Oops, they did it again!

I used to love Abercrombie & Fitch sweaters. I still wear them because they keep me amazingly warm. Their $10 clearance sale every year? Nice. Their itty-bitty camisoles and tees? Would love to fit in them. But seriously, they need to stop with the attitude tees, the racist slogans, and the gray lines they continously flirt with in all aspects of their merchandising.

Katie Couric on Today hosted several teenagers from the Women and Girls Foundation from southwest Pennsylvania today. They are organizing a girlcott of Abercrombie due to this year's controversial attitude tees demeaning blondes, brunettes, and women in general. It's not the first time someone's organized a boycott of Abercrombie. Before this, Abercrombie had their Asian fiasco (how much more stereotypical can you get?!). And before that, they endured uproar over their bare-skin-obsessed magazine, which is now defunct.

I talk a lot about empowerment and women power. And I think that Abercrombie, in putting this winter line out, does a great disservice to all the women in the world. Yes, I agree that it will only be dumb people who will buy these shirts. I agree that most teenagers wouldn't think of wearing them. However, Abercrombie needs to realize that they should not have put those tees out for sale in the first place. It is wholy inappropriate. Plus, some of the shirts just don't make sense! Like you really have to be missing a few screws in order to even wear something like that. Take a look.

Hm. Adored? I don't think so. Where does the phrase "blonde bimbo" come from? How about "blondes have more fun"? That's right, from guys who want to bag girls. Lust and adoration are way two different things. Oh, and in a recent Cosmo magazine, a poll concluded that guys actually preferred brunettes. In my mind, why should it even make a difference?



How about this one? Let's see, should we applaud them because a Phi looks like an I? Or maybe the Omega looks like an O? How about the Sigmas as E's? Please. Interesting concept, but it totally falls flat. Unless of course, Abercrombie wants to change the spelling of Greek to Grssk.

Of course! Every girl's dream is to be a double D! Who cares if we are simpering idiots who are not able to use our brains?! We'll just all find sugar daddies, shake our chests at them, and be pampered the rest of our lives, even when our chests start to sag, huge back problems overtake our lives, and our sugar daddy dumps our ass for a girl 20 years younger!

OH. Here is my personal favorite. Abercrombie, I guess Sesame Street was too G-rated and non-controversial for you. I count 16 names, not 15. However, I, being the brainy sort of girl that I am, can see that you may mean R-rated encounters. Then I gotta say, don't you have any self-respect?? Don't fill your poor pretty brain with so many names! You might confuse yourself! Because after all, good thing you're still relying on your chest!! (On a side note: It must be pretty great to be a George in today's world!)


This one...I gotta admit, I've used this line before. Or actually, have had this line asked of me before given my background. But unless you're willing to demonstrate the spatial positions of the nerve, artery, vein...you're apparently going to be relying a lot on that chest!

Are these tees demeaning? Depends on the beholder. Should these tees even be out in stores causing controversy? No. The unsaid rule that we were all taught in polite society is that if you can't say something nice, don't say it at all. And friends, we shouldn't even have to say it at all. So...join in the girlcott of Abercrombie and Fitch and hurt them where it hurts this holiday season.

Ruehl 925

New store at Woodfield: Ruehl 925. It bills itself as business casual style meets Greenwich Village attitude. The way I understand it is that it's a new concept store owned by Abercrombie and Fitch. This is the first Ruehl 925 to hit the Midwest. Catherine and I checked it out while we were shopping because it caught our eye. Instead of the usual storefront, it's a bungalow sort of facade with salespeople outside holding flowers and welcoming people. Inside, it's divided up into rooms like a house. Think of J.Crew meets Hollister/Abercrombie meets Banana meets Kenneth Cole. Yeah, that kind of nice. It's subtle lighting and none of that pulsing rock you get when you go to the teeny-bopper stores.

It's a bit more expensive than Abercrombie's main store; it's also a lot more mature. That means no baby tees. It's also the only Ruehl 925 in the Midwest so far.

This is Abercrombie's time to expand. Like Gap, they are stretching their brand name to different markets. They're adding this market to their current 727 Abercrombie stores, 171 Abercrombie Kids stores, and 197 Hollister stores. Seems to me that they're doing their branding in a more mature fashion also...none of that controversy that happened with their Abercrombie magazines and suggestive/racial t-shirts. I didn't even know that Abercrombie was Ruehl 925's parent company until I did some background research. We'll see how Ruehl 925 performs.

In other news, if you haven't heard by now, Gap is also extending their brand name into a new niche store for people in their middle ages. Their new concept store will be called "Forth and Towne" and the main market will be in Chicago with only one other store in NY, I believe. I think this might be a flop actually...it doesn't sound very trendy. Sounds matronly, actually. With all the questionable clothing at Gap nowadays, I think Gap needs to take a look at itself and go back to the old days when it was just all classic clothing that served all age groups. That was their brand, and I never really understood why they went away from it.

An Express Pass

An avalanche of directed marketing cannot possibly make up for a sale that isn't quite up to par. Although, I am still scratching my head over this new sudden thing being marketed as the Spring Sale at Express, complete with the red signs proclaiming an "Up to 60%" savings which takes its similarities from their January and June semi-annual sales.

Regardless, a sale is a sale, and no matter how disgruntled I am as a fan, I just can't help checking it out. Most of the stuff that have been in the stores since January have been thrown into the bins and discounted. The clothes that have been on the sale racks for the last month are the ones that are being discounted further. Tops are running from $9.99 (like the tank tops and the flirty top I bought back in February) and $14.99 (like the mat sweaters). Button-down shirts are $29.50, like they have been since February. There are a bunch of pants that are $29.50. The frou-frou pretend jackets are $49.99 and the 1/2-length trench coats are still a whopping $69.99. Belts are $9.99. Skirts range from $19.99 to $29.99. The best deal that they have going are the brooches, all marked down to $9.99. Get your new trend today while it lasts.

So it's pretty disappointing. If they mark stuff further down, I'll probably buy some stuff...I have my eye on some tops that I am ambivalent about, but if the price is right, I would snap them up. It's just that nothing screamed to me as a good buy. I got to hand it to them though; today's customer service was a lot friendlier than I had expected it to be.

In other world news, Abercrombie had their $9.99 sweater sale last month for all the teenyboppers, me included, out there. Although, I realize with each passing year that my body has morphed into that of a fully-grown 20-something from the thin coltish teenage body I was blessed with. I realize this because my body does not seem to want to fit into many of Abercrombie's sweaters; I have lumps where no one wants to see lumps. I ended up buying two scoopneck sweaters, but I'll end up returning one once I decide upon a color. One of these days, I'll have to give up Abercrombie for good.

Aeropostale is also having their mid-season sales. Everything is marked down; it's a pretty good sale, but again, unless you have teenybopper tendencies, it would not be the store for you. But who can turn down $12 polo shirts and $4 t-shirts with suggestive sayings.

The one sale I would check out is the winter Benetton sale. Final markdowns have been made to 70%, and the sale will only last a couple more weeks. Lots of sweaters, skirts, and professional clothes on sale. I highly recommend it.

A Good Day

You gotta wonder why I've never really taken advantage of price adjustments before. I'm not sure why I haven't either. Maybe it's because when I make a purchase, I am just so firmly convinced of its "good deal" status, that I don't care? No clue.

So today I waltzed into Gap and found out that the dress that I bought during Thanksgiving had been marked down. It's a NICE black dress...you know, simple, black, slightly flared skirt, reaches the knees, A-line...your classic black dress. I whipped out my receipt and got $15 back. NICE. I think I could make some serious money in price adjustments...and I don't get the guilty "I've spent too much" feeling...AND I still have the item in question in my hot little hands!

Not only does Limited still have their ribbon sweaters for $10, they have also put out cute cardigans for the same price...and your basic sweater turtlenecks...all for $10. I think they've usurped Abercrombie's $10 sweater sale, which I look forward to every year.