Prada Manager In Japan Asked To Fire The "Old, Ugly And Disgusting"

by Sarah Menkedick · 2010-03-19 09:03:00 UTC
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Davide Sesio, CEO of the fashion label Prada in Japan, allegedly threatened to dismiss workers who were "old, fat, ugly, disgusting, or not having the Prada look" and warned senior retail manager Rina Bovrisse that she should lose weight and change her hairstyle, since her "ugliness" might embarrass visitors from Italy.

Bovrisse filed a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court alleging harassment and asking for compensation for emotional damages.  She claims that Sesio forced her to fire thirteen employees who lacked the "Prada look" on the grounds that their sales weren't up to par, even though the stores they worked at had some of the highest profits in Japan.

When Bovisse reported the problem to Prada headquarters in Milan, she says Sesio fired her for bringing "negative energy" to the company. Yes, if "negative energy" is the current euphemism for not being a rail-thin model, I suppose that is what she brought to the company. Bovisse says she was really fired because of her weight and image, adding that "the level of harassment is beyond human understanding."

Go Prada: you have officially joined the ranks of Abercrombie and Fitch and Ralph Lauren in assuring that your employees feel the pressure to stay thin, young, and the type of "beautiful" that fits your wealthy, white patrician styles. It's not enough to pressure your models to stay bone skinny, you've got to make sure the employees represent young, thin money as well.

Mmm ... I love me a lot of discrimination with my fashion ... or not. Hopefully, those fired Prada employees will find justice and compensation and demanding shoppers will soon head elsewhere: to labels and stores which don't sniff at them as "old, ugly, and disgusting."

Photo credit: d'n'c

Sarah Menkedick is a freelance writer currently based in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has spent the last five years teaching, writing and traveling on five continents. She regularly writes about women's rights.
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