Fashion Writer Smackdown, Take 87

Remember that NY Times style writer Cintra Wilson, who claimed JC Penney was nothing but a “dowdy Middle American entity” catering to fat, overweight people (i.e., anyone over a size 2)? Well, the press is still giving her flack for it. (To which I say, rightly so, considering all the ignorance she’s spewed. Hell, the much-lauded-by-the-fashion-industry Olsens are now designing for the retailer!) The latest smackdown is courtesy of The Awl, who not only make their own trip to JC Penney and report back, but also hilariously point out that she’s the Tucker Max of fashion columnists, due to her over-usage of the word “fat.” Here’s what they found, contrary to what Wilson wrote ...

The (new) facts, as The Awl sees them:

JC Penney’s staff is really freaking nice, no, seriously:

“One floor down, two Penney’s security/concierge dudes greet me. They are maybe the most sincerely nice retail greeting types I have ever met in my (amateur) shopping experience.”

About the supposed lack of size 2’s available:

“I found one right away, in the I ♥ Ronson section, about 25 feet from the escalator. A pair of pants. Size 2.”

Regarding the claim that Penney’s “large” size is “five times larger than any large T-shirt either of us had ever seen”:

“As a male who wears a large, I can testify that Penney’s sizes for men may be larger than, say, Armani, but are comparable to any other retailer’s, from The Gap to Macy’s to J Crew.”

And as for those “obese” mannequins:

“In my time at Penneys, I never saw a mannequin that looked appreciably different from any other mannequin that I have ever seen. They were all rather tall and skinny—you know, like mannequins are.”

[The Awl]