Size matters! Roz says sorry to fans over hike gear blunders
ROZANNA Purcell’s l aunch of her hiking clothes line has suffered a sizing hitch, leaving the model tearfully apologising to fans.
This week, the social media influencer launched a fleece and windbreaker under her brand The Hike Life, which began as a hiking group and is now an active clothing range.
However, the Tipperary beauty was in tears on her Instagram Stories on launch day after the sizes only went up to 14-16, and not 20 as had been planned.
‘A lot of people feel disappointed’
Ms Purcell said: ‘I realise there’s a lot of people who feel disappointed and let down and I completely understand that and I feel like I didn’t communicate correctly over the last two weeks about what was going on.
‘So, when I first announced that I was doing The Hike Life gear, the initial drop was to go up to size 20 and then, hopefully, moving on from that, the brand would go beyond size 20.
‘When the sizing arrived in, the sample sizing, two weeks ago, all the sizing seemed absolutely fine… but the 18-20 and 16-18 were just too small.’
‘It’s not even that they were [a] snug fit, they just weren’t true to size,’ she added.
Ms Purcell, 30, explained that it
was decided to remake the 1618 and 18-20 products to ensure they were true to size, and release them as soon as possible. Howe v e r, she a d mit t e d that she did not explain this properly to her f ollowers, who were left disappointed.
‘Hindsight is a great thing. I feel really stupid and f***ing really inconsiderate… so I really apologise for that,’ she said.
‘It’s made me really think, as someone who’s always worn straight sizes, that if I do want the Hike Life brand to be inclusive and to do better, I need to get people on the team who are plus size shoppers and understand how s**t it can be when these things happen, and feel like they’re excluded from brands.’
The former Miss Ireland vowed that she would ‘try to do better’, before breaking down as she spoke about the criticism she has received online over the error.
‘I do appreciate the feedback,’ she said. ‘I will always hold my hands up if I’ve done something, messed up, f***ed up, but people then just started accusing me of things I hadn’t done, and you kind of teared me down enough, that you don’t have to make stuff up.’