An Open Letter to Iris Alonzo, Creative Director at American Apparel

American Apparel ran a contest to find a plus sized model for their new line of clothing for people over a size 8. Nancy Upton, a size 12, one the contest where the winner was picked by public vote. Ms. Upton sent in pictures of herself bathing in ranch dressing, eating chicken wings in mass portions, pouring chocolate syrup straight into her mouth and all over herself and holding an apple in her mouth and posing as a pig on a spit. The contest was written up to where these were the images invoked by American Apparel. The contest was appalling. It just wasn't done well. Now that Ms. Upton won, American Apparel is now passing the modeling contract to someone else because they did not agree with Ms. Upton's pictures and the negative, but justified, attention that it deserved. Ms. Iris Alonzo, the creative director who came up with this horrible idea has now sent out an open letter about Ms. Upton. You can find the open letter here:

http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-american-apparels-lame-open-letter-to-nancy-upton-plus-size-model-conte/

I noticed at the bottom that Ms. Alonzo's email address is given. After all, it is an open letter, so I felt the need to respond to American Apparel and Ms. Alonzo. I did send this email but felt I needed to share it with everyone as well so here goes:

You should give the girl that won the prize the modeling contract. She is the one the public voted as the winner as the contest stated. She is obviously smart and witty. The way your contest was described invoked the images that she portrayed. A size 12 being fat? If Marilyn Monroe came into model for you, by today’s standards, you would’ve found her obese. So would Serena Williams and she is the epitome of being physically fit. I personally find your contest a slap in the face of anyone of someone over a size 8. I personally am a size 14 to 18 depending on the clothing. I am also type 2 diabetic which makes it extremely difficult to lose weight. It is very hard on my body and organs to yo-yo when dieting so I just maintain according to my doctor’s advice. I eat healthy and I also go through a minimum of 8 hours of roller derby practice a week. I burn 600 to 900 calories during each one of those practices, so it is not like I don’t exercise and am lazy but your campaign to find plus size models made it sound like that. I am personally going to get everyone I know to boycott your clothing line for us “fatties”. Besides, most of it is hideous and made out of unforgiving fabrics for anyone over a size 2. I personally hope your company is sued by Nancy Upton for not following through with your contest and denying her the prize when she is the clear winner and I hope you lose.

Sincerely,

Nikki Lee

John Bender “The Breakfast Club”: Well not at present, but I can see you really pushing maximum density. See I'm not sure if you know this, but there are two kinds of fat people: there's fat people that were born to be fat, and there's fat people that were once thin but became fat... so when you look at 'em you can sorta see that thin person inside. You see, you're gonna get married, you're gonna squeeze out a few puppies and then, uh...

Yes, we will see you very soon in our club Ms. Alonzo

Am I wrong? Am I justified? I feel so but that is because it is my opinion. I am an American citizen and allowed that under the constitution.

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It has been a long time since I've done anything with this. I have been sick though. First it was pneumonia that resulted in a 3 day hospital stay. Then it was a bunch of contributing factors that lead to a lot of stress and a severe bout of depression that took longer to heal from than the pneumonia. I am finally starting to pull out of it. I've got a pretty good outlook on life. Sometimes, the dark still invades, but at least I feel like I can combat it now. I PROMISE that I am going to come back to my blog and start writing again. I have too many creative juices flowing to not do so.

"I was so lost. So, so lost. Then I rolled in the dust, embraced the wind, danced in the sunshine and guess what I found? Myself again!" :-)