Plus Size Fashion Blogger Chastity Valentine Calls For Boycott Against Target
Many plus size women have a love and hate relationship with Target. And if they could have a conversation with an executive at Target, it would probably go something like this:
“Oh, Target, we try to love you but just when we start to, you do something that makes us recoil and rethink that love. You have used pregnant models to market plus size clothing on your website and then take away our clothing section in stores with promises of it returning, bigger and better. We’re still waiting for our section to return. Then you tease us with beautiful and affordable bridesmaid dresses in our size, only for us to find out, they’re only available online. You launch these wonderful designer collaborations of high-end fashion pieces at affordable prices yet they’re almost never offered in plus sizes. You then unveil ads in-store featuring plus size model Denise Bidot but again, we have to ask, where’s the plus size section? We want to be able to try things on, shop in-store for clothes like our thinner sisters and not feel like we are being pushed out of the store. We shop in your stores for everything so we don’t understand why you won’t take our money when it comes to plus size fashion.”
It seems that the voice of the plus size woman has fallen on deaf ears when it comes to Target. And one plus size fashion blogger has had enough.
Chastity Valentine, of the GarnerStyle blog, announced on her blog recently that she is done. She is boycotting Target. The mass retailer recently announced its latest collaboration with fashion designer Joseph Altuzarra with that collection launching September 14 online and in-stores. And surprise, surprise… no plus sizes are offered in the collection. So Chastity decided that she was done spending her money at Target and has called for a boycott.
What started out as a personal boycott has now become a public boycott, where many plus size women are in agreement with Chastity and are tired of Target treating them as second class citizens.
Chastity told PMM exclusively why this boycott is necessary:
“I think a lot of people asked, ‘Why Target? Why not boycott others?’ For me, I spend thousands of dollars on other products at Target every year. From a financial standpoint, it makes sense. Target used to have a decent plus size section and then drastically reduced it and shoved our two racks in with the maternity section — it’s not how I wanted to be treated as a shopper, who spends a lot of money at the store in general.”
“We are almost always excluded from the designer collaborations – the only one I remember that we did get plus sizes in was the Calypso collection in like 2010 or so, so that combined with the revamped plus size section that we never got was just the last straw for me.”
She has a valid point. As customers who spend our money in stores like Target, we have the power and our voice is heard when those dollars are no longer spent in that store. Kudos to Chastity for stepping forward and making her voice heard.
Want to see Target include plus ranges in their designer collaborations? Voice your opinions on social media with the hashtag #boycottingtarget.
To read more on Chastity’s Target boycott and join in on the conversation on her blog, click here.
To view Target’s latest designer collaboration with Altuzarra and see what we CAN’T buy, click here.