![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Abercrombie and Fitch's sister chain Hollister backed down on a ban on sales staff wearing poppy pins while on duty--24 hours after telling an employee she couldn't wear hers (the power of the press!). Now they can wear them on November 11th; a hollow victory, but still a victory in the face of mindless bureaucracy.
“We provide an image of what the clothes would look like for the customers, and because the poppy is not uniform I was told I should not wear it," said the sales girl. Yeah, I'm sure the servicemen and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines will remember that the next time they're being shot at. Don't remember us, it's bad for your image!
Background information: in Commonwealth countries, and especially the UK and Canada, it's customary to wear a small artificial poppy pin in the days leading up to November 11th. The practice comes from the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields, which refers to red poppies growing in front line cemeteries. They're manufactured for the British Legion and Royal Canadian Legion veterans associations, who distribute them to raise funds for veterans' care. It hasn't caught on in the US, which is surprising because it was an American nurse who first had the idea.
“We provide an image of what the clothes would look like for the customers, and because the poppy is not uniform I was told I should not wear it," said the sales girl. Yeah, I'm sure the servicemen and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines will remember that the next time they're being shot at. Don't remember us, it's bad for your image!
Background information: in Commonwealth countries, and especially the UK and Canada, it's customary to wear a small artificial poppy pin in the days leading up to November 11th. The practice comes from the John McCrae poem In Flanders Fields, which refers to red poppies growing in front line cemeteries. They're manufactured for the British Legion and Royal Canadian Legion veterans associations, who distribute them to raise funds for veterans' care. It hasn't caught on in the US, which is surprising because it was an American nurse who first had the idea.
