Last week, some older comments by Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries got wide play in an article on Business Insider. In 2006, Jeffries admitted that his stores marketed to a certain demographic and that they didn’t want other people wearing their brand. He said “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.” The Business Insider piece pointed out that A&F does not carry women’s sizes above a large or size 10 although they do have men’s clothes up to XXL. A&F’s gradual decline could be due to their unwillingness to serve plus-sized customers, which seems to be built in to their marketing policy.
Sites like Reddit ran with those comments and made memes out of them for a while, and Jeffries was bashed for sizeism, and to a lesser extent, racism. Former employees of A&F and their sister store, Hollister, claimed that only white, attractive young people were allowed to work the floor. This isn’t new for A&F, they’ve faced lawsuits over race and sex discrimination in hiring. This is a new PR crisis though, and they should handle it with humility. Only not so much. Jeffries issued a statement in response to this that makes it clear that he hasn’t changed his stance at all:
“I want to address some of my comments that have been circulating from a 2006 interview. While I believe this 7 year old, resurrected quote has been taken out of context, I sincerely regret that my choice of words was interpreted in a manner that has caused offense.
“A&F is an aspirational brand that, like most specialty apparel brands, targets its marketing at a particular segment of customers. However, we care about the broader communities in which we operate and are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion. We hire good people who share these values.
“We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics.”
He comes across as haughty and clueless as he did in the earlier interview seven years ago, but at least he’s trying. There’s no self awareness in this statement. There’s no acknowledgment that they’ve made mistakes and need to change. Plus he didn’t address the main controversy at all. The issue was over the fact that A&F doesn’t offer clothes for larger customers by design. They do it on purpose so only the “cool [white] kids” will be seen in their brand. He basically said the same thing here, they’re not changing that policy. They “care” about the “broader” (lol!) communities and they’re not going to admit that they only hire the most attractive young staff to work in their stores. They have to say this because they paid out millions in a class action lawsuit. Abercrombie & Fitch is opposed to discrimination and “derogatory characterizations” because they were busted carrying t-shirt designs which were racist. They have to say that too. Nothing in this statement makes me ever want to support this company.
Yes. I always find that bland, emotionless disclaimers written by PR agencies are the best way to counter international condemnation for being an ass. Particularly when they aren’t backed by fact. Fail.
I’m sorry, was that an apology? I’m too stunned by the cartoonish features and buffoonish insistence that a brand that only wants to dress the thin and beautiful is concerned about “broader communities”. What does that even mean? Thin beautiful girls over the age of 21? Guys with great abs and little packages?
He does not “owe” anyone an apology. An apology is a gift, not an obligation.
Ugh. I hate when instead of saying “I’m sorry I said something stupid” people say “I’m sorry YOU interpreted what I said wrong.” Sorry, but I’m not sorry.
Or “I’m sorry if my words offended anyone.” They’re not a damn bit sorry. They’re pissed off that people are “hypersensitive”.
Ugh and a +100!
Biggest fight early on my husband and I ever had started with, after he said something EPICALLY insulting to me – he then ‘apologized’ by saying “I’m sorry you decided to feel that way and if interpreted what I said wrong because you couldn’t understand it correctly, I’m sorry if you chose to feel insulted or hurt”.
I dang near swung on him.
After 3 HOURS going around and around, I repeated back to him both the insult AND his ‘apology’ and after he got mad and started yelling at ME for being a bitch, he stopped dead, stared past my shoulder for a moment, suddenly sat down and told me “Wait. That’s what ~I~ said.” I nodded. “You just parroted back what I said that started all this.” I nodded again. More blank staring for a moment… then “Wow. I’m an ASS.” And from that moment on, he’s worked really hard to remove (at least when talking with me) those smarmy fake apologies that really are just “I’m sorry you’re not smart enough to understand what I was saying and if you decided to be insulted/hurt and feel bad about what you ~think~ I said, I’m sorry you think that.” crap. Which is why I’m both still married to him AND not in jail for burying his body in the backyard.
Hate hate hate hate those passive aggressive smirky ‘apologies’, and now that I ~am~ the size he sells to, A&F STILL won’t ever get a dime of my $$
You are so lucky to have a husband who recognized this. There are way too many who do not.
He needs to tell his dentist to tone down his bleaching a bit. On the other hand, I suppose he would never need a night light
Bahahahaha! 😉 good one!
IKR? I mean check out those chicklets! I don’t think he’s allowed to shop at his store…
I assume he does not wear his own brand, because he definitely does not fit the Abercrombie demographics.
hahahahahaha truth. in the business insider article they said that when you google a picture of mike jeffries, you can see that he didn’t spend a lot of time with the cool kids when he was younger and he’s clearly trying to over compensate.
And the sad irony is, do “cool kids” even wear this crap anymore? I’ve always thought that when the adults realize what’s cool, it’s already passe’.
I can’t get over his face. He can’t really say all of this with this face! People are crazy.
#FitchTheHomeless !
+1
+2!
He actually looks like a male version of Jacqueline Wildenstein the Cat Woman. Not sure if I got her name right, but she and he are both scary looking.
+1
If Jocelyn Wildenstein and Swamp Thing had a baby. There he is!
He looks a little like Joscelyn Wildenstein. Which is kind of ironic, I think. He wants only attractive people working on the floor? Well, he looks like a mangled potato head and certainly wouldn’t make the cut at his own store!
Hahahaha mangled potato head *rolls on the floor laughing* Ah priceless. *wipes tear from eye*
Well, Hitler wasn’t blonde or blue-eyed, either. So many bigots don’t match their “ideal”.
He “cares about” the broader communities, he just won’t hire or serve them. OK
Hitler’s wife was a brown eyed brunette.
The whole blond/blue eyed master race thing has been highly exaggerated.
Most Germans were and are brunettes btw.
This person seems like an absolute catastrophe of a human being.
This makes me happy that I was never a “cool kid”.
Ha ha..me too.
I’m not trying to diminish his idiotic words but I feel like people are empowering him by putting so much weight into what he says.
He’s a superficial moron, Abercrombie makes shitty clothes not known for having any sort of social conscience and none of this is new. Just don’t shop there ya know? Not saying people shouldn’t call him out of his BS but I wish people would just ignore him now and stop making him and his crappy clothes relevant.
Yeah, somebody should just say to him, “U-G-L-Y, you ain’t got no alibi, yo’ugly, whoo! Yo’ugly!” That should shut him up.
He didn’t exactly apologize, did he.
And is he wearing dentures?
Really bad veneers. His dentist should have given him a more natural shade, especially given his age, and made them smaller. They can be quite lovely of done well.
Celebitchy, add the story about the guy buying A&F stuff from used-clothing stores and giving it to the homeless in LA!
In your face, you ugly elitist!
That story/video on FB made my day. I’m not having much luck getting the URL into this post though, so everyone else can see this epic BURN.
Yes. Although it seems some people are seeing this as exploiting the homeless. I think they are missing the larger point, which is that A & F would rather incinerate perfectly good clothing than see it on anyone other than their “perfect” demographic. I think it’s a brilliant move.
I hadn’t heard anything about this. They destroyed clothing rather than donating them?
Free clothing for the homeless. Yeah. Total exploitation. I find the “using homeless people for wi-fi hotspots” more exploitative than that.
@Hakura. yes, I read last week when this first heated up that they routinely incinerate clothes rather than donate them so they can better control who is seen in them. 🙁
@Esmom – Oh God. Just when you think they couldn’t get anymore repugnant. I don’t often say this, but if there’s truly a ‘hell’, we know who belongs there.
Perhaps karma will rear it’s head, & once in hell, these people will find themselves on a street, w/only the remnants of those incinerated clothes to keep them warm.
Meh, some people just don’t know how to admit when they are wrong
So. Eleven years ago, my teenage daughter and a friend are shopping at Abercrombie. “Jordan” is this tiny little stick of a girl whose mother is a tiny little stick of a woman but has inherited her father’s fair skin and dark hair & eyes. “Gazzy” is, like me, curvy with boobs. Not fat, but not thin. Pretty, but not head-turningly so. The manager of the store approaches, but it’s obvious from the beginning of the interaction that Gazzy is wallpaper. Jordan is offered a job. (She turns it down.)
PS Jordan just got married and has a great job doing something (don’t remember what) that she loves. Gaz is engaged, writing her dissertation and just got into medical school.
Def not the A and F demographic, they have too many other things going for them : ).
Thats a great story!
In my life time I have had two friends that have worked there. Both are tall willowy blondes who are pretty and athletic looking.
Girl 1 was my roommate my sophomore year in college. She was not terribly popular in high school (I know this because we went to school with other people she went to hs with) and really blossomed when she got to college. But she totally drank kool-aid and honestly believed she was anointed by god herself to work there. The whole year was nothing but chatter from her about A&F and all the super cool fun people she worked with, who in reality sounded totally lame. How awesome it was to be part of the A&F family. How not just ANYONE can work there you have to be a certain type and have a certain look, like her. She also educated and gave us a tutorial on the make-up that they wear, fresh faced and natural no shimmer or popping colors. The last straw for me was when she went around the room critiquing us and telling us all the reason we were not A&F material.
Girl 2 walked in one day got offered a job just like your daughters friend. Worked there for about a month and thought it was all incredibly ridiculous,especially because the job barely covered the gas to get there. One super hangover Saturday she just didn’t show up and never looked back.
If I had a clothing store, I wouldn’t sell to men who aren’t very attractive (but apparently didn’t get the memo), with big ol’ fake, blindingly white teeth that look like a pair of cheap dentures bought at the flea market.
I can’t decide if he knows he should apologize and won’t or really doesn’t think he has anything to apologize for. I fear the latter.
The point is not that his store only carries certain sizes but that it’s gender biased plus all the other shit. And that he was stupid enough to come out and brag about it. He could follow in Mother Theresa’s footsteps and it still won’t be enough to wash the douche away.
So what’s the problem? My fabulous fat ass has been denied the opportunity to purchase and wear poor-quality clothing assembled by impoverished garment workers in Southeast Asia, and to pay top dollar for it, thereby increasing the wealth of a disfigured uber-douche. Poor me …
I will readily slam A&F for the way they treat job applicants and their staff but to whom they cather their brand is company decision. Whether their strategy will work or the market will swallow them…time will tell.
In the UK, A&F faced a lawsuit because a girl they’d hired had a prosthetic arm, which only became evident when she had to wear one of their t-shirts for work. When they discovered this, they moved her from the sales floor to the storage area to stack shelves. In my view, this is a horrible company and consumers everywhere should simply boycott them.
@Scarlet Pimpernel – That… is just disgusting. Good for her, for standing up to them.
Ok no discrimination in hiring but they come recruting to my college asking for people with ‘modeling experience’…give me a break…
“What I said was correct and I did mean to say it. Some people just are too uneducated to understand the ramblings of the rich and over done. Once again what I meant was, only pretty, skinny young things should wear our clothes. What is so hard to understand? If you are ugly (such as myself), have poundage (such as myself) and middle aged (such as myself)don’t wear my clothes”.
“We are completely opposed to any discrimination, bullying, derogatory characterizations or other anti-social behavior based on race, gender, body type or other individual characteristics.”
And completely opposed to catering for those whose “individual characteristics” do not fit my personal definition of attractiveness (except for me, I’m a HAWT middle-aged man with a melting face).
But is nice that they engage with “broader communities” – but presumably only when their females are narrow of waist. 🙄
The clothes always look like they’ve already been worn by hobos and the naked man in the doorway thing is sexist (if its sexist for a half-naked woman to do it, it’s no less so for a man). That being said, the queues out the door in their Dublin store are insane!
Is it actually doing well in Dublin Mairead? I moved away for work (I live in Canada now) and always thought that they opened at the wrong time in Ireland- lost their novelty factor because the point of having Abercrombie in Ireland was that one of your relatives had to being you back the clothes from America. Also, recession and €30 boxers don’t really mix!
They don’t call this place “treasure island” for nothing you know 😉 A number of chains such as Oasis and even Ikea have some of their most profitable shops here – dependant on business model.
When I was in Dublin before Christmas the queues to get in were insane – we thought it was for the ATM! There’s obviously still cash on the Dort Loine. It wasn’t as bad when I was there a month or so ago.
(It’s in the former “new” Habitat (the old bank building there opposite BOI College Green and Trinity). So, so long as the building is used, I don’t especially care. The only other shop that was interested was Lidl and An Taisce had a conniption 😆 )
AF clothes are overpriced and boring, but I’d love to buy me one of their male models
Please, CB, next time you do an article on him, don’t use his photo. That man’s mug is too much to take in the morning. My gosh, it’s horrifying – sort of like some Ken doll at the factory that got misshapen and melted.
Dude, this guy looks like he got the football kicked into his face TOO many times in high school. Woof. Woof…Like he should talk!
I’ve always hated A&C long before I ever smelled this sh**t. It’s because of their advertising. I have no issues w/ nudity, but to me it’s so &#^@*#@ BORING. Again and again, a ‘hot’ naked guy/’s tossing a football, ‘hot’ naked (white, blonde, tan,blah blah…) guy w/ ‘hot’ (naked, white, blonde, tan, blah…blah…)
blah…blahhh….retch…and let me guess they pay their marketing execs billions a year. Boring…..
ha ha…that’s my new PR spin word ‘broader communities’ translation: whatever minority group you want to bash but keep mum…ie: you can let your racism, sexism, etc shine w/ ‘broader communities’…
Gwyneth Paltrow
They always use the “out of context” line. How, exactly, can you take “are we exclusionary? Absolutely.” out of context? It means what it means. Your company doesn’t make clothes above a certain size because you don’t want larger people wearing your brand. Why don’t you have enough balls to just admit it? At least then you’re honest.
Meh, didn’t he get enough press last week?
I hope that when Amy & Samy of Amy’s Baking Company & B.S. Boutique Bollocks Bistro re-open, they have to wear uniforms by Abercrombie & Fitch.
He is weak. Weird looking. Probably was never a “cool kid”. Still trying to feel good about himself inside. Needs a head doctor.
Boy, is someone overcompensating for not getting to sit at the cool kids table in high school. WOW!
Ugh, please don’t ever subject us to that douche-nugget’s face (or blinding dentures) again.
I’ll cop to owning *1* thing from A&F. During a huge mark-down clearance sale, I got one of those thick-warm zip-up sweat-jackets. I never actually shopped there before that, & was lured in by the sale.
But I sure as hell hadn’t heard about any of this mess, or their views. I love my sweat-jacket, but I’m never setting foot in there again.
I find A&F branding and marketing policies disgusting. However i have to say that most fashion brands are enforcing the same policies. I have never seen an oversize or ugly guy in Dolce & Gabbana stores -or Vuitton or Dior, Gucci or whatever. It’s difficult to find an L size in their boutique, at least here in Italy. I know many executives working in fashion industry for major brands, and, again, they have to be superfit and stilish.
Looks like most of them hate women and their natural curves, they prefer those dress hangers they define models. It’s not a case that most of them never shared their bed with a woman.
The Frankenstein community?
If Jocelyn Wildenstein met Gary Busey….. yikes.
Gary Busey. THANK YOU. I this douche reminded me of someone.
Not everyone is meant for their clothes. Me being one of those people. There are plenty of other designers/retailers who are though. Why is it that we try to make companies into the image we want for them. If AF wants to cater to a specific demographic they have every right too. And for all who have their panties in a twist over AF “white” “attractive” appeal and targeting, why is it that if you pass most AF stores you will see Asian, Hispanic, older, out of shape people going into their store and also leaving with multiple purchases.
I’m not defending the CEO or company but if you do not like their marketing or life style brand. DONT GO!
He reminds me of Biff from “Back to the Future”.
This man’s face and teeth defy description. Surely this is a rubber mask?
People: Don’t be a sucker for BS merchandising! You’re paying big bucks for nothing!
I am just happy that the dude from glad Rocky Dennis found a job.
I would think that if you’re going to go this far in trying to make young women feel bad about themselves, the least he could do would be to have someone else be his “face” person, rather than putting his own “Mr. Game Show” looks out there ( ” hey, dad, nice pants. Who shot the sofa…?”). If you’re going to ask perfection from your customers, perhaps you should offer it yourself.
“It puts the lotion on its skin….”
Every time I see a pic of this guy I suspect his teeth are the brightest shade of white in order to distract one from the major amount of ugly going on with his face. It’s not working.
It appears to me that his vapid, foolish branding strategy is merely compensation for what he lacks in looks and style himself.
The only elephant in the room (or his stores for that matter) is the fact that he looks like a spitting image puppet.
http://content8.flixster.com/question/57/15/23/5715234_std.jpg
Good Lord … this man looks like a caricature of himself …
Broader community, really? Again, bad choice of words ceo.
Yeah, OK, we believe you…right!!! I love the “out of context” thing … isn’t that always the case? Maybe he’s just bitter because they won’t allow him to shop in the store designed for only “beautiful” people … the face on that guy … OMG!!!!
The weird thing is, I don’t think of A&F as “cool” at all. It’s like…bland WASP clothing. No personality or style to it whatsoever. At least Hollister has that preppy thing going for it, which some people can really work. A&F is just boring clothes for people with no sense of style who think that polo shirts make them look well-dressed and fashion-forward.
Its a waste of time for all of you posters to be mad at this CEO. If you have what it takes to run a business, then start up your own clothing store for large-sized women, and stop complaining.
Fat people are not victims and nobody HAS to feel sorry for them. People in western, industrialized countries eat most of the world’s food supply. They are overnourished, overfed and have nothing better to do with their time than complain that the latest designer brands won’t fit their fat bodies.