Sometimes I really hate American culture. No, no that's not fair. Sometimes I really hate PARTS of American culture. I have always disliked Abercrombie & Fitch, and all that it represents. Now I understand why. Recently, I ran across a reference to an interview with Mike Jeffries, the current head of the Abercrombie empire. As if the charming sentiment in the picture were not enough, it turns out that this company really is making a concerted effort to be hideous. Jeffries held forth on his company's philosophy:"[Sex is] almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that."
"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely."
This is the company that brought you g-string panties for middle-schoolers. You can find the entire article on Salon, but make sure your not eating at the time because this guy will make you nauseous.
2 comments:
that's just awful. I can tell you now where S&S won't be buying any clothing!!!!!
Hmmm.. I cant (easily find a way) send a link to this post to a friend that would be interested.
I have mixed feelings, 3 main reactions:
1) this is a business, it may be pampering and perpetuating prejudicial diversity constraining attitude - but it wont survive without a pre-existing market that buys into that value set.
2) Oh my g***** people STILL think like that? How can people condone such asmall-mined, unsatisfying, short term way of seeing the world.
3) can I get a t-shirt like that for a male-friend of mine without subsidising A & F?
Post a Comment