A&F controversy over the (bikini) top

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Abercrombie & Fitch is selling a padded bikini top, called the Ashley Push Up Triangle.

Updated: August 24, 2011 12:37AM

It’s just an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny itsy-bitsy thing. But oh, how it’s created a gigantic flap.

Which is surely what Abercrombie & Fitch wanted when it began marketing its pretty little padded “Ashley” swimsuit tops to girls as young as age 7.

Forget going on the company’s Web site to check out what was once named the “push-up triangle” since the controversy erupted recently. The page was shut down due to the onslaught of comments posted from outraged parents and others who can’t understand why a company, even one as morally edgy as Abercrombie, would come out with a swimsuit designed to sexually enhance girls barely out of kindergarten.

And this time, A&F bowed to the pressure.

“We’ve re-categorized the Ashley swimsuit as padded,” reads a statement on the Abercrombie Facebook page. “We agree with those who say it is best ‘suited’ for girls age 12 and older.”

Moms like Ann Reinke just sigh when she hears about the clothier’s latest controversy. (The company was also lambasted in 2002 after marketing thongs to little girls with phrases like “wink wink” and “eye candy” printed on them.)

“I think it’s horrible,” said the Montgomery woman. “It makes these little girls grow up so fast. And that’s a shame.”

But A&F isn’t the only one to blame. Shopping for 6-year-old daughter Alexis on Tuesday afternoon, Reinke lamented how hard it is to find appropriate clothes for her extra-tall kindergartner.

“It’s like what they see on TV,” she said. “It’s either baby or big girl. There’s not much in between.”

Alexis, out of school for spring break, looked exactly like a 6-year-old should. She was sporting blue jeans and a pink sweater over her Alvin and the Chipmunks T-shirt — along with a ring of chocolate around her mouth from the doughnut she was enjoying.

But if you want to go for a more trendy look, forget it, said her mom — “We go into the little girl section and there’s nothing for her.”

She’s far from alone in her feelings.

“I don’t think it’s a good thing to over-sexualize our young girls,” wrote Marla Gusler Holman on The Beacon-News Facebook page. “We went through this when my oldest daughter (now 15) was 7. All the clothes they were showing that year were see-through and spaghetti strapped and animal prints. We went over to the boys department for some T-shirts instead.”

Karen, a Naperville mom shopping at the mall with her 9-year-old (who asked that her last name not be used), said she’d never even think of buying a padded top for her daughter, who prefers one-piece swimsuits. Still, she offered a different take on the issue.

“I can see why they are making them,” she said. “Girls today are developing so much sooner. I see it all the time.”

Then there’s the other side.

The polite young manager at A&F Kids in Westfield Fox Valley shopping mall in Aurora told me he couldn’t discuss the controversy. He did, however, admit “we are selling quite a few” of the padded swimsuits, now marked down to $18.38.

“But it’s mostly, like, 14- and 15-year-olds buying them,” he explained, “who are smaller and, uh ... maybe ...”

“Looking for a little help on top?” I offer.

His discomfort was understandable, so I thanked him sincerely and left the store with one final thought: Abercrombie & Fitch will continue to push the envelope as long as customers keep buying into it.

When it comes to this latest itsy-bitsy flap, that pretty much covers it.