Business Week Depicts Abercrombie & Fitch as Old Man

[ShiftyNJ]

Via Jezebel I read an interesting article in Business Week about the prolonged downward slide of Abercrombie & Fitch. The cover features the torso of a senior citizen posed like one of the company's models, which speaks volumes about what is going on.

I have followed AF's travails closely because they figured prominently in a paper I wrote in graduate school about how advertising is now leveling the playing field by objectifying men much in the way women were for decades, and the attendant neuroses it has triggered, particularly for the young and in the gay community. They were also my customer for some time. If you're not familiar with the antics of their now-former chairman, it is an amusing and sometimes disturbing story.

[East]

Great article! I have always had a very dim view of the company and in my mind...it was nothing but a case of execs with a severe case of OCD thinking image is everything. I have met enough of the image is everything crowd in my life...we are like oil and water...they don't like me...I don't like them LOL

Having said that...there is one thing reading the article which is now so fucking funny to me. My "Hollister" mystery is now officially solved! I would love to tell the jerk what I thought Hollister was for all of these years....it would probably melt some of the silicone on his face....

You see...I have been seeing shirts and sweatshirts with the name HOLLISTER on them for many years now and I keep wondering...where the fuck in Hollister do these people buy these from?...and I had no idea that many people go to Hollister....

I go to Hollister all the time...lots of friends there and a few shops and restaurants I like to visit...and it is a cute California town but kinda the OPPOSITE of image is everything LOL...It has not yet arrived in the new millennium which is one of the reasons I like it......

So all these years I would try to figure out why so many people bought a shirt in Hollister and decided to advertise the kinda unknown town...like they had some kind of Hollister PR campaign and no one told me about it....

....I did kinda guess eventually that it must be a line of clothing or a clothing company...I am so delighted now to know it is THIS ONE!

These are some photos from Hollister's big event every year

https://www.google.com/search?q=holliste...66&bih=612

I am guessing none of them ever went to Hollister before they came up with the name....

[Borg69]

It was a fascinating read. I'd heard rumors that the A&F guy was a jerk. This confirms it. It especially pisses me off that HE didn't fit his own criteria of "beauty" either!

[ShiftyNJ]

@East about as well-researched as you can expect from a "surf culture" store headquartered in Ohio.

In my more serious workout days I liked the way their t-shirts fit me, but I wouldn't buy anything that had their name in bigger than 1/2" or so tall. They had ones just with numeric appliques and no branding at all, which were worthy of being saved. The rest got donated long ago, and if I knew then what I knew now I wouldn't have bought any of it.

[ShiftyNJ]

It was a fascinating read. I'd heard rumors that the A&F guy was a jerk. This confirms it. It especially pisses me off that HE didn't fit his own criteria of "beauty" either!

If I had to guess, he did not fit in with that crowd when he was that age, so he bought his way in.

[East]

@East about as well-researched as you can expect from a "surf culture" store headquartered in Ohio.

In my more serious workout days I liked the way their t-shirts fit me, but I wouldn't buy anything that had their name in bigger than 1/2" or so tall. They had ones just with numeric appliques and no branding at all, which were worthy of being saved. The rest got donated long ago, and if I knew then what I knew now I wouldn't have bought any of it.

When I was in my 20s and extremely physically fit I would buy clothes from International Male a lot...they had catalogs (pre-Internet)....I liked the shorts a lot (and I would make more $$$ behind the bar when I wore them LOL)...

I wonder if they are still around?

UPDATE: I just googled them...they are still in business.

[MikeW]

...I have been seeing shirts and sweatshirts with the name HOLLISTER on them for many years now and I keep wondering...where the fuck in Hollister do these people buy these from?...

That's funny… I was exactly the same… "what the hell is so hip and cool about Hollister?" LOL Also like you I finally figured out it was a brand but I didn't know it was associated with A&F. *THIS* is a sign of getting old and NOT being apart of a younger market demographic.

I don't get along well with "corporate culture" in general and never have. The more OCD variety -- although I "understand" it intellectually (and see it obviously works for some people) -- to me it is a manifestation of the Devil himself. I simply can not abide it.

But I *do* think it is interesting how some people have the ability to take a cultural iconic erotic fantasy -- in the A&F case, I always think about James Dean, for example --







and re-sexualize it for a decades more contemporary audience:





I do agree, [MENTION=21783]ShiftyNJ[/MENTION] , that the young male physique has been sexualized in US Advertising and that A&F was at the forefront of doing this. At this point, though, it is outside corporate handling -- what with Guys With iPhones (NSFW) now baring all for the world to see. I suppose one can think of this online exhibitionism as a *form* of advertising… It certainly does attract eyeballs and create an atmosphere of lust and competition.

So much to think about!

[ShiftyNJ]

I think Calvin Klein was at the vanguard with their underwear spreads in the early 90s featuring Marky Mark and a few others. Interestingly cK and A&F have a common denominator, photographer Bruce Weber, who was involved in both. I agree with [MENTION=20947]MikeW[/MENTION] that he definitely looked at James Dean for inspiration.

[Borg69]

When I was in my 20s and extremely physically fit I would buy clothes from International Male a lot...they had catalogs (pre-Internet)....I liked the shorts a lot (and I would make more $$$ behind the bar when I wore them LOL)...

I wonder if they are still around?

UPDATE: I just googled them...they are still in business.

I used to jerk off to International Male catalogs.

[East]

That's funny… I was exactly the same… "what the hell is so hip and cool about Hollister?" LOL Also like you I finally figured out it was a brand but I didn't know it was associated with A&F. *THIS* is a sign of getting old and NOT being apart of a younger market demographic.

Yes...definitely a sign. I have never actually seen an A& F store in person...I only knew of them from the controversies I read about. I think the last time I was in a mall was in the early 1980s...Vallco Mall in Cupertino...and I lost my car....

I don't get along well with "corporate culture" in general and never have. The more OCD variety -- although I "understand" it intellectually (and see it obviously works for some people) -- to me it is a manifestation of the Devil himself. I simply can not abide it.

Agree...on all counts

But I *do* think it is interesting how some people have the ability to take a cultural iconic erotic fantasy -- in the A&F case, I always think about James Dean, for example --

I think James Dean had a lot of spirit and soul... strong presence..something that can't be taught. I think A&F got the style right...but he missed the vibe and the substance.