For Whom the Tweet...Tweets

Twitter has proven itself a valuable marketing tool for businesses in every industry. It has especially done so for the world of fashion. Within seconds, a designer is able to reach tens of thousands, or even millions, with news about a new product or service. So, an individual tweeter's relationship with his, her or its followers is extremely important.

Kimora Lee Simmons has done a remarkable job of not only nurturing a relationship with her supporters, she is also building an even greater following at an amazing speed. This blog is dedicated wholly to supporting her new efforts and at crushing any future success of the "new" Baby Phat due to Kellwood Company's disgusting dismissal of Kimora just a few weeks ago as creative director of the brand. A dismissal that they have yet to refute was in part due to her then alleged size 10 frame. So, imagine my surprise when a few events surrounding the Baby Phat twitter page recently transpired.

A couple of weeks ago, a quick search for the page revealed that it had been deleted. I mean, it was just gone. Vanished. Nothing. So, a few days ago, one of Kimora's young followers announced that there was a new Baby Phat twitter page, but its tweets were "protected". As in, you had to have permission to follow them and read whatever they tweeted. That doesn't make any damn sense. It defeats the purpose of a business having an account, so I figured they were working on the page and they didn't want to unprotect the tweets until they'd gotten it finished.

I checked the page today and it's not a new page at all. It's the same old page, with a different background and now a blank icon (it used to be Max the Cat), but the same old tweets from before are there, with the ones that mention Kimora noticeably gone. What the hell are they up to? They are currently only being followed by 33 thousand people, but they used to be followed by close to 100 thousand. They aren't following anyone although they must have been following Kimora, at least at some point, because she sent a tweet last week that had her followers abuzz for a while. She tweeted:

do NOT follow me @babyphat! im NO longer there! @OFFICIALKIMORA has left the fuggen building! Pls RT! #TeamFabulosity my loves, lets do tha dam thang!! #fb

I'm not sure whether the onslaught of retweets shook them up or whether Kimora blocked them, but they aren't following anyone today....

I don't also know whether that is an actual Kellwood owned Baby Phat page or whether a fan started it, but considering the fact that the old tweets are there, I'm guessing that Kellwood does own it. If so, who is the moron who's operating it? It's bad enough that they've hijacked the company, refusing to give the customer base a proper explanation for the rude dismissal of Kimora, but this Twitter move is like, what the fugg? It shows how lost they are without her. They don't know what to do. They realize that the customer base is more quickly being informed about what they did and they don't like it. Well, too damn bad. I predict that by next year this time, Baby Phat will be closing up shop and Kimora Lee Simmons will be an even more powerful force in the world of fashion than ever before.

Don't buy any clothing items from Baby Phat or Phat Farm. Nothing. No respect? No dollars. They can go to hell. --Sugar

Right Around the Clock

The past few weeks have been very refreshing and enlightening where this boycott is concerned. For one, there are still people out there who have no clue that Kimora Lee Simmons was so rudely dismissed from Baby Phat/Phat Fashions and two, we are reaching them. As I've stated here before, the reaction is always one of disgust and outrage.

I had a very interesting conversation via Twitter with a young lady yesterday who freely admitted that she was a size 16. When I revealed to her that Kimora was allegedly dismissed from Baby Phat in part due to her alleged size 10 figure (a woman who's had 3 children mind you), she immediately began swearing and declared that she wouldn't buy any additional Baby Phat items. She declared her continuing support for Kimora and told me how grateful she was that I'd told her the news. This didn't have to be this way. It shouldn't be this way.

Reactions like that are the reason why those lilly-livered cowards at Kellwood Company declined to make a formal statement or send Kimora off with dignity and class. They knew the customer base would be pissed. What they don't know is, or at least they don't seem to want to face, when the women of this nation as a whole find out? It's a wrap. All of those brands are going to crumble apart. Do dirt, get dirt. I told your asses that I wouldn't stop if it took me a year to make sure that everyone knew about this. I mean that.

See how that visit number keeps going up? Those are unique visitors. Let's say for instance that each of those people only tells two people and those two people tell two people and on and on and on. You get the drift...I'm on you, Kellwood. Right around the fugging clock. Even when I wake up at night, insomniac that I am, I check twitter to see if some other poor unsuspecting soul has sent Kimora some "Oh, how I love Baby Phat", tweet and immediately I let them know the deal. They always react the same. Fugg Kellwood. This will continue. You don't treat people like this. We will see to it that you don't get away with it. No respect? No dollars. I know you mad, but so what? --Sugar

One Month Old!

I just realized that today marks the one month birthday of this little water cooler in the blogosphere! Aren't you happy, Kellwood? :) I know you are. I'm still strategizing and trying to figure out new and more devious ways of sticking it to the man and we'll get there. And, it's absolutely "we" now Kellwood because the natives are stirring. We really have touched nearly every corner of this globe so far. I'm excited. The word is getting around and were it not for the power of the internet, you would be able to get away with what you did to Kimora Lee Simmons. But, you won't.

See that picture above? That's a lioness by the name of Tamara. She's one of the premiere attractions at the zoo in Amman, Jordan. Those are her little month old cubs in the picture with her. She got a tad agitated when the photographer went to snap that picture of she and her little ones. Funny thing about we females. Very protective of our families and our friends. That's what's going to ruin you, Kellwood. Women get pissed when they hear the whole story about Kimora's departure from Baby Phat/Phat Fashions. See how innocent and benign the cubs look? Like they wouldn't harm a flea. Meanwhile, Tamara looks like she's ready to rip somebody's head off. Yeah. We all know how this story goes. The cubs will grow up and they too will some day be ready and able to rip somebody's head off. Same with this little blog, Kellwood. No respect? No dollars.

Visit KLS.com to find a number of ways to support Kimora. Buy nothing, especially Baby Phat clothing items, from Kellwood. Besides, I need to find out where they're getting those items made anyway. I sure hope I don't find out they are getting that shit made in some sweat shop in Asia. We'll see. --Sugar

"You Don't Have to Be a Size Two"

Kimora Lee Simmons has always been about creating fashion for women of all sizes. I think this is one of the reasons why so many have been drawn to her for so long. Check out the video of her below from a May, 2010 appearance on "Face 2 Face" with Courtney Friel where she talks about the new line, Kouture by Kimora, and her views on women and fashion. She truly exemplifies the "champion of the people". This is why we can not allow Kellwood Company to get away with what they've done to her.

Support her by visiting KLS.com and checking out the number of ways that you can buy products that are specifically owned by her and not Kellwood. We have to let them know that we will not be played for fools. Don't buy anything from them. No respect? No dollars. --Sugar

Pray the Devil Back to Hell...or Missouri

I just finished watching the critically acclaimed documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell and while it was far too short for my desires, it was SO amazingly uplifting and inspiring to me where this effort and so many other things in life are concerned. Just average, ordinary women decided that they'd had enough of the madness in Liberia as that tyrant Charles Taylor trampled around and they made a humongous difference.

I'm tired of watching women, especially those of us of color, being treated in the business world as though we are so dispensable. Kimora Lee Simmons has been handling this situation with Baby Phat/Phat Fashions and Kellwood Company with impeccable grace, but I don't have the restraints that I'm sure she's dealing with. So, Kellwood prepare for this effort to go to new levels in the coming weeks. The worse thing that could have happened for you idiots is for me to have watched that documentary tonight. Those women got it DONE! If they were able to, I, with the help of other women like myself, can do the same. You have nobody to blame for this but yourselves.

If only you'd handled this like professionals and at least made a statement. Sent Kimora off with the parting that she deserved. Not just toss her out....maybe this wouldn't be necessary. But, you decided to handle it the way you did. Like assholes. I'll return the favor in kind.

So, while we can't pray you back to the hell from whence you came, we can pray you back to Missouri to lick your "in the red" wounds. Head bowed... --Sugar

Baby Phat Counterfeiter Sentenced, Not the Only Fake

Now, this is mighty funny considering that a bunch of fake asses are running Baby Phat as I type this. Earlier this week, a Clinton, Iowa man was sentenced to more than 3 years in prison for trafficking counterfeit goods by top designers, including Baby Phat, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Chanel and Nike. From the Quad City Times:

Charles Edwin Sampson-Snyder, 56, who operates a store named Bama's or Bama & Heather Clothing, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Davenport in February.

He admitted to purchasing and selling $100,000 worth of counterfeit merchandise.

Maybe he was working for Kellwood Company because they damn sure are doing a lot of poaching and counterfeiting right now themselves with their failure to formally let the Baby Phat customer base know that Kimora Lee Simmons is no longer heading up the brand.

Don't buy any apparel from them. Nothing. Not even a pack of shoestrings. The cowardly bastards haven't had the decency to speak to the Phat Fashions customer base as respected clientelle in the face of such a shake up, so let's let them listen to the silence of untouched clothes on a department store rack. Go here to find a number of ways to support Kimora, including information on how to purchase one of her six fragrances. No respect? No dollars. --Sugar

Why Kellwood Can't Get Away With This

This past weekend, I felt pretty awful. I really wanted to push forward and continue to get the word out about the boycott of all Baby Phat apparel, but I just didn't feel like I'd be able to give it my best. So, I abstained...only to decide that I needed to shuffle my Netflix cue this morning and in the process be brought to shame for my weakness. My American frailty.

I watch a lot of documentaries. They can be entertaining and informative and that's exactly what I need in my life with days that are sometimes jam-packed with to-do lists. So, as I was looking through my Netflix queue, I was pleasantly surprised to find a film by the name of Pray the Devil Back to Hell. I think that it had been there (in the queue) for a while, but I just kind of forgot about it. Today, I felt like something was pushing me towards it.

So, I decide to see what the film was all about and it was all that I could do to keep from weeping right there at my desk at work. This from the film's website:

Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.

A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting,and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

Check out the trailer below:

Absolutely, we are not talking about bringing an end to civil war in this situation between Kimora Lee Simmons and Kellwood/Baby Phat, but again, it's relavent. It's extremely relavent to the other women in business and the fashion industry, in this country and in fact, the world.

Let me break something down for you. In that last post, I quoted some stats from the United Nations and Oxfam that claim that women do 2/3rds of the work worldwide and yet earn peanuts where salary is concerned and barely own anything where property is concerned. So, these Liberian women, of both of the predominate religions in that country, joined together to make a difference. They don't, for the most part, have access to all of the trappings that we have here in the States. But, they were tired of being made to feel as though their voices were irrelevant and ineffective in helping to bring about change in the midst of such turmoil--and guess what? Their decision to make a stand...worked!

Those women could have been slaughtered...hacked to pieces and fed to animals, but they didn't let that stop them from taking a stand against the injustice that sat before them. If they, our sisters among those who decided to go back to the "Mother land" way back when, could find the courage to stand up against bloodthirsty thugs and a known warlord, we can damn sure stand up against a bunch of cowardly, spineless, limp-dicked corporate thugs who wield nothing more than threats as a part of their arsenal.

A sister has been wronged here. I love her to death, but no matter your feelings towards her, which I can almost guarantee are based upon at least one fistful of lies and misinformation, she deserves just as much support as anyone else in this position. There aren't enough women of color in the fashion industry doing what she does for Kellwood to have disrespected her in this manner. And, unless we forget, they disrespected her and the entire Phat Fashions customer base, of all demographics, when they so nonchalantly discarded her as if we didn't matter.

I'm here to let them know that it did and it does and we are sick and tired of it. This post will make 11 so far for this blog, yet in its infancy, and yet both Kellwood and lawyers representing them, Morgan Lewis, have been crawling all over this space. Feast your eyes below on a few screen shots from the StatCounter (click on the image to enlarge):

What are they so concerned about if they haven't done anything wrong? Why are they crawling all over this blog? And, trust that the two listings for Morgan Lewis are but a cursory glance of their visits to the site. Those are just the two times that I decided to grab at this late hour. They weren't noticeably on the site today, but that doesn't mean they weren't there...

Anyway, what I'm getting at is this. The fashion industry, with its built-in barriers for women and men of color, has enough black eyes without this mishandling of Kimora Lee Simmons and her supporters, the customer base of Phat Fashions, to add to the list. We will not be shooed away this time as you snicker under your breaths, convinced that we will still buy these goods. It ends here. No respect? No dollars. And, I've got a lot more to discuss about this racism and sexism in this industry for the rest of this week. You should have handled this appropriately. How dare you send Kimora off as a mere after-thought and say nothing to us as if we are fools. We'll see who the fools are and I'm just getting started. Others are joining in on the effort. The blog isn't even a whole three weeks old and today I didn't tweet a single post and we got new and varied visitors...planting seeds and farming bitches. I'll expand this week. Holidays are upon us. Remember, red Christmas for you. --Sugar