A Letter To OSP

Since posting this letter, Michael Truluck has responded to me and has offered his apologies and is taking the matter very seriously. He is investigating the matter and intends to have a response for me (and you all) sometime next week. His email seemed very genuine and I am pleased he is taking us seriously. I’ll keep you all posted. 

 

Dear Mr Truluck

It is with great sadness that I have to write to you but I feel I cannot let this matter go without giving you some direct feedback about my experience of dealing with One Stop Plus and your PR agency.

Firstly, let me introduce myself – my name is Claire Marchant-Williams. I am the organiser and host of Plus London Two – a plus size fashion bloggers event which was held in London this past weekend. I am also a plus size fashion blogger.

Blogging for me is a hobby – my organising of the event was a labour of love. In my day job I am part of the customer experience and quality team at the Financial Ombudsman Service. Seeing as I spend my day putting myself in the customer’s shoes and advising people how to ensure that our customers receive the best experience we can – I believe you should know how One Stop Plus (OSP) came across during the Plus London event and the preparation before.

My first experience of OSP was dealing with Laura Hartshorne from the PR company you use – Bright Light. Overall she was good – a bit too over familiar (addressing me as “sweetie” and signing off with “kisses”) but I wasn’t too offended. Laura then left – I’m not sure if she left Bright Light or just dealings with OSP – and Bex Broughton became my main contact. I get the impression (and I may be completely wrong) that this was Bex’s first time of dealing with a client. I found her disorganised – I was having to repeat myself a times in our email exchanges, extremely demanding – ringing me when I was at work, emailing constantly, wanting replies ASAP etc and at times downright rude.

Please don’t get me wrong – I am very grateful for OSP’s contribution to the costs of Plus London Two and the fact that the brand wanted to be involved. The money helped pay for the pop up photography studio and the drinks for the evening.

However, this was an independent event with a lot of brands contributing to the costs yet the representatives from OSP acted as if it was their event and that they were doing me a favour by allowing me to arrange it. The other brands involved were the complete opposite – respectful that it was my event and bent over backwards to be friendly and helpful in both the planning and on the day of the event.

I think OSP idea to have bloggers model clothes from the SS12 range was an excellent one. However I don’t think enough thought or effort was put in to how this would work. I was asked by Bex to provide a list of the bloggers who wanted to model – along with their measurements and links to their blogs so that OSP could get an idea of the bloggers style so that items could be picked that would suit them. However, having seen what the bloggers were dressed in for the catwalk, I don’t think this was done.

All of the bloggers who volunteered did so because they thought it would be fun and a boost to their confidence. Perhaps I should explain a little about plus size bloggers – some bloggers are like me – extremely confident with how they look and with their size and are blogging to show others that being fat does not mean you can’t look and feel amazing. Other bloggers do it to help themselves learn to love who they are regardless of their size. The latter group really push themselves out of the comfort zone every time they do a blog post. So the fact that some from this group volunteered to walk down a catwalk was no small thing.

However, after their experience with OSP – they are all in agreement that it was neither fun nor a confidence boost. I have asked the models for their comments on the day and I include quotes directly from their responses below:

“I didn’t feel welcomed or valued by the brand – totally unlike Anna Scholz. They were stressy because we were “late” – having made us schlep all the way across London – still no idea whey they couldn’t have come to us at The Strand….They were short with us, not friendly or nice,  the clothes they’d selected were quite ugly and not fashionable – especially for the larger ladies in the group. They didn’t really have any alternatives if anyone didn’t like what they were wearing. They rushed us, they didn’t say a huge amount in the way of a thank you and I felt as if they didn’t really appreciate what we were doing to promote their brand on a day that was supposed to be fun.”

“XX and I were quite vocal in how we hadn’t eaten all day – rushing here and there and everywhere (which was lovely and great, and I thoroughly enjoyed my day), we ended up not eating until midnightish. No offer was made to order something for us. Nothing even mentioned when they had pizza in the office while we were upstairs. A slight peeve point, yes, but a point none the less.

 

Also, there were no mirrors. Anywhere – neither in their offices nor at The Strand. Granted, this may have been a bonus for some of us. But then, I now don’t know if I’ve shown everyone the bra underneath that sheer pink tent I was wearing. I suspect I had.

 

XX summed it up really nicely when she said “Why ask a bunch of bloggers, who KNOW what suits them, what fits them, to model, and NOT allow them to choose their own clothes from the range?” Very well said my dear.

 

Also, the messing on with shoes was quite comical – they knew our shoe sizes, there should not have been a shortage of size 5 / 8 / 10 etc. For a company who made such a point about natural makeup etc, to not then allow time to apply make up / do hair??? Weird, no? Quick costume changes and no help? Not even outside of the room to fasten shoes? Weird, no?

 

Again, I don’t want this to seem picky, or awkward. But I do feel like they were abrupt with is, and disorganised. I think XX may have mentioned it, but I don’t think they really appreciated what we had done for them.”

“It just astounded me how badly they misjudged the fashion. Some of the pieces we were given were absolutely shocking, and I know a couple of us had any confidence completely knocked out of us because what we were given to wear was so frumpy, unfashionable and unflattering. And then we were given five minutes to do hair and make up – how were we supposed to look good? They made us look 20 years older than we were. And to add insult, the PRs office was full of the most beautiful clothes, which were obviously from non plus size brands. That is the kind of thing we want to wear – NOT cargo pants and long t-shirts.

 

Apart from the very sweet girl with the apricot coloured hair, I felt we were constantly being judged, I felt the staff were there begrudgingly. It was a really uncomfortable atmosphere. They rushed us and made me feel extremely stressed all day, coupled with exhaustion from having to trek 3/4s of the way around London. And to think they were being that demanding to you, Claire? What a JOKE.”

 

“As I said to Claire via twitter, I think I got the better out off what was undoubtedly a very bad bunch of clothes, and from what I’ve heard there was no need for you to be dragged across London on a such a tight timescale if all they did was give you the clothes you where wearing on the night with no real fitting or choice. Because we may as well have slipped the clothes on when we got there on the evening like I did!!”

 

“Most of what people of already said, I completely agree with. I find the lack of effort they made considering the fact we were the ones doing them a favour was appalling. In fact, they barely bothered to remember our names, never mind little else.

 

For me, parts were traumatic. I truly feel that those of us that were the bottom end of the plus size spectrum were treated with borderline contempt. I found their logic and explanation for things ludicrous…they couldn’t provide shoes for the ‘larger feet’ yet I’m only a size 8 and they had none, whereas they could find shoes for someone with size ten feet, but was a smaller dress size. I refuse to believe that they hadn’t looked at peoples blog links, as there is no way on earth that you could manage to get it so bang on the money without seeing a picture of someone, such as matching someone’s hair colour or their stature.

 

I want to stress how utterly low I felt at points. I was made to wear clothes that not only had any baring to my personal style but were in the case of that sodding skirt, something that made me actually have a self esteem flashback and a mini meltdown!

 

Not at any point were they bothered about me at all…when I came down in the offices dressed in what they’d given me, they left me stood for about ten minutes in the case of both outfits whilst they chatted away, despite having acknowledged I was stood there. When they did finally deign to give me the once over, they barely looked at me, had no option on whether it worked and when we did the practice run, they deemed that it needed accessories, yet never bothered to provide them. Also I feel they expected us to wear things without tights/heels etc where we weren’t comfortable with no leeway at all.

 

The thing that galled me the most was the fact they never said thank you or offered anything in way of thanks…I feel that even when we all asked for a drink that they begrudged that…they should have provided dinner for us, plain and simple, because then there would have been no need to rush at all.

 

I just feel like they were plain and simply sizeist. They made sure to rope us into picture taking which no doubt will end up on their website as well as the pics/video from the catwalk. The last words they said were not thank you, but a reminder yet again to link them to any Plus London Two posts. Well, you know what One Stop Plus? I’ll do that, but I’ll damn sure make sure that you wish I hadn’t!! Because don’t they realise that multiply us all by our followers, that it will be a rather large amount of bad press?”

 

“Ugh, yes. I remember those HORRIBLE outfits you had to wear. It broke my heart. Most of the outfits they chose for us were thing we not only would not wear, but that we’re running away from.

 

They didn’t really know about my style and I sort of pardon that because I deleted my blog on a whim a few days before (but then brought it back), but what about the more prominent bloggers who have tons of OOTDs on their websites and have been everywhere for years? You surely could NOT get it wrong with them, specially the ones with a very solid style. You’re not going to give trousers to someone who hasn’t worn trousers in YEARS.”

“Ok so I arrived early and was invited in the office i was given my clothes and sent upstairs to try them on, I did notice there was no mirrors and was a bit confused due to the rails around the edge of the room with gorgeous clothes on and did contemplate squeezing my assets into something else. Clothes tried on i was sat down stairs and the girls where complaining that the models where late so rang you guys to find out where you where. The girls didn’t come across as very professional at all and if they are a fashion PR company representing a brand they weren’t enthusiastic about the brand at all, it felt like it was a chore to them, very rude and abrupt run through and total confusion with regard to running order etc

I’ve helped back stage at fashion shows before and don’t understand why they weren’t dressing us or buckling shoes etc it would have made the show run better.

No full length mirrors at the venue. Barely given time to do hair or even touch up make-up. Looking at their spring summer collection online i would have picked something completely different to wear, i did feel a bit of a frump in the clothes, I would have thought they would have done a fitting a couple of weeks in advance to see what suits body shape height and complexion also what shoes and accessories go with each outfit.”

 

This one in particular is from my friend and fellow blogger who I asked to help me with the models – “I had the task of liaising with Bex and the rest of the models and ensuring that we were in the right place at the right time.

 

Over email I found Bex often abrupt, on the phone she was almost rude.

I spent the entire time feeling I had to humour her and that she in some way was doing us a favour, rather than the other way around. We were given no option but to travel across London to attend the rehearsals, which we did with good grace. Bex on our arrival was curt and unfriendly.

 

The girls from OSP were friendly, but the rehearsal was shambolic and the models were in my opinion treated badly. While cups of tea were produced after being asked for, there were no other refreshments provided, no mirrors so we could see how we looked and no opportunity or help given for makeup, hair or even putting on shoes during the show. There was no where for us to change.

 

In my opinion the outfits were not reflective of either the blogger’s own style, or even the best that OSP has to offer its customers.

 

The approach should have been to work with the blogger models a week or so before the event to ensure that the outfits chosen reflected their style and they were happy to wear them. Asking the models for suggested outfits from the OSP range would have meant we would have been happy to wear and rave about them after the catwalk. As it was none of us felt the clothes reflected who we were or even what the brand had to offer.

 

Only two of the outfits were actually ‘outfits’ as such. The rest of us were given only one or two garments at most to wear, with no accessories. Little thought seemed to have gone into creating looks for us, and in a couple of cases the clothes were too tight, even though the model’s measurements had been sent through weeks before.

Shoes were seemingly unavailable in many sizes.

 

I didn’t know it at the time but apparently while we were struggling into clothes and several of the models realised they would have no time to eat prior to the next rehearsal, the OSP were eating pizza downstairs. I find it incredibly rude and completely unthoughtful that no refreshments were provided for the models.

 

After the catwalk we were given cursory thanks and told to write nice things in the OSP book. These models gave up their afternoon and early evening for no thanks. Some token of appreciation was only fitting given the time and energy that was put in by the models.”

 

As you can see from above, the bloggers felt extremely undervalued – not the way you want people to feel if you want them to promote your brand I’m sure. I agree entirely about the clothes which the bloggers were given to wear. The whole ethos behind Plus London is that it’s about a group of women who somehow find amazing things to wear from a very limited pool. The items which were show cased on the catwalk missed the mark by so much its incomprehensible.

I trusted that a brand who promoted itself on its ability to dress women of all sizes would have made sure the clothes being shown represented what the event was about. Instead what were paraded were poorly fitting, stereotypical fat girl clothes which were the complete antitheses of everything plus size blogging and Plus London stands for. Had the brand bothered to look at the blogs or even asked the bloggers to pick a couple of outfits to wear – I’m sure the experience would have been a whole lot better. I am also very upset that most of the models were absolutely exhausted and therefore left the evening event shortly after the fashion show and missed out on the fun parts such as chatting to other bloggers etc.

However, it doesn’t avoid the fact of the attitude of the representatives of Bright Light and OSP. I think the “apricot haired girl” was Victoria from OSP – the attendees have only had good things to say about her. However, as for the other three, the way they spoke to the models, me and the other attendees was not at all what I expect from representatives wanting to make a name for themselves within the community. An example of this was that the OSP team disappeared when the event finished without saying a word to me. All of the other brands in attendance stayed and helped pack away and tidy up. It’s certainly not the way to raise potential customer’s expectations of what they will expect from the brand.

I think you should also know that the models have asked that I don’t post pictures my husband took of the catwalk on the tumblr page and most of them are refusing to even acknowledge the catwalk or OSP on their blogs. If they are, it’s in a negative vein. Something which is completely opposite from the experience the bloggers had when they attend Anna Scholz’s studio for few hours in the afternoon.

The plus size blogging community is tight knit and wide reaching and unfortunately OSP has a lot of work to do to recover from Plus London. 50 bloggers from UK and across Europe attended Plus London and on average have about 5,000 visitors per month. Therefore had OSP put a bit more thought into the people behind the event rather than treating the whole thing as if it was their own event and we were doing them a favour, it could have had a really positive impact on the brand. Unfortunately, I can only see that this has backfired. I, for one, will not be having anything to do with the brand until it proves to me and the rest of the people who attended the event that it DOES understand plus size fashion and it DOES care what we think and how we dress.

I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely

Claire Marchant-Williams