Not for Fat, Old or Lesbians: What About a Label Telling Us Who Is the Proper Customer for Your Brand? |

There are quite a few scholars, sociologists, anthropologists, writers, but also ordinary fashion fans interested in what may be deemed as a rather superficial topic – how fashion makes people feel. This is actually a very serious theme since it is proved that specific garments or their shape and silhouette can make somebody feel empowered, attract other people's attention or trigger a chain of reactions and emotions. In a nutshell, clothes and accessories are a form of non-verbal communication and quite often end up loudly telling or silently revealing the story of our lives. Yet, you seriously wonder why some people working in the fashion industry seem to be oblivious to this simple principle.

Take the recent incident involving Patrick Couderc, Hervé Léger's former UK managing director. In an interview (note: he resigned since making the comments) he recently told the Mail on Sunday that "Voluptuous women and those with very prominent hips and a very flat chest," should not be wearing the iconic skin-tight bandage dress produced by the brand.

Since this man (who has probably never been exposed to eye-opening practices such as walking on a public beach or visiting a public swimming pool and discovering that human beings come in all sorts of shapes) hadn't been offensive enough, he decided to add his thoughts on other issues, stating: "If you're a committed lesbian and you are wearing trousers all your life, you won't buy a Hervé Léger dress. Lesbians would want to be rather butch and leisurely."

Just when you wondered if he had spent some time in a Hervé Léger boutique to do a market research and verify if such statement was true, he added about the brand's shop in Knightsbridge, London: "You women have a lot of problems. You will lose the plot. You will come and you will put a dress on and you'll be in front of the mirror, like, 'Argh, I'm so fat.' Yes, you have a 12th of an inch around your stomach, it's not really a disaster, and what you're not noticing is that your cleavage is about two inches too low because you are 55 and it's time that you should not display everything like you're 23."

Mr Couderc's words led to his unfortunate fall from grace and were soon followed by an official statement released by BCBGMAXAZRIA Group, the parent company of Hervé Léger by Max Azria, that highlighted: "The Hervé Léger by Max Azria brand and its parent company, BCBGMAXAZRIA Group, are shocked and appalled by Patrick Couderc's comments made in the Mail on Sunday. BCBGMAXAZRIA Group is working in concert with MJH Fashion, to investigate and establish appropriate next steps. The statements made by Mr Couderc are not a reflection of Hervé Léger by Max Azria or MJH Fashion ideals or sentiments. The Hervé Léger by Max Azria brand celebrates sensuality, glamour and femininity without discrimination."

Copied by many High Street retailers, but originally launched in the '80s, Hervé Léger’s iconic bandage dress made with strips of stretchy fabric wound around the body has been a favourite of models such as Cindy Crawford and Eva Herzigova, and celebrities who donned it include Elle Macpherson, Victoria Beckham, Rihanna, Kate Winslet, Tamara Ecclestone, and Cheryl Cole.

Though MJH Fashion and Hervé Léger seemed to be sincere in regretting any offense Mr. Couderc's comments might have caused, the incident outraged many women who vented their anger through social media.

Yet, apart from making you instantly angry, these comments should make us sit down and ponder a bit: why would somebody working for a fashion company and therefore knowing that, to exist and thrive, you have to sell rather than offend possible consumers, make such statements?

The fashion industry is already responsible for many crimes, from exploiting people in sweatshops to increasing pollution and designing rather ridiculous items including shoes not made for walking with the power of crippling a human being, not to mention all those young girls and women struggling to accept their bodies because their eyes and minds are set on digitally enhanced images of models and celebrities (note: it's OK to be voluptuous and being a celebrity, but it's not OK to be voluptuous and being an ordinary clever woman).

It is quite surprising how an industry that claims it's against discrimination and crowded with designers intent on creating "genderless" collections, could still provide jobs for people with such horrid views on women. Is it possible that even in 2015 we should live and abide to rigid demarcations of gender identification and sexual orientation established by some idiots working in the fashion industry?

"Fashion must be the intoxicating release from the banality of the world" stated Diana Vreeland, but it is interesting to see that there are people working inside the industry that think that only some women (thin, straight and wealthy?) are entitled to find an escape from the banality of the world.

Who knows, maybe the next step may be that of putting an extra label on a dress that explains us not only how to take care of a specific garment, but also who should or shouldn't wear it.

What a shame for Mr Couderc, though: while he thinks that only Barbie dolls can wear Hervé Léger, he can't even imagine what he is missing. We may be old, fat and lesbian, but we are also great human beings with big hearts, some of us have wonderful children, most of us have incredible families and friends, and more talents and degrees in obscure subjects than he may imagine.