Lululemon's founder gave a bizarre and cringeworthy interview
Who could forget his notorious comments during the sheer yoga pants disaster of 2013, when he told Bloomberg TV that some women's bodies "just don't actually work" for Lululemon's pants?
It's been more than two years since he stepped down from Lululemon's board, and he is now focusing on his latest venture, Kit and Ace. His lack of a filter is fully intact, as evidenced by a recent interview with The New York Times' Katherine Rosman.
Here are some highlights from the bizarre - but perfectly in-character - interview.
Wilson spewed out an offensive term for people who are late
In the story, Rosman notes that she was late to the breakfast meeting Wilson had invited her to, causing Wilson to go off on a tangent about all of the problems that could happen to his business if he ever showed up late to a meeting. They're all fair points showing that he's a smart businessman; he explained how being late to a meeting could lead to merchants sending products late which could ultimately lead to significant markdowns. A Kit and Ace publicist tried to quell Wilson, and said that at times, she is "socially late" for non-work occasions.
"Jewish Standard Time," Wilson said, per The Times. "It's showing you didn't respect your friends' time."
That wasn't the only derogatory comment he made regarding lateness.
"Now we know," Rosman writes Wilson said to her, "that when we have breakfast with Katie, we don't really have to be there when we say we will be there."
Wilson referred to Lululemon as his child - and he's going to get that back someday
Wilson compared a new business to a baby, in that "it cries, it's puking, it's 24 hours a day and sometimes you don't know why you did it. But then you give it a bath and put some powder on it and you can't believe how beautiful it is."
Furthering his metaphor, he then referred to Lululemon as a wily adolescent.
"Lululemon became a teenager who wants its own way of doing things," he said to the Times. "It turns into a little bit of a pain in the butt, but you love it still. Now it's at university. It still wants me, but it doesn't want me. It wants me to support it, but it doesn't want to acknowledge I'm supporting it."
"It will get through university, and the child will return to the father," he said to The Times.
This is not the first time Wilson has called Lululemon his spawn; he referred to it as his "baby" to Bloomberg Television's in December.
Wilson openly commented on a woman's looks
"It is a precious experience to have these breakfasts," Rosman notes that Wilson said at a meeting with eight women. "Look at the beautiful girl I get to sit beside!"
Rosman did not hesitate to point out the buzz of uncomfortable quiet laughter that subsequently emanated the room.
"Everyone at the table tee-hee'd, awkwardly," Rosman writes.
Classic Chip Wilson, indeed.