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A woman vacationing along Italy’s Amalfi Coast was left stunned when she was turned away from a store while shopping with her friends.
While on another trip to Italy, Erica Wall (@erica_wall) took to TikTok to recount the incident, which happened three years ago.
Wall explained that she and her friends had found a small boutique in which each found clothing pieces that they wished to try on.
‘Got the point’
When her friend headed back to a fitting room, Wall asked an employee whether she could also get a fitting room to try on a crocheted top.
However, she reportedly refused, telling Wall that the top would be too small for her to try on.
“I could tell she didn’t speak much English, but I got the point,” Wall remembered.
Knowing how clothes fit her, Wall insisted that the top was the right size, but the employee snatched the shirt back and placed it behind the counter.
She refused to sell the shirt to Wall at all.
As she stood outside, humiliated, Wall’s friend rushed into the store, tearing apart the two women behind the counter for their treatment of a customer.
“‘Our boss won’t let us, he only wants like skinny girls wearing their designs,'” Wall recalls the woman saying.
Users React
Online, TikTokers shared the sentiment, with one writing, “People act like the minute you gain a few pounds, you’re not a person with a heart or feeling anymore. I’m so sorry that happened to you.”
Her friend chimed in in the comment section, “Yeah, I’m the best friend, and I think I’ve never been more angry in my LIFE than I was on that day.”
“That’s the kind of best friend you keep forever,” one wrote.
“That’s Italy for you,” a third declared. “Had that when I went as well (been there multiple times for work), and I wasn’t even that big. I LITERALLY was a size LARGE…regular large!!
“Don’t worry about it babes, you’re gorgeous at any size,” one person sympathized.
Body Shaming
Unfortunately, body shaming has long become a part of Italian culture, according to Italian blogger Valentina Solfrini.
Reflecting on her childhood, Solfrini wrote on her website L’Appetito, “Italians are gorgeous—and some cannot forgive those who are not.
“Long Sunday tables covered with lasagna, roasts, vegetables and multiple desserts. Yet they rarely ate. They wouldn’t sit down until everyone else was fed. They cooked like goddesses and ate like beggars.
“Despite living in a country that worships food, food was their enemy.”
Luckily, the country has made strides towards fighting this negative body image culture.
In 2025, Italy announced a national day against the degradation of people’s physical appearance, a so-called “day against body shaming.”
The national day will be celebrated every May 16 in the future.
While this is good news, it does not erase Wall’s experience and that of other people who have been body shamed.
Luckily for Wall, she does not seem too fazed three years later, travelling to Italy again while 22 weeks pregnant.
“So I guess now I’d be way too big for that [store],” the mother-to-be joked.
Newsweek has reached out to @erica_wall for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case.
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