An important life lesson that every college freshman learns in their first semester is that you take down the offensive shit when you know the parentals are coming to visit. Someone on the staff at Lilly Pulitzer must have been absent that week, because when a photographer for The Cut stopped by to take photos of the brand's headquarters in Pennsylvania, a selection of inappropriate cartoons were spotted still hanging on the wall.
The fat-shaming artwork features cartoons of women with some pretty bad text, including "Just another day of fat, white, and hideous...you should probably just kill yourself," and "Put it down, carb face." For the caption of the slideshow photo, The Cut wrote "this image shows the personal illustrations of an employee not pictured in this story," but they chose not to comment directly on the artwork.
The Internet learned of the cartoons and got very angry.
"Fat, white and hideous" and this is why @LillyPulitzer is so classy, great job. pic.twitter.com/cvCissfUXp
— Chicity Blonde (@chicityblonde_) May 26, 2015
I won't stop talking about how horrific this is, @LillyPulitzer. Explain why you cultivate a culture of hate. https://t.co/XkzQYJ1A5s
— Sarah Conley (@styleit) May 26, 2015
Not buying @LillyPulitzer ever again! You guy's disgust me!! #bullies #fatshamers #loveyourskin
— Itayetzi (@LizTamynech) May 26, 2015Buzzfeed reached out to Lilly Pulitzer about the cartoons and got the following response from a spokesperson: "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 for any harm this may have caused."
