Shropshire Star

This fashion brand set up an ‘inclusive’ Instagram page for plus-size models and it backfired badly

Fans were horrified by Oh Polly’s decision to launch a separate account for larger models.

Published
screengrab of the OhPollyInclusive Instagram page

Fashion brand Oh Polly received a huge backlash after it launched a separate Instagram account to promote its plus-size clothing.

Called ‘Oh Polly Inclusive’, the page came with the confusing tagline, ‘Zero% tolerance, 100% inclusive’, but has now been closed.

The account went viral when YouTuber Alissa Ashley tweeted about it to her 275,000 followers, asking the brand: ‘What makes these women not suitable for your main page? Who approved this?’

“Imagine calling yourselves inclusive and not wanting to post women that don’t fit your ‘aesthetic’ on your brand page” she said in an another.

The tweet has had nearly 20,000 likes and hundreds of comments, the vast majority agreeing with Ashley.

“I don’t understand why they felt the need to create a whole separate page. If you’re that ‘woke’ on inclusivity, post it on the main page!” replied Shaquelle Raevon.

Initially, Oh Polly defending the page in a tweet, saying that it was “celebrating a wider range of people in our community”.

Replying to one Twitter user, the brand said the ‘inclusive’ page “isn’t just about diversity, we’re going to give you guys SO much more than that”.

But now all posts on the page have been taken down and the company has apologised for what it called “a serious error of judgement”.

In a statement to BBC’s Radio 1 Newsbeat, Oh Polly admitted it was a “serious error of judgement, saying: “Improving diversity remains an absolute priority for us across all of our channels.

“We promise to continue listening to everyone in the Oh Polly community and, most importantly, learn from this mistake.”

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