also purchase your wares!
Since you’ve made the decision that anyone over a 2X is too fat to bother with, I feel entirely justified in saying: fuck you, Forever 21, and your patronizing over-hyped foray into “plus size” apparel. This oughtn’t to hurt your feelings or distress you in any way since I am so far outside the parameters of your fashion consideration.
Sincerely (irritated),
Lesley
(For those interested in seeing the actual clothes, which are mostly heinous in my typically-humble opinion, click here. My rage is tempered only by the fact that I wouldn’t want to buy any of that crap anyway, though my continuing frustration with the inept mismanagement of badly-conceived plus-size lines by a number of traditionally non-plus retailers may be amplifying my anger at Forever 21 in particular.)
agreed. i don’t see anything that i haven’t seen at wal-mart. i’ll stick to b&lu.
I think some of the stuff is cute (some of it is pretty fug though). I guess I’m more annoyed that they made such a BIG DEAL over plus sizes when they’re barely skimming the surface.
I am just as underwhelmed as I suspected I would be by both the “expansion” of their “clothes” into “plus sizes” and the clothes themselves.
Why are they even giving it an identity and name as a “line” if it only consists of **3 sizes**?? This is ridiculous. Compare it with Target, whose new plus-size teen-oriented line is supposed to extend to size 30. I hope Target follows through with that line and gives it a chance!
Swellanor, the Target line is out and goes it does go to a 30. If you check the website under the Women’s Plus tag, you can see the Young Contemporary line.
How ridiculous! I can’t believe that they would dare call that plus size anyway. ERG.
I am completely unimpressed, but am compelled to once again reiterate how ridiculous size charts are, in case anyone who measures up to, oh… 50-40-50 would like to take a stab at a pink and purple leopard print top.
If even us ’small fats’ won’t fit into this line, what the hell was the point?
I mean, I’m roughly a size 16 on the bottom, probably an 18 on the top. The largest of those sizes is still about 2-3″ too small for my waist.
*sigh* And then, of course, most of the line is tremendously ugly. I used to buy clothes from Forever 21 occasionally, back when I was a size 6. Cute little dresses that almost showed too much, that sort of thing. But now? UGH. Clearly, to Forever 21, fat = wanting to be ugly.
~Kali
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