Fitch ditch because consumers pitch fit

[biggfredd]

"Ashley" padded push-up bikinis for 7-year-olds make parents see pink red.

Abercrombie & Fitch has raised the target audience to girls as small as 4 feet 8 inches tall, which was the average height of a 10-year-old girl in 2002.

In 2002 they offered children’s-size thong underwear with the words “eye candy” and “wink wink” printed on the front.

And they wonder why junior high girls get pregnant.

Then again, 7-year-olds don't buy clothes, do they?  Having no children, maybe I'm out of the loop.  

[Southern Jewel]

I sent an email to A & F when I saw the article about the padded top...
I'm glad they pulled the item.

[biggfredd]

As I read it, they didn't pull it, just promoting it to 10 year olds instead of seven.

[Southern Jewel]

Not to nit-pick..
My daughter is 5 feet 2 inches now at the age of 21.
Up until her growth spurt in her junior year of high school where she gained a whole inch and a half...it was often difficult (and still is to a point) finding clothing to meet her hgt, her curves, size and maturity level.
Very petite and most petite clothing we found was more mature than a teen girls taste. 
During her early teen years she did have to shop in the younger department for some of her clothing.
We had to shop ALOT to find clothing that was age appropriate, fit properly and no matter what department...was what a teen girl wants to wear.

This is one of those instances where I don't believe my daughter would've and wasn't affected...she didn't have to buy a bathing suit in the children's department. The sizing on bathing suits in the junior size were fine for her. She could choose the top that fit her and then the bottoms that fit her separately.
No trying on a younger department clothing was needed.
But I do understand how a smaller teen would still need to shop in the younger department. 
Padding on a 10 year old is wrong in my opinion.
Girls @ 7 - 10 years old, well, should be 7 - 10 years old....a child and be dressed age appropriate.
 

[signsintime]

As I read it, they didn't pull it, just promoting it to 10 year olds instead of seven.

Which, to me, is delivering the message to a very young audience that you are not a woman unless you have large breasts.

A & F wouldn't try selling that message if the parents weren't forking over the money for it. And really, what 7 year old has that much say in the clothes they wear? My GD is 8 and rarely goes shopping with us or when she does she may ask for something but that doesn't mean she gets it.

IMO that suit is unacceptable to market to 10 year olds as well. Any girl that longs for such a suit needs a good infusion of self confidence from her folks. She needs to have it explained to her that the size of her big heart or sound of her laughter means more than the size of her bra.

If she gets a suit like that the other girls only end up gossiping and poking fun anyhow, so what purpose does it serve but to pad the pockets of those selling them? The girl who got it, thinking it would cure all her problems will soon find out it only amplifies them.

Maybe A & F ought to think about promoting self-confidence rather than playing on the insecurities of young girls and women. And you can BET it's cross-generational. Any mother that would think it necessary for her daughter to wear such padding is probably reliving her own insecurities trying to "pad" her daughter from suffering the same. Ironically, it will have the opposite affect, telling the girl she needs to wear a prosthetic because she's obviously inadequate.

Can you tell I once burned a bra? LOL

[wahm922]

 

[Southern Jewel]

Spot On, Jeri!

[springintoscooters]

Seems to me that if you use models in your catalog to sell clothes, the models should be WEARING the clothes.

[gypsumoon]

Completely agree with everything Jeri said 

And......

It also p*sses me off no end to think of the message they're sending to adult men as far as sexual appropriateness. 

[BTPS]

OMG ... I wish the WORLD WOULD WAKE UP!!!
LOOK at all the free advertising they get from all this "outrage"
Why you really thing they do this crap?  FREE ADVERTISING!!!

 

[signsintime]

Uh, it won't make me buy a freakin THING from A & F now, where I may have before. Sorta backfires, don't ya think?

[gypsumoon]

Yeah - I really think the days of "no publicity is bad publicity" are over.

[biggfredd]

It also p*sses me off no end to think of the message they're sending to adult men as far as sexual appropriateness. 

Exactly.  Why should a seven, or even ten or twelve year old, be emphasizing her bust?  Don't advertise, since you can't deliver the product.