Target’s Manatee Dress For Plus Sizes Offends Buyers
A Target flap over a “manatee gray” dress in plus sizes (the same style was labeled “dark heather gray” for standard size units) erupted after a Twitter user pointed out the inconsistency Wednesday.
Target’s manatee gray dress is a standard, kimono-sleeved maxi dress, on offer in both standard women’s sizes as well as in their plus-sized section.
Target shopper Susan Clemens spotted the seemingly insulting misstep yesterday, tweeting out an image of both the Mossimo Women’s Kimono Maxi Dress in sizes small through xx-large with the color option “dark heather gray” and the plus-size version of the same dress, where the identical color was labeled “manatee gray.”
To their credit, Target was quick to address the plus-sized “manatee dress” controversy and offered a plausible explanation. According to Target spokesman Joshua Thomas, the manatee color option is actually a commonly used hue for Target’s fabrics.
And like with many options, different departments were responsible for sourcing and entering data for the online listings of the Mossimo Women’s Kimono Maxi Dress — with one using the manatee color name and the other opting for dark heather gray.
Thomas says one entry was input manually while the other was auto-populated. He added:
“We apologize for any discomfort this might have caused and are working to update the name of the dress to reflect Dark Heather Gray. This was an unfortunate oversight and we’ll take it into consideration moving forward.”
Clemens original tweet read:
What the. Plus sized women get “Manatee Grey” while standard sizes are “Dark Heather Grey.” @target #notbuyingit twitter.com/suZen/status/3…
— Susan Clemens (@suZen) April 3, 2013
Target replied by 6 PM that night:
@suzen We apologize for this unintentional oversight never intend to offend our guests. We’ve heard you, and we’re working to fix it ASAP.
— Target (@Target) April 3, 2013
And plus-sized shoppers do have a bit of consolation otherwise — while the Mossimo Women’s Kimono Maxi Dress retails for $24.99 in standard sizes, the plus-sized version was priced at just $22.
