Chanel apologized on Wednesday to actress Gabourey Sidibe over treatment she reportedly received in a Chicago store Tuesday.
Sidibe wrote about her experience in Lena Dunham’s LennyLetter.com describing how the Chanel saleswoman told her to go across the street to a discount store to buy frames for her glasses. Only after some other customers realized who she was did the saleswoman help her, Sidibe said.
Sidibe eventually did buy two pairs of glasses frames as well as two pairs of sandals for her "Empire" co-star Taraji P. Henson, she wrote. “Unfortunately, I’m used to people giving me bad service. Honestly, if I walked out of every store where someone was rude to me, I’d never have anything nice.”
Sidibe mentioned both her race and her size as possible reasons for the profiling, and said she wanted to fill out a customer service survey about her experience but felt badly about getting someone fired or disciplined over the treatment.
“This is absolutely not in line with the high standards that Chanel wishes to provide to our customers,” Chanel said in a statement apologizing to Sidibe, People reported.
“We do hope that in the future Ms. Sidibe will choose to come to a Chanel boutique and experience the real Chanel customer experience,” the statement added.
Sympathy for Sidibe was rather thin on Twitter.
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