Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Shabby Chic (brand)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   delete. -- Cirt (talk) 00:03, 18 May 2010 (UTC)

Shabby_Chic_(brand)
AfDs for this article: 
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Really poorly written article that appears to be more spam than about anything notable. The sources are irrelevant or cite copyright listings which have nothing to do with the piece, the text reads as though it was lifted from a press release, and given that 'shabby chic' is a much more widespread term than within the US, it makes no sense - in the UK 'shabby chic' would mean Cath Kidston and home-made items rather than the furniture produced by an obscure American company. If it could be rewritten in the Wikipedia style, or if the designer is notable enough in their own right then given a page of her own, but right now I see no reason why this should stay.MippyCHEESE (talk) 16:31, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Speedy delete per A7 and G11. Armbrust  Talk  Contribs  17:59, 8 May 2010 (UTC)
 * This AfD nomination was incomplete (missing step 3). It is listed now. DumbBOT (talk) 10:38, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

At the outset, I wish to point out that this article was suggested by Wikipedia editor User: Ukexpat as a result of his reversion of edits to the existing unreferenced article at Shabby chic. See User_talk:KSatSCB. I had attempted to edit that article to help differentiate between descriptive uses of the term to reference a style and uses intended to reference the proprietary brand, but User:Ukexpat believed that the brand and the term should be discussed in separate articles. My initial edits were also proposed to correct inaccuracies in the unreferenced Shabby chic article.

Having followed User:Ukexpat’s advice, I notified him/her shortly after publishing the article to request review and commentary. See User_talk:Ukexpat/Archive_17. User:Ukexpat was away on holiday, but upon his/her return, he/she advised that detailed comments were forthcoming. See User_talk:KSatSCB.

Accordingly, this discussion would not be complete and a consensus could not be reached without some commentary from User:Ukexpat, which I will now request. I submit that if the content of this article is somehow not worthy of a separate entry in Wikipedia, it should at least be incorporated into the existing Shabby chic article in order to eliminate inaccuracies, add much-needed references, and help readers differentiate between the brand and descriptive use of the term. I will now address the merits of the editors’ statements in the nomination for deletion.

Contrary to the unsupported suggestion by User:Armbrust and User:MippyCHEESE, this article is not pure advertising, and provides real substance. The creator of the SHABBY CHIC brand is the well known designer, Rachel Ashwell, who has published at least six books on interior design (“Shabby Chic” (1996), “Rachel Ashwell's Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting and Decorating Guide” (1998), “The Shabby Chic Home” (2000), “The Shabby Chic Gift of Giving” (2001), “Shabby Chic: Sumptuous Settings and Other Lovely Things” (2004), and “Shabby Chic Interiors: My Rooms, Treasures, and Trinkets” (2009), and has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show (see [] among other notable programs. Her brand has achieved much notoriety, including coverage in a recent New York Times article. See [].

The various trademark registrations referenced in the article further support the worldwide notoriety of the brand and contradict the commentary by editor User:MippyCHEESE that it is an “obscure American company” with rights only in the U.S. The company owns registrations for the SHABBY CHIC mark in at least the U.S., European Community, U.K., Australia, Canada, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Indosnesia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Mexico. I suggest, in response to the comments by User:MippyCHEESE, that these sources are relevant because they help the reader to understand that the term when used as a brand has rights associated with it and that the owner of the brand, although based in the U.S., is not limited in its global reach and notoriety.

Next, I note that the Wikipedia guide to deletion Guide_to_deletion specifically states that: “if you are disputing the notability of an article's subject, the fact that you haven't heard of something, or don't personally consider it worthy, are not criteria for deletion. You must look for, and demonstrate that you couldn't find, any independent sources of sufficient depth.” I submit that editors User:MippyCHEESE and User:Armbrust have not done so.

In contrast, I have researched the term “Shabby Chic” extensively and have included references to support the statements made, particularly with regard to the origin of the term and its transformation from descriptive use as discussed in Shabby chic to a brand as discussed in this article. I am confident that the new page will be helpful to make users aware of the term and its use.

By way of example, I confirmed the origin of the term by actually obtaining copies of the book “Mlinaric on Decorating” and the London Times articles by Ms. Mirabel Cecil and Ms. Shona Poole, and conducting a search of The World of Interiors, which the corresponding Shabby chic article mistakenly claims to have coined the term. I suggest, in response to the comments by User:MippyCHEESE, that these sources are very relevant, and that they are not referenced in the Shabby chic article.

Editor User:MippyCHEESE mentions another designer in the UK whom he/she claims to be synonymous with the Shabby chic style. I note that the designer’s name was only recently added by an anonymous editor to the Shabby chic article without any supporting references, and although that designer is unknown to me, her website [] makes no reference to the term Shabby chic and nonetheless indicates that her career did not begin until long after Rachel Ashwell became established and associated with “Shabby Chic”, whether as a descriptive term or as a brand. I submit that the inclusion of the designer suggested by User:MippyCHEESE in the Shabby chic article may not be appropriate, especially if Rachel Ashwell is not also discussed in that article.

With regard to the subjective claims about the quality of the writing, I submit that this is not grounds for deletion, and that the Guide_to_deletion suggests that such articles should be “merged, expanded, or cleaned up rather than deleted”. I disagree that the article is advertising or spam as it does not solicit any business and is not designed to promote a company or individual. Rather the content of the article is informational in nature and helps readers to understand the history and usage of the term as a brand of goods and services as compared with merely descriptive uses of the term. I note that Wikipedia hosts other articles about brands that have been misused descriptively, such as Le Bon Marché, Interview_(magazine), Vogue, Vanity Fair (magazine), Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, Kleenex, Xerox, and Band-Aid. I certainly invite suggestions as to how this article can be improved, but I submit that it should not be deleted. If there is consensus that it should be deleted, then I propose that the contents be merged into a corrected version of the Shabby chic article.

KSatSCB 17:57, 14 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Delete as spam. -- Nuujinn (talk) 00:05, 16 May 2010 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.