Friday, July 28, 2006

Slink Away

Ever heard of a brand of jeans called “Slink”? A friend alerted me to them, after a frustrating clothes-shopping experience. It seems that Slink jeans run about three sizes too small. Said friend is pretty tiny and typically wears a Size 4/6. During this particular dressing-room encounter, she tried on a Size 10 which was, surprisingly, too tight.

What awful marketing, I thought, at first—clearly the Slink execs haven’t consulted with the marketing folk over at Banana Republic (who know that women love to buy clothes a size smaller than they usually are). But, perhaps this is strategic marketing at its best—to size out even normal-size (read: thinner than average) women ups the ante, placing the brand in a prized, elusive category only meant for a select few. I bet Nicole Richie can fit into Slink jeans. Keira Knightley, too. If only we can diet ourselves down, starve ourselves, purge ourselves of anything unnecessary, then, perhaps we, too, can fit into a pair of Slinks.

4 comments:

Teacher lady said...

Maybe I'm just old, but I agree with you - that's just bad marketing for woment of a "certain age." That's why I love Ann Taylor. It's the only place in the world where I'm a size 6 - and when I worked there I actually bought a skirt that was a size 0. Believe me - it was the skirt, because my boss was a REAL size 0, and it literally fell off of her. Anyway, maybe it's "motivating" for teens or younger women in their early 20s, but for me? I just think, "Not that interested in taking the time to find out what matters to me? Sorry, not gonna get my money."

Anonymous said...

Ugh. Just ugh.

Elitism of the Starved. Lovely.

I think in the interest of sanity, there comes a point where you just have to shop for what fits, cut out your size tags -- while finding another personality node on which to place your vanity -- and TUNE OUT the $#@&*^%$#@! fashion police.

Anonymous said...

I think its an interesting point you make (about the trying to make the jeans some sort of elite brand or whatnot), never thought of it that way. But oh so bad from a business perspective. How many people can actually buy the jeans? I mean at the end of the day, I wouldn't be able to buy those jeans no matter what the size number, because none of them would fit me!

Anonymous said...

I felt exactly the same way about Abercrombie. I tried on a tshirt in a size small, what I would normally wear in a stretchy cotton shirt. I came out of the dressing room feeling like I was wearing a corset. The salesgirl exclaimed in glee at how skinny it made look while I gasped for air.

The post is here - http://theweightisover.typepad.com/blog/2006/06/let_the_sun_shi.html

I will never buy from that store. The size distortion was absolutely horrible. I've heard of those jeans but have no interest whatsoever in contributing my pennies to a company that focuses so strongly on making women feel even worse about the pointless number on the waistband.