Roz Purcell has apologised for the backlash relating to the sizing over her clothing range.
The Tipperary native dropped her new clothing collection The Hike Life on Tuesday, offering a new range perfect for the outdoors.
The former Miss Universe Ireland revealed that after launching the brand she had faced criticism online, as some felt she should have more sizing options in the range.
Roz, 30, has now apologised to her followers, revealing that there had been a manufacturing issue which resulted in limited sizing of the products.
“I realise there are a lot of people who feel disappointed and let down and I completely understand that,” she explained on her Instagram Stories.
“When I first announced that I was doing The Hike Life gear, the initial drop was to go up to a size 20 and then moving on from that, the brand would go beyond a size 20,” Roz explained.
“When the sizing samples arrived in two weeks ago, all the sizing seemed fine but the 18-20 and the 16-18 were just too small. It’s not even that they were a snug fit, they just weren’t true to size.”
The Natural Born Feeder author then explained that she decided to rearrange the sizing before the launch in order to ensure sizes 16-20 were true to their size before releasing them.
“I obviously didn’t communicate that message well enough, I didn’t express the back and forth I’d been having with why the 16-18 and 18-20 couldn’t have been made as well as the smaller sizes.”
“Hindsight is a great thing. I feel really stupid and inconsiderate that I didn’t actually just, yeah it might have been after Christmas it might have been the new year, but to actually just wait until everything was together, and I apologise for that.
“It’s made me really think as someone who’s always worn straight sizes that if I do want The Hike Life brand to be inclusive I need to do better, I need to get people on the team who are plus size shoppers and understand how shit it can be when things like this happen and feel they are excluded from brands.”
Admitting that she hates crying on camera, the former model wiped back tears as she apologised again for the mix up.
“I will try do better and make sure that I communicate things better and I do appreciate the feedback,” Roz added.
“I appreciate the messages people have been sending me today because that the only way I’m going to make it better.”
Roz, who is living in Dublin with her long time love Zach Desmond, then told her followers that she was committed to delivering on the actions she had promised.
“I’ve taken it all on board,” she said of the feedback, “I’m going to make it better.
“I just think everything is going to work out so much better now because of this. That’s the way I’m looking at it.”
The launch of her new brand comes after years of sharing her own personal experiences and tips for hiking in Ireland.
Before the coronavirus pandemic the Tipperary star used to host weekend hikes for her followers.
