If you're a '90s kid and grew up during the era when Abercrombie & Fitch ruled the high street and dominated pop culture, this statement is hardly shocking. They said 'You need more staff who look like this' and pointed to a poster and it was a Caucasian model'.". Im very proud of being a Black woman. From Tense Dramas To Teen Nostalgia, Hub Club Is Serving You Summ Why Are Reality TV Shows So Obsessed With Romanticising Our Exes? The chain refused to hire Samantha Elauf because her dress violated the retailer's dress code for sales staff.
But as titillating as it can be to focus on his oddities (his comically exaggerated plastic surgeries, for example), such focus can end up being exculpatory, said Klayman. 
It was over.". Through interviews with former models, recruiters, store workers and executives, the 88-minute film suggests that appearing cool, attractive and White wasn't just an exercise in branding: it was an active corporate strategy that came at the expense of non-White employees and consumers. There wasn't a resignation or anyone that called me. Carla added: "After that, I was not on the schedule. If youre a millennial or have parented one, you know the look: advertisements with shirtless men, sculpted abs above low-cut jeans, a melange of thin and tan and young white bodies in minimal clothing. Movie review: B.J. Anytime Abercrombie comes up in conversation, you immediately cut right to stories about peoples identity formation, said Klayman. We wanted to focus on the everyday people who were affected by this company, says White Hots director, Alison Klayman. The case resulted in a 2005 consent decree that required the company to promote diversity in its workforce but was largely nonbinding. Americas Next Top Model, a show that debuted nearly 20 years ago, has been the subject of journalistic exposes and countless outraged Twitter threads. I haven't been on the schedule in two months', and he's like, 'No, no, you do. Many of them have celebrity status, successful brand partnerships, books and clothing lines of their own. She claimed: "We finished the holiday season and were notified that if you don't have a paycheck, you've been let go for the season.'. I looked at it like, racism has to be blatant almost like the KKK, right? Brave cancer dad's poignant final football game as his young son prepares to lead Championship side out as mascot TODAY, Girl, 9, stabbed to death as she and sister 'played with hula hoop' outside cafe, Mike Tindall refused royals' offensive request ahead of his wedding to Zara, Neighbours legends missing from finale - mystery surrounding 10 snubbed stars, TRANSFER NEWS LIVE: Klopp makes Liverpool request, Newcastle bid 40m for England star, Man Utd De Jong boost, Final episode of Neighbours had everything and everyone: Ghosts, love reunion, forgiveness and even Plain Jane Superbrain becoming MORE beautiful with glasses on, BREAKING: Three teenage boys dead and driver seriously injured in horror car crash, NCIS actress Pauley Perrette 'glad to be back' as she makes rare TV return, Martine McCutcheon stuns in neon swimwear as she showcases weight loss at pool, Coleen Rooney 'in talks for Wagatha Netflix documentary' after Rebekah Vardy win, English paracyclist in Commonwealth Games protest after racing for medal that didn't exist, Car covered in passive-aggressive notes as parking dispute descends into chaos, Subscribe to Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror newspapers. Abercrombie made little secret of wanting its clothes to be worn by people who looked a certain way. Early blogs weren't created to. The company settled the lawsuit for $50m without admitting wrongdoing. The fashion blogosphere is not without its controversy but there is no doubting the role that today's fashion bloggers have played in shattering the exclusivity of the conventional fashion industry. 
Jeffries certainly meets the eccentric bad CEO criteria now popular in TV shows, from WeCrashed to The Dropout to Super Pumped, and its depictions of millennial hustle culture (Abercrombie was definitely doing work hard, play hard, said Klayman.) "We've evolved the organization, including making changes in management, prioritizing representation, implementing new policies, re-envisioning our store experiences and updating the t, size-range and style of our products. As White Hot traces through a succinct and wide-ranging survey of the brands evolution and sales tactics, Abercrombie & Fitch, a company hinged on a vision of preppy cool, kept those messages pretty overt. The companys popularity was crystalized in the 1999 hit Summer Girls by the second-tier boy band LFO, which played in heavy rotation on MTV: I like girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch, went the chorus. In 2003, under Jeffries, the company faced a class action racial discrimination lawsuit from California which alleged that the company turned down minorities for sales positions, relegated them to stockrooms, and had their hours reduced when managers heard their looks werent Abercrombie enough. This is a story that everyone can locate themselves in, said director Alison Klayman. What is shocking about the documentary, however, is not only the nature of the accusations -- many of which have long been in the public domain -- but how long it took for a reckoning to arrive. But she didnt immediately take action. (Dreadlocks and gold chains were forbidden.). But behind the aura of exclusivity was a policy of, well, exclusivity. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions. Im so glad that we are where we are, but I think youve still got a long way to go., Though she credits social media and the rise of a new generation that wasnt willing to be spoon-fed with accelerating Abercrombies fall from its turn-of-the-millennium heights, Klayman also sees less inspiring forces at work: falling profits and changing consumer habits. Faded jeans and polo shirts in middle and high school, all featuring the ubiquitous moose. (Weber has always denied the allegations, Karate, Wonton, Chow Fun: The end of 'chop suey' fonts. And I also received the message that it wasnt for me. (The documentary, while comprehensive, doesnt have time to rehash all of Abercrombies controversial moves, like the thongs marketed to preteen girls with the words eye candy on them or the decision for many years not to make womens clothes over a size 10. Succession sets pace in Emmy nominations The people who Abercrombie was excluding were fed up fed up of being sold a youth that didn't resonate with them and clothes that didn't fit them by people who didn't look like them. (A model named Bobby Blanski jokingly describes himself as armpit guy because of a famous ad featuring his likeness. A store at the mall mostly obscured by heavy wooden blinders, music pulsing from within. It became the famous moose polo version after retail magnate and Jeffrey Epstein financier Les Wexner purchased it, moved its headquarters to Columbus, Ohio, and handed the reins to Jeffries. There were plenty of people who thought [Abercombie] was ridiculous from the beginning, but it was the dominant culture and they werent going to drown that out, said Klayman, who has spent several years thinking about this time period: Her previous film, Jagged, focused on 1990s pop star Alanis Morissette, and shes also working on a documentary about the WNBA, which was founded in 1996. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. Secret shoppers would record whether employees welcomed them with the correct greeting - and there was trouble if they didn't. Christian, Jewish, and Sikh groups also backed Ms Elauf's case. The comments went almost unnoticed at the time. After checking with a manager, she was told it was because of her ethnicity. Employees were drilled to represent brand guidelines - with a strict AAA style guidebook, set out by CEO Mike Jeffries, that decided what employees could wear for the next three months. Tony Dow, big brother Wally on Leave it to Beaver, dies And he definitely deserves real criticism, but it takes more than one guy to do what A&F did.. For all the current messages of inclusion, millennials (and older) will remember an altogether different Abercrombie -- one that took over malls and billboards with an army of attractive models and ripped male torsos. But its important to talk about it holistically, and I dont know how much theyve truly reckoned with their past. Absolutely., Translation: a brand that was white hot not only in a financial sense, during a period of cultural ubiquity at the turn of the millennium, but also one that promoted, internally and externally, an exclusively white vision of beauty and style. One of the brand's former models put it even more succinctly: "If you weren't wearing Abercrombie, you weren't cool.". If you came of age sometime between the two Bush presidencies, chances are youve had or still have strong feelings about Abercrombie & Fitch, the retailer whose logo T-shirts were once ubiquitous in high-school cafeterias. Novaks directorial debut Vengeance a smart social satire The messages one received on what was cool, on whose bodies met the right standards and whose did not. That reckoning, the film ultimately argues, goes beyond a corporate rebrand; the brand was not so much exceptional as illustrative. Abercrombie & Fitch was Americas hottest, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Submit to Stumbleupon (Opens in new window), Abercrombie & Fitch was Americas hottest brand. Several of the plaintiffs appear in Netflix's documentary to reiterate longstanding claims that Black, Asian American and Hispanic employees had their hours reduced, were let go or were forced into backroom roles on account of their appearance. So it's the kitschy font and caricatures of bucktooth and slant-eyed Asians. But this conclusion rings hollow because the shift in public appetite was not as passive as the documentary suggests. When she learned another friend, who was white, was still working 20 hours a week, she began to piece it together. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are engaged, Britney Spears is pregnant and low-rise jeans are back in style. But White Hot also traces the controversies that ultimately turned the tide of opinion against Abercrombie and contributed to Jeffries ouster in 2014, including racist merchandise, allegations of discriminatory hiring practices that resulted in a landmark Supreme Court case and allegedly predatory behavior by Weber toward the companys young male models. Obsessed with Netflix? Its really convenient to put all the sins on Mike [Jeffries] and that era because he was so closely associated with the companys rebirth in the 90s and early aughts, she said. Related Articles Former A&F design director Kelly Blumberg said: "The brand was on top. "Since I became CEO in 2017, weve overhauled Abercrombie and transformed with intention into a place of belonging. The documentary arrives at a moment when pop culture is caught in a Y2K time warp. f youre a millennial or have parented one, you know the look: advertisements with shirtless men, sculpted abs above low-cut jeans, a melange of thin and tan and young white bodies in minimal clothing. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. The Abercrombie vision flowed directly from Jeffries, who dictated every aspect of the companys image, down to the jewelry and hairstyles worn by employees. She had asked to work swap from night to day shifts, and when a boss refused, she told him a colleague had agreed to do it. I received the message that this is what was cool.
As White Hot recounts through first-person interviews with several former staff members and cultural academics, this is a brand that once sold graphic tees branded with a racist depiction of Asian people and the words two Wongs can make it white.
And yet it is sobering to see it spelled out so bluntly. (Klayman, a millennial, grew up in Philadelphia.) The company began facing accusations of wrongdoing from around the turn of the millennium.
The overpowering smell of its cologne, Fierce, liberally applied to every surface. At the time, everything I wore was low rise, everything was tight. Charles Martin, former design vice-president, said: "We built posters and we put 'This is what Abercrombie is' and 'This is what Abercrombie isn't'. The company has developed a cult following for its Curve Love jeans in a range of sizes. White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie explains how the company, founded in the 1800s as a purveyor of sporting goods for elite adventurers, became the hottest label of the TRL era under the leadership of Chief Executive Michael Jeffries, who made billions in profits by aggressively going after the cool kids and who once proudly declared, A lot of people dont belong [in our clothes], and they cant belong.. We wanted to focus on the everyday people who were affected by this company, said Klayman.
Will Smith posts an apology video for slapping Chris Rock It kind of lets all of us, the collective, off the hook, not to mention the entire company that was facilitating this exclusionary vision for decades. The retailer settled for 30 million and also signed a court agreement to increase diversity but was later accused of not making any real changes. And the recent Hulu docuseries The Curse of Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For, told the wild story behind another clothing company strongly identified with the early aughts. The experience at Abercrombie opened my eyes to what discrimination looks like and how quietly insidious it can be, said Barrientos, who appears in White Hot. She is heartened to see the changes at Abercrombie, whose website now features models with an array of body shapes and skin tones.