Category Archives: Feature

Spending habits, the Anthroholic scandal and my thoughts.

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*Please note the following is my own opinion on the topic as someone who’s following along, not as someone that’s been affected.

Have you guys been following along with the Anthroholic scandal? If you haven’t, start here, then read this, this, this, this, and the three posts here . (Read the comments too, if you have time.)

Basically, the gist of the story is that the blogger Anthroholic started up a personal shopping business, where, for a fee, you could “order” something from a store that you can’t get near you, and she’s purchase it with your money, and mail it to you, which, if you live in Canada, can be a great deal. So you paid, up front, for this item that you really wanted. Sounds great, right? Well, it turns out that it really wasn’t so peachy keen. Now it’s coming out that the majority of her “clients” never received their items, when they inquired as to where their purchases were, they were given a myriad of answers from “oh, you didn’t get my email?” to “Anthropologie sent me the wrong size, I have to return it for you.” And it seems like lost emails and wrong sizes were constantly being sent, in an alarming fashion. So alarmingly much, that one person had her IT department at work make sure her email was working properly (it was). Now, 600+ comments in on some of those blog posts I link to above, it seems like this happened to hundreds of people, and many of them paid upwards of $300 for items they never received.

Let’s do the math and say that there were 100 people who “purchased” items they never received, and each sent about $350 (there were rumors of one person sending $800!). That’s at least $35,000 unaccounted for. 

Now, nothing happened to me personally, but it upsets me to no end. And I’m also not part of that Anthro-blogger group, but I do have a group of bloggers I consider my friends. How would feel if one of them did this? Well, I’d be pissed. I’m all for people living their dreams, or doing something to make money, but when you go to this extreme, and regardless of what was happening in her personal life, something is wrong. I’m sure her clients would’ve rather had her say “sorry, I’m a little overwhelmed. I’ll let you know when I can shop for you,” instead of continuing to accept their money, and not fulfill their orders.

I feel like Anthroholic’s general idea was really brilliant. Shop for those that can’t get there, charge them a small fee for your trouble and ship their items. It seems like it would work out really well, but that’s where it went wrong. Rather than fulfill what her original idea was, for whatever reason Anthroholic wasn’t able to fulfill these orders, for months. Who knows if she really was overwhelmed, or if she was taking the money. We all assume what we believe is true, but only Kim knows for sure. Perhaps it was her personal life, her alleged crippling debt, or maybe just the draw of seeing such a large amount of money in her paypal account let her down a road that most people wouldn’t step foot on. But whatever it was, now she’s going to have to pay. There are talks on some of the linked posts above of police action, IRS involvement, or even FBI involvement, because if she did embezzle the money, it’s fraud. And because some of the clients were from Canada, that adds international charges to this whole mess.

Because of all this, a discussion between me, Jenni, Sarah and Kimmie started last night on twitter. We talked about credit cards, savings and debt. I made the comment that Joe and I don’t use credit cards, we’re cash only (we include our debit card with cash, since it’s taken out of the account right away). And for us, it works. Sure, I love shopping and love getting new clothes as much as anyone else. And while I do own a few things from pricier stores like Anthropologie, they’ve been purchased with money I had, and always on sale. I may love a skirt from Anthropologie, but I don’t love it $168 worth.

Another thing Joe and I do really well is communicate about certain purchases. No, we don’t tell each other every time we’re headed to Starbucks, but we often remind each other that we have a coffee maker, and that we’d rather make something at home, save the extra money and go to a movie or something. We also have one debit card between the two of us. Yes, ONE debit card. We share it. If I need gas today, I take it and get gas. If Joe needs gas, he takes it to go get gas. We’ve never been questioned as to why the name doesn’t match the person using it (which does freak me out sometimes), but it makes it easier to make sure we’re aware of what we’re spending.

Thankfully, I’ve never been in a place where I’ve had debt. My parents sacrificed a lot to help me pay for college. I’ve had at least one job (sometimes two!) since I was 14. I loved saving money. Watching that number grow on my bank account was something that become an obsession when I was in high school. That’s why my obsession for all things thrifted began. I would rather spend $5 on a skirt that looks exactly the same as a $60 J Crew skirt. When I was 16, I had the opportunity to spend most of my hard-earned money on a trip to Europe for the summer with classmates. So I did. The money I spent the last two years earning became one of the best trips I’ve ever been on. Because I was going on this trip, without my family, my parents helped me apply for a credit card with a $1,000 limit. I used that card on the trip and continued to use it once I returned, paying off everything I purchased every month, in full.

My parents taught me how to be fiscally responsible, and sometimes when I wish I could buy a $300 coat, I remind myself that it’s the same price as my car payment, and I’d rather have a car to drive.

Now, Joe and I only owe money to my parents (my dad fronted Joe money to go back to school). We have no student loans, no credit card debt, and basically live debt free. We use cash or our debt card for all purchases, and we’re thankful for the place we’re in. I’ve never had to deal with over-spending, I’ve never had to talk to debt collectors, and while my heart may hurt when I have to drop $375 on bills like I did yesterday, the fact that I have the money to pay for those bills is better than anything I could ever purchase in a store.

Now, I’m not saying that spending issues are what drove Anthroholic to her despicable deed of alleged thievery, but it seems like there is something going on. I’ve had my fair share of personal and family issues over the past year, and while I probably handled things differently, it isn’t an excuse. If you’re a nurse, and you stop taking care of your patients, but yet still get paid, that’s wrong. (Ok, maybe not the best example, but you get what I’m saying).

It’s just another (sad) lesson that you can’t always trust everyone you “meet” online. We really don’t know these other bloggers we communicate with, and I think this situation is going to make a lot more people skeptical. I’m hopeful that everyone that was swindled out of money during this scam is able to get refunded. And perhaps Anthroholic will get to the root of her issue before she finds herself in a deeper hole.

If you’re having issues with money or debt, or have a problem with shopping contact Debtors Anonymous or  Shopaholics Anonymous (248) 358-8508.

Me vs. magazines

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I am probably one of the worst people to have a style blog. I’m serious. I know nothing about fashion. I know colors, patterns, designs and what I like, but I couldn’t tell you anything about fashion if my life depended on it, other than the fact that my sister adores Alexander McQueen, I think Betsy Johnson is a genius and I love Kate Spade’s designs.

That’s about all I’ve got.

I can sew, kinda of, if I have to, but I’m not nearly as talented as my mother. She made the dress I wore in my very first outfit post.

But the real reason why I’m the worst person to have a style blog? I hate magazines.

Yup. Deep breaths, everyone, deep breaths.

I understand the work that goes into them, the time they take to create and all that, but I feel like they’re exactly like that scene out of The Devil Wears Prada where Stanley Tucci explains how the color of the sweater (cerulean, my favorite crayon, btw), was hand-picked by the people in that room for the high-end fashions, then trickled down into the mass fashions where she picked that poly-blend out of dollar bin. Or something like that.

I will never be “that girl,” who sits at home on a Friday night, devouring the new September Vogue magazine. Why? I just don’t find myself inspired by them at all, because all I can think when I flip through the pages is “why is this ‘call for pricing?’ Why is this $3,000?! Who has an extra $3,000 to spend on a jacket!?” And that’s when I get a little mad.

As I’ve said before, and I’ll say again and again, I am on a budget. I may admire a $3,000 coat, or hell, even a $200 coat, but I’ll never purchase it. My luckiest (and happiest) purchase in recent times was buying a $169 Anthropologie dress for $45. Yeah. That was awesome.

But, again, I understand why a magazine will put in Stella McCartney pants instead of Forever 21 or Zara pants. I mean, I get it, but I don’t have to like it. And, I will admit, sometimes the headlines will suck me in when they promote “100 items under $50″ or whatever, but I’ve noticed even that has changed! So instead of magazines showing me accessible fashions, they’re showing me the high-end, unobtainable (for me) fashions.

So, instead of buying or reading magazines (which I do a few times a year, although I always find myself really disappointed with my choices), I read fashion and style blogs. Let me tell you, blogs are so much more inspiring to me than a magazine any day! Magazines seem to cater to one group: tall, thin, attractive, with overflowing bank accounts. But blogs, ah! Blogs are every size, shape, color and price point we want them to be, because we make them.

To me, magazines are an unnecessary purchase that I make, that make me think I need to own this or that, and attempt to force styles that might not fit their body type on the general population. It’s like the quote above: fashion is what we’re all offered, but style is what you make of it.

And blogs are nothing but pure style of that writer, or group of writers (in some cases).

So, what the heck is my point? Keep that inspiration coming, ladies and gentlemen. (If you want the dorky answer, blogs > magazines. Yeah, I went there. It’s the only part of high school math I remember).

Refinery 29 has grossly misguided views on plus size

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Since when in a size ten considered plus size? Apparently if you’re Refinery 29 it is. A size ten is NOT plus size. A size ten is NOT fat. A size ten is SMALLER than the national average, which is a fourteen.

In 2009, V Magazine had a spread featuring a “traditional” model, Jacquelyn Jabonski (a US size 2), and a “plus sized” model, Crystal Renn (a US size 12), wearing the same outfits and striking nearly identical poses. Crystal is considered plus sized in the modeling world, but in the real world she’s about a size 12, which is not plus size.

Honestly, I think both models look fabulous is these outfits.

Who in their right mind would call Crystal Renn plus sized?

Here’s the thing that really set me off with this tweet. We have enough issues with body image as is. Why does a highly-followed site need to help us feed that green-eyed monster we call jealousy and the insecurity we all feel? Why does this site think it’s OK to promote that size ten is plus sized? Because we let them.

We let Refinery 29 say that because we’re  don’t tell them not to. Shortly after this tweet went out, and myself and others were responding to them and letting them know it wasn’t OK to call size ten women plus size, they did respond to a few people saying, “sorry if we offended! Unfort, flash sale sites often don’t go over sz10–we’re celebrating a site that does!”

But here’s the thing-  they missed the point ENTIRELY, which is that size ten (and up to a size 20) is not considered plus size. Do they realize that plus size starts at size 22? Apparently not, or they wouldn’t be telling us to celebrate a site that sells size ten+ clothing, because we’re all “plus size.”

Maybe I’m getting my panties get in a bunch over a stupid tweet, but I don’t care. I don’t need some random person working for Refinery 29 to make me feel bad because I wear a size 8/10. Yeah, that’s right. I’ll tell you what size I wear. And guess what Refinery 29? I am NOT plus size even though you seem to think I am. I can buy my clothes in the same “normal” store that you can. Maybe you should think before you tweet. Showing your true colors with an offensive tweet like this just proves to us what we should have known: You -and the fashion industry- really do think people wider than a twig are fat and therefore “special.”

And not in a good way.

Shame!

EDIT: Thanks for all the comments guys! I really want to clarify that I’m more or less taking on the choice of verbiage more so than Refinery 29. I love that there is now a site catering to flash sale for women size ten and up (see that wording Refinery? THATS how you should’ve worded your tweet).
I think plus size is a stupid label the fashion industry puts on women they don’t know how to dress, because they’re not stick thin and hanger-like. I think it’s stupid that we, as women, have to be put into categories we may or may not agree with because some designer needs to decide how to label their clothes. It’s just stupid. I love how I look, I love my body. Plus size, minus size, regular size- label me what you want, but I’m not going to label myself. I am Suze, not a pant size, shoes size, gender or ethnicity.

This isn’t high school anymore, my friends. Grow up.

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When I was in high school, I had (what I thought) was a close group of girl friends. There were about five of us in the same French class. I remember being really excited that we’d all have class together. That was until I realized they wanted nothing to do with me. They passed notes back and forth (with me sitting in their group), but not to me. They would all go out together after school, drive around, listen to music, get food, but not with me.

I remember telling myself “it gets better,” and counting down the days until graduation.

I started college, and joined a sorority. I thought I finally had a great group of friends. When I decided to leave the sorority, and only three girls still talked to me after I was no longer paying membership fees, I realized it wasn’t what I thought it would be.

So now, I find myself some friends in the blogging world, and I’m happy again. But, I’m slowly reminded that the blogging world is just like high school. I see cliques and groups that are “invite only,” and makes my head hurt. I’m all for groups and blogger memes, but not if they’re exclusive.

I thought I made friends with other bloggers, only to find myself removed from their personal and online lives, without an explanation of why. Not that I really want them to tell me they think I’m 1. crazy; 2. mean, or; 3.a terrible person (because those are the only reasons, right?). It just sucks when you think you made a friendship with someone, only to find out you’re wrong. (Although, I do believe and agree that our tastes change. Some of the blogs I read two years ago, I don’t read any more. I read blogs now I wouldn’t have dreamed of reading back then, so I never apologize for changing my tastes. But what hurts is someone you thought was a friend doing these things.)

There are meetups that leave people out, popularity contests, bitchiness, talking behind other people’s backs, blogs that make fun of other bloggers, and so on. I realize (and I’m sure other bloggers realize), that when you decide to put yourself out there, in any way, you’re opening yourself up to be scrutinized. Yes, we all have a right to our own opinions, but are some of them really necessary to promote?

Sure, I’ll admit it, I’ve visited a few blogs and didn’t “get” their style. But all their readers do. And I’ve visited other blog and totally “got” their style and wondered why they didn’t have thousands more readers.

Maybe it’s just the mindset I’ve been in lately, but I’m sick of feeling like I’m in high school again. I’m 25 years old. I shouldn’t feel like I’m back in high school.

From now on, this is my mantra:

Meet Elisa from Styled by U

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Meet Elisa, from  Styled by U. I found her blog from a tweet Tieka sent out.

Basically, you suggest an outfit (or two) to Elisa; she photographed her entire wardrobe and listed it on the blog. Her goal is to have outfits styled by you, the reader. I suggested one to her, not knowing if it would even work, and it did!

Elisa joined me for a quick interview, to give you guys more information, so you can rush over and style an outfit for her!

Why did you decide to start this blog?
I decided to start the blog because I LOVE style blogs, and I can spend an inordinate amount of time scouring through them… so that eventually I decided I wanted to have my own.
However, I’m quite frugal and although I feel that I have a good sense of style (as in, I can pinpoint what looks good on others), I don’t think I have a very trendy closet. So I figured that if I wanted to showcase stylish outfits from a not-terribly-stylish closet without spending money on a whole wardrobe overhaul, I was going to have to put some very creative outfits together.

Problem is, I think I’m kind of conservative and think-inside-the-box a little too much when it comes to my outfits (I’m like the opposite of a creative remixer. I find myself in the same ol’ tried and true outfits ALL the time). So I came up with the idea of letting the creative geniuses that are found among all the style bloggers in the web contribute to my search for a more stylish version of me. So essentially it’ll the same girl, same clothes, new (fabulous) style.

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What do you hope to accomplish with your blog?
I hope to accomplish a fresh take on the same boring clothing items that I find in my closet. I think that although the styles of the outfits will stem from other people’s visions, I will be able to identify with a lot of them and will be able to extract my individual style from among other people’s suggestions.

What happens if someone suggests a look that doesn’t really work? Will you change things?
Ideally, I’ll have several options to choose from on a daily basis… and if that’s the case, I’ll start selecting suggestions at random from the pool of suggestions that are placed in my comments. The good news is, I’m not easily embarrassed so hopefully that helps me rock every single outfit with confidence, even if it’s viewed as quirky to others :) I want to make it that way so that I don’t select something that I would’ve thought of on my own, and get trapped in the same style rut I’m trying to get away from. So I hope to keep outfits exactly as they’re suggested, unless they’re not practical due to weather or an activity I’ll be doing that day…

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How often are you hoping to post outfits?
I’m aiming to post outfits a minimum of 3 times a week… hopefully I can keep that up.

If you buy something new/get rid of something, will you replace the photos of your stuff?
I will definitely update the pictures of things I add or remove from my closet in real life :)

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Join the May edition of the Paper Doll Project!

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PaperDollLogo
It’s that time again! Time to sign up for the next edition of the Paper Doll Project, happening May 11, 2011.

Please sign up HERE. (You MUST sign up on the Google doc sheet. I cannot accept any comments or emails as entires into the project.)

The registration for the March Paper Doll Project ends Friday, April 29. The list of matches will be emailed out as soon as I can put it together (depends on the number of participants), which gives everyone at least one week to style, be styled and take photos.

To get more information or a see a list of our March participants, check out the info page.

Follow along on twitter with the hastag #paperdollproject!

Please feel free to post about this on your blog, twitter, facebook etc. to help spread the work, and please feel free to post the widget on your blog to spread the word!

Paper Doll Project
<a href="http://missvinylahoy.wordpress.com/paper-doll-project/" title="Paper Doll Project"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4102/5436974074_0f255cdb9e.jpg" alt="Paper Doll Project" style="border:none;" /></a>

What’s all this hype about Pinterest?

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By now, you’ve probably heard about Pinterest, but unless you’ve made it through the waiting list or received one of the few invites each member gets, you may not be part of the addicted users (that will change soon, I bet!).

Pinterest is basically your personal pinboard of inspirations, likes and obsessions. Currently, I have six “boards” where I categorize things I want, things I finally own, things to DIY, what to wear, awesome hairstyles and poses to try.

You can “follow” other users, similarly to Twitter, where you can see the new things they “pin.” You can follow every single board someone has created, or just specific boards (I steer clear of wedding boards, because I’ve been married for two years. Although Pinterest keeps trying to suggest I follow wedding boards. Go figure.)
If you like something someone else has pinned, you can “repin” it to your board. Confusing? Well, think about it this way:
I start with this photo (click for source):

Louise likes it, so she “repins” it to her inspiration board. From there, her followers can see it and can repin it, but if you go to the specific item, it shows that I’m the original pinner, and how many others have repinned it. So you can kind of follow trends and see what others are really interested in. Plus, if you follow others that have similar likes/dislikes to you, you’ll always have a new flow of inspiration!

I really like it because it’s a very simple way to save my inspiration. I found myself bookmarking photos or blog posts, saving them to my computer and uploading them to my Flickr account, often forgetting their original source! But now, I can just pin them, and Pinterest automatically adds their source! How cool is that?!

You can pretty much pin from anywhere, Flickr, blogs, online shops- anywhere! I haven’t run into an issue of not being able to pin anything yet, which is really cool.

Another pretty awesome feature is that you can view all the items that are from the same source (not necessarily pinned by the same person). For example, I found that someone pinned one of my outfits from December, then viewed the source (my blog address) and found out that more of my outfits had been pinned to other accounts. How cool is that?!

If you want to start your own Pinterest account, sign up to for the waiting list (I hear it goes by pretty fast), or request an invite from someone already using it (be aware that current users only get a specific number of invites, so they may not be able to invite you if they’ve already used theirs up!).

You can also follow the creators on Twitter (they’re really nice!). Let me know if you have any questions, and how you feel about Pinterest. I really like it so far, but then again, I think most people do!

Who’s screwing who update (AKA- the day after)

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Well yesterday was a bit interesting, eh?

I posted Modcloth’s response last night and headed off to bed, only to find 10 new comments when I woke up this morning that needed to be approved (and are now up!).

I had someone on twitter ask me if I am “happy with Modcloth’s answer.”
These are the questions I posed to Modcloth: where are you getting your merchandise? Who is supplying you with these pieces? Are you aware that you’re each selling the same items for dramatically different prices? What are you going to do about it?

While they didn’t directly answer any of my questions, the fact that they called their designers/suppliers and even pulled one of the dresses off the site tells me they’re taking this matter very seriously.

Modcloth is a business, and like many people commented, have the right to price things however they want. Again, that wasn’t the point of yesterday’s post. The point was to ask if they were aware of the same merchandise being sold at rock bottom prices at Forever 21 and to see what they planned to do about it.

And, obviously, their plan was to figure out where the merchandise really came from and pull it if they couldn’t verify, which makes me, as a consumer, really happy. They may have started as a tiny company in a dorm room, but they’ve grown. It’s nice to see how they react to situations like this one, and here’s hoping it doesn’t happen again!

If you have time, go back to the first post to read some of the new comments, especially this one from Neeka B. She explains what I was trying to say really, really well (she works in the industry, I do not).  The discussion in the comments section is amazing. It turned from Modcloth into fair-trade and USA goods.

(I’m editing this section, because Tarren says I’m making “assy assumptions…)
Now I need to take a minute and thank everyone who commented, tweeted, RTed, emailed, posted and reposted this link. All I did was make a blog post. You guys MADE them pay attention. You guys kept hounding Modcloth, kept leaving comments, posting to their Facebook wall and tweeting them, asking them to respond. I wonder if this would’ve been on Modcloth’s radar is it hadn’t had such a huge reaction. So for all your efforts, I thank you.

By the way, I was called poor, attention-seeking, a know-it-all and a few other names yesterday. And just to clarify, yes, I am poor. But you can keep those other names for someone else.

:) Suze (AKA- the girl who kicked the hornet’s nest)

PS: Be back later with an outfit post (yay!)

EDIT: Here’s a list of all the other posts and blogs I’ve found discussing this topic (if I missed yours, please let me know and I’d be happy to post it!)

http://thegloss.com/fashion/modcloth-might-be-ripping-you-off/

http://heartifb.com/2010/12/20/negative-reviews-feedback-on-companies/

http://www.adoredaustin.com/2010/12/mums-word-at-modcloth.html

http://archivechicago.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-silence.html

http://www.mischiefmydear.com/dramatispersonae/2010/links-to-love/

http://sweetlaundry.blogspot.com/2010/12/modcloth-clothing-controversy.html

http://shoedaydreams.blogspot.com/2010/12/to-quote-shiesty.html

http://areasontobefabulous.blogspot.com/2010/12/bold-wandering-thoughts.html

http://one-girl-vs-world.blogspot.com/2010/12/oh-modcloth.html

http://www.dedicated-follower.com/dedicated_follower_of_fas/2010/12/whos-screwing-who-a-response.html

http://jesseanneo.blogspot.com/2010/12/modcloth-developments.html

http://myleatherjacket.blogspot.com/2010/12/interesting-issues-raised.html

Who’s screwing who?

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EDIT: I posted the link to this on Modcloth’s facebook page. It remained there for about an hour, received a few comments, and was just deleted by someone on Modcloth’s staff. What are they trying to hide?

EDIT: Laurel left a comment at about 6:00 PM EST saying she added the link to Modcloth’s Facebook page again, because she appreciated the dialog it was creating. Modcloth removed it AGAIN, making it the THIRD time they removed a comment mentioning this post from their Facebook page. I am also still waiting for a response. This posted at 10:50 AM EST, and as I type this, it’s 7:30 PM. That’s almost EIGHT hours later… Timely response? Not so much…

EDIT: If you scroll down, you can read the message I sent to Modcloth’s PR people, hoping to get a response.

EDIT: Modcloth has responded! Thankfully, it appears as if they weren’t aware of these items being sold at Forever 21 for such drastically different prices (yay!). Scroll down to see their response (copied from the comments section).

Apparently it is normal to repackage goods and resell them at astronomical markups. I never knew about this practice until late last night when I discovered this necklace for sale on Modcloth:


It’s selling on their site for $37.99. The only problem?
Forever 21 sold this necklace (in three colors) a year ago. I own it in black.
Their price? $9.80.

That’s almost four times LESS the cost to purchase it through Modcloth.

My point? Who’s screwing who? Is Modcloth purchasing these necklaces at rock-bottom prices, only to resell them for 4x what they cost to purchase? Or is Modcloth’s supplier ripping them off?

Oh, and just so you don’t think I’m crazy, here are three more examples (with photos) comparing Modcloth and Forever 21′s merchandise:


Like I said earlier, this isn’t a practice I was aware of until now (or, I at least didn’t want to admit that it happens). But, apparently it’s a common practice. Through a little research yesterday (by prompting from Hillary), I found a cosmetics company that allegedly does this all the time. They’ve even go so far as to threaten legal action if bloggers don’t remove negative reviews or posts containing their brand name! (This is why I’m not posting it here.)

I want to be clear: I’m not calling out places that sell the same merchandise for similar, but different prices. That seems to be very common. I can usually find the same items on Modcloth, Lulus, Tulle, Urban Originals and Go Jane for varying prices, but they’re not usually $20 or $30 cheaper. They’re usually within $5-10 different (in most cases).

I’m calling out the supplier or store that snatches these items up at rock bottom prices and resells them for crazy amounts. There are sellers on Etsy that do this all the time. Go through the archives of Regretsy. April does a great job at pointing them out.

So here are my questions to Modcloth and Forever 21: where are you getting your merchandise? Who is supplying you with these pieces? Are you aware that you’re each selling the same items for dramatically different prices? What are you going to do about it?

And my question to you readers: how does it make YOU feel?

Personally, I’m pissed. I work hard for my money and I don’t like getting ripped off, or seeing others get ripped off.

-Suze

(PS: Polyvore is a great resource for clipping and saving items that were in stores long ago. That’s where I got my pricing info.)

PPS: This post isn’t meant to be a “hey Modcloth, you suck!” post. It’s meant to point out a trend I noticed between two different stores and ask the questions of “why, how and what?” I’m still waiting for a response from Modcloth and Forever 21, and will post them if I receive them.

I sent the following message to Modcloth’s PR people:

Dear Turi,
I wanted to give Modcloth a chance to respond to something that’s brewing right now on my blog and on twitter. I wrote a post this morning (http://missvinylahoy.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/whos-screwing-who/) using Modcloth and Forever 21 as examples, showing how businesses can get the same items from suppliers and whether it’s the supplier or the store, are charging crazy mark-ups for them. It was, in no way, meant to be anti Modcloth. I posted it, tweet it and put it on Modcloth’s Facebook page.

That is where things took a dramatic turn.

It was on the page, with no comments, for about an hour. Then, as about six comments come in the span a few minutes, someone from the Modcloth staff chose to delete the entire thread and a subsequent comment left on the Facebook page about the post from someone else.

The link posted on the Modcloth page was not meant to create any controversy, but was a way to make sure someone at Modcloth saw it. I was hoping to get a response from someone, hopefully explaining that you were unaware of your suppliers selling the same merchandise to these fast-fashion stores.
(I am aware the Modcloth doesn’t produce their own clothing, but purchases it through smaller designers. I am also aware that Modcloth usually isn’t the only venue selling these brands).

I’m sure you’ve seen the numerous mentions of @modcloth on Twitter, yet I’ve have no one attempt to respond to this issue.

This has changed from a potential supplier issue to one of censorship. None of the comments on the Facebook post were rude, inflammatory, sexually explicit or using harsh language. The majority of them were in support of Modcloth, and telling me that my argument was a poor one. I was able to respond to these people, letting them know that the post wasn’t anti-Modcloth, you and Forever 21 were just the venues I chose to use as an example. I could’ve easily used Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters or any of the other stores out there, but because I had examples of Modcloth and Forever 21 items, I chose to use those.

I apologize for any inconvenience this caused your employees, but I am surprised it took over five hours to get a response.

If you’d like to respond, I’d be happy to post it.

Thanks,
Suze

From Modcloth:

Sorry it’s taken us some time to respond; we’ve been investigating the items you raised, and it’s our busiest time of the year. Thank you for your post and for giving us the chance to weigh in on this topic! We’re sorry we removed your post on our Facebook wall; it violated our comments policy, which does not allow posts that link to competitors’ sites… We realize, however, that there are grey areas and we don’t want to discourage healthy conversation in our communities, and we certainly aren’t trying to hide anything. We’re excited for the chance to join the conversation here.

First, it’s important everyone know that we never repackage goods! We’re strictly a retailer, and we source our items from designers all over the country and the world. We can’t know whether other retailers will carry similar or the same items. In fact, trade shows are often months ahead of when we receive our inventory, and it’s not possible for us to know whether items we’ve bought will turn up on other retailers’ sites until we actually see them online. It is never our intention to “steal a style.”

Additionally, we don’t have the buying power of larger retailers, as we make much smaller orders. In those cases where we are offering the same items as other retailers, we may not be able to negotiate the best price with the designer due to our order size. And, sadly, we’ll never have visibility into what suppliers are charging others.

Here’s what we’ve learned on the items you raised. We spoke to the necklace designer who confirmed that the item is unique and she has never sold it to Forever 21; and so they’re likely similar, but of very different construction. We couldn’t reach the designer of the Show in Seattle Dress (red, grey, and black plaid), and so we have taken the item off the site until we can confirm its origin; if it’s the same item, we will return it to the designer or donate it. We cannot confirm if the last two items are the same items, but they are not in stock and we don’t intend to restock them.

Eight years ago, we started out as a small company that was operated by a college student out of her dorm room. We’re happy to be where we are today, and we’re even happier to be growing so quickly! Now, we’re launching between 25 and 50 new products every day! Even if we knew of all the items being simultaneously carried by other retailers, it’s nearly impossible for us to cross check all of our designs and prices against them. We try to offer the best shopping experience through our fast shipping, generous returns policy, beautiful images and descriptions, and great customer service, and sometimes that means we can’t offer the lowest prices. We strive to, though, and can use your help!

So, what can you do as shoppers? If you like the items we offer and you want to continue shopping with us, let us know when you see ModCloth items carried on a competitor’s site at another price by emailing us at support@modcloth.com. This will help us be more informed and work more closely with our designers in offering the best prices and the most unique items.

The best way to grow is through criticism and feedback, and we are listening. Thank you so much for your thoughts – we really do appreciate them!