Evil, or Just an Easy Target?

I can't believe I'm coming to the defense of a department store chain I haven't set foot in since high school, but after reading Cintra Wilson's recent New York Times article on the dreadful uncoolness that is JC Penney, I feel compelled to respond.

Wilson accuses the store of selling cheaply-made, mass-produced, dowdy and derivative clothing designs with the kind of vitriol usually reserved for the Wal-Marts of the world. JC Penney and stores like it - Kohl's, Sears, etc. - have been hit where it hurts during the recession, so it seems unnecessary (and totally moot) to kick them while they're down. Not to mention, JC Penney is hardly the only offender. You'd be hard-pressed to find clothing in an upscale department store that wasn't mass-produced and manufactured overseas. As for matters of taste, I will just say that tacky crap is sold everywhere. Case in point: Juicy Couture is sold at Saks Fifth Avenue, and Ed Hardy is sold at Nordstrom.

The article drips with pretension as she discusses the chain's "bridge" lines, the lower-priced collections from big-name designers, like Ralph Lauren and Nicole Miller. At one point she pauses to inquire, "Who the heck is Allen Schwartz?" which is somewhat absurd considering a) she's a fashion writer who should know these things, and b) Allen Schwartz is a well-publicized designer known for creating knock-offs of celebrities' Oscar gowns. He's even been on Oprah, although I'm thinking Oprah is still too Middle America for Ms. Wilson. I haven't seen this kind of pretension since the day a former colleague of mine pretended not to know what Pepsi tasted like.

Halfway through her rant, Wilson switches gears to focus on an even easier target. She writes:

It took me a long time to find a size 2 among the racks. There are, however, abundant size 10’s, 12’s and 16’s ... [JC Penney] has the most obese mannequins I have ever seen. They probably need special insulin-based epoxy injections just to make their limbs stay on. It’s like a headless wax museum devoted entirely to the cast of “Roseanne.”

Let me get this straight. She's accusing JC Penney of being outdated and behind the times, yet she's making a reference to Roseanne? She must not have heard that the approximate average size for an American woman is 14, explaining the "abundance" of those sizes. It's called knowing your customer. Obesity epidemic or not, women of all sizes still need to clothe themselves, and JC Penney is taking advantage of that sales opportunity. Moreover, if she's not going to be shopping there anyway, why does she care so much about the sizing?

Then, she becomes patronizing, but not without a healthy dose of condescension and big-city snobbery:

Since Penney’s remains so doggedly unchanged, it seems to be a familiar place for tourists on a budget; they feel comfortable buying at Penney’s, and these clothes still feel special, because they were bought in New York City.

Gosh, how simple those fat, tasteless Middle Americans are. They just ache for anything - anything - purchased in a big, glamourous city like New York. Even if it's something they could just as well have purchased at their local mall. On behalf of those "tourists on a budget": don't flatter yourself.

Sure, the clothes at JC Penney aren't especially cool. But because they're trying to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible (pun unintended, I swear!), the trends tend to get watered-down. So, which is worse: mass-produced styles that appeal to the general public that are reasonably priced, or mass-produced styles that appeal to fashion victims that cost an arm and a leg?

Image: Bloomberg.com