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I’ve never owned anything by Lilly Pulitzer. That stuff – floral, preppy – is not really my jam. I go for darker, androgynous clothes. But I admire that the House of Pulitzer has stuck to their look and their target audience (preppy, thin, white women). Except there’s trouble at the country club! Lily Pulitzer opened their offices to The Cut (NY Magazine) and a photographer ended up taking some photos of various employee work spaces. And this photo was published on Monday:

Employee at Lily Pulitzer had these awful cartoons hanging in a cubicle. http://t.co/ThdMWooFgd pic.twitter.com/472SHFoCBB

— Jay Yarow (@jyarow) May 26, 2015

The photo showed some drawings over an employee’s work space/cubicle. Both drawings show cartoonish “fat” women, with one saying “Just another day of…Fat White and Hideous. You should probably just kill yourself…” The other drawing is “Put It Down Carb Face.”

The Cut has not taken down the photo, but it’s not like people are mad at The Cut – they’re mad at the employees of Lilly Pulitzer. There’s been a lot of online backlash (specifically on Twitter), and on Tuesday, Jane Schoenborn, Vice President of Creative Communications told E! News:

“These illustrations were the work of one individual and were posted in her personal work area. While we are an employer that does encourage people to decorate their own space, we are a female-dominated company and these images do not reflect our values. We apologize [sic] for any harm this may have caused.”

[From E! News]

I’m sort of all over the place on this. I mean, I’m sure people would bitch at me if they saw my workspace (it’s not like I have “fat jokes” in my workspace, it’s just sort of messy in here), but then again… I’m not inviting anyone to photograph my workspace. To defend this one employee, I think it’s also possible that these cartoons were reminders to stay on a diet, or something like that? You know how some people will put an inspirational weight-loss message on their refrigerator? These cartoons might be like that, only really terrible and offensive. I also think this comes at a bad time for the house of Pulitzer because earlier this year, the Lilly Pulitzer collection for Target was a massive success… except they only did the Target collection in-stores up to a size 14. No affordable Lilly Pulitzer clothing for you in-store, fatty.

Also: I’m not sure why I chose to use Kate Bosworth photos for this post, except that when I searched for “Lilly Pulitzer” images, this is what came up. The Bos and Bella Thorne at the Pulitzer-for-Target launch in April. Well, everyone says Lilly Pulitzer is only for super-skinny WASPs. Kate Bosworth is basically their mascot. The only way this could get any more obvious is if Blake Lively was suddenly seen wearing Lilly Pulitzer.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Lilly Pulitzer.
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