‘She so fat come here and shop for what?’: Staff from new Wheelock apparel store Subdued criticised for allegedly fat-shaming customer
New apparel outlet Subdued has purportedly received online reviews accusing one of their staff members of fat-shaming customers.
Since opening its first retail outlet at Wheelock Place on April 10, the Italian brand has faced allegations raised in several Google reviews, as well as in a TikTok video by user @lovettieee, who said she felt afraid to visit Subdued “because of this Louisa girl.”
“She’s so fat come here shop for what?” says lovettieee, citing a Google review that claims Louisa made the remark about a customer.
“You so rude, work in retail for what,” comments lovettieee in response.
One of the reviews, which lovettieee included a screenshot of in her video, claimed Louisa had “FATSHAMED [them] and [their] friend’s bottom under her breath”, before proceeding to ignore them when they required assistance.
Another review featured in the video alleged that Louisa responded rudely when the reviewer asked if there were other colours available for a shirt she was interested in: “She just rolled her eyes and said, ‘all the colours are here la.’”
The two reviews were not available on Subdued’s Google Reviews page at the time of this article.
“Girl, why is retail staff fat-shaming their own customers? Fat-shaming the same customers who are supporting their hourly paycheque leh,” she adds.
Lovettieee concludes the video by saying she initially saw Subdued’s apparel as similar to Brandy Melville’s, but now believes the two brands are alike in both style and controversy. Brandy Melville, another Italian fast-fashion brand, had previously been criticised for a toxic work environment, including alleged body-shaming of staff early last year.
‘Brandy Melville all over again’: Netizen says
Lovettieee’s video has garnered over 160,000 views, with 9,900 reactions, and 40 comments.
“We won’t know what’s the full story, but I 100 per cent know that regardless of the situation we shouldn’t condone cyberbullying,” said one TikToker.
“Brandy Melville all over again,” another commented.
One comment came in defence of Louisa.
“Just to clarify, she wasn’t even working on opening day when the majority of the bad reviews about her were written…please don’t believe everything you see on the internet it’s quite obvious the people writing the reviews are trolls…either they have only 1 review which is that subdued review or 2-3 reviews and the rest were written in 2024/2025,” said the commenter.
Stomp has reached out to Subdued for comment.
Explore more on these topics
See something interesting? Contribute your story to us.
