Revolve Clothing Won’t Rebook Allie Crandell Until She Puts On Weight

Former The City star Allie Crandall has been generating loads of comments for Revolve Clothing, unfortunately not in the way most retailers hope for.

One dress by BCBG has garnered lots of reader response, not for the dress but the woman wearing them. While a few comments are an attack on the model, most focus on Revolve’s decision to use Crandall in the first place. {Styleite}

“This model makes me question the entire company itself. she looks like she’s dying. and from a solely business (not to mention ethical) stand point – she makes the clothes look awful,” one commenter writes.

Naturally thin people exist – Ann Ward, winner of the most recent “high fashion!” America’s Next Top Model, for example is very tall, very thin and eats bacon sandwiches, fried Oreos and other things that you’re likely to see on This Is Why You’re Fat, but has a high metabolism and remains very thin. Her outward appearance isn’t a correlation to healthy or unhealthy eating, it’s just the way she’s built. Annamaria Mirdita, another contestant, was sent home by the judges because they felt her restricted calorie diet was too close to disordered eating to achieve a body type that was not natural for her.

That’s the call that Revolve should have made before booking Crandall in the first place. They responded in the comments with their own statement:

“REVOLVE Team, Los Angeles, CA (Straight/Short)
Hi everyone,Thank you for your concern. We are absolutely aware of the feedback and responses to our model’s weight and it has concerned us as well. We are working closely with both the model and her agent to get her to a healthier size. She won’t be appearing in any of our new product batches or in any of our fashion editorial photos moving forward until the issue is adequately addressed.We appreciate and respect input from our customers and visitors and hope that you find our responses satisfying. We have been attempting to respect the privacy of the model in question while dealing with the issue on our end. We hope you understand.Sincerely,The REVOLVE Team”

Come on – there are young women who are slim and lanky while still (possibly) healthy, but this obviously isn’t it. We find it hard to believe in the sincere concern since, oh, none of this came up until customers started commenting. In one photo where she appears in a gray dress, there are sunken hollows under her eyes (not just bags, which might be from a lack of sleep). In others, the muscles in her forearm appear to be separating from the tissue (muscle atrophy can be a symptom of anorexia), and beyond that, she’s so thin that she doesn’t fit the clothes in certain shots.

There are true medical conditions (other than anorexia/bulimia) where people can’t keep weight on. The Telegraph highlighted one woman who eats 5,000-8,000 calories a day to stay healthy, because of a condition that prevents her from gaining weight and keeps her gaunt. However the type of condition that would give someone the type of emaciated appearance Crandall has outside of an eating disorder, starvation or serious illness, are extremely rare.






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