A plus-size designer is firing back at a fashion website after they chose to advertise a pair of shorts designed for a plus-size woman with a petite-size model.
I saw this article on HelloGiggles earlier. I don't have any formal qualifications in marketing, but if plus size ladies...
The advertisement for a pair of plus-size shorts on the website for clothing retailer Wish shows the model standing with both of her legs through one of the legs of the shorts.
Christina Ashman, a plus-size designer who operates the label Interrobang, fired back, posting a photo of herself with one of her legs in a small skirt.
"I thought it was the worst example of marketing I've ever seen!" Ashman told BuzzFeed News, after she saw the picture of the shorts.
"If you're aiming a product at a certain demographic, you should be using an example of that demographic to show how it would actually look on them," she continued.
"Plus-size shorts should be shown on two plus-size legs - not a whole petite body inside one leg."
Ashman posted her photo to her Instagram and Facebook pages "to highlight how ridiculous the original photo was."
"I make clothes for a living, and have a whole wardrobe full of skirts in sizes 6-34, so I decided to just do it," Ashman told Buzzfeed.
She also spoke on the response her post received, "It seems to have really struck a chord with people."
Ashman says that she posted the picture "jokingly", but wanted to also make an important point.
"The fashion industry is constantly trying to make people feel bad about their bodies to make money, and it's not right," she told Buzzfeed.
"People come in all shapes, sizes and colours, but only a very small cross section of people are used to sell clothes," she continued.
"Even plus-size brands use the smaller end of the plus scale to sell their clothes, when the whole spectrum are buying them."
Ashman uses models of different sizes to wear the clothing on her website.
"People want to see how clothes will look on their bodies before they buy them," she said.