Post: #26

I worked at A&F fresh outta high school.At the time I was too stupid to realize why I was in the stock room and not on the floor.They have CRAZY appearance standards and if you don't look just right...In to the back you go.

Post: #27

Never been to an A&F store, never noticed one either, keep seeing the sweaters and hoodies though and wonder what the fuss is.

Saturday afternoon I'm walking down champs elysees with a date and near roosevelt i see a random queue on the sidewalk to what looks like an embassy party. I get closer and look at the sign and apparently that's the A&F store. Some dudes were ushering american teens in, 10 at a time, keeping the rest waiting outside. The queue wasn't fast moving either. Waiting time looked like at least 10 minutes.

Queing to get into a store? Wait, aren't they supposed to be grateful for my patronage? Man, only americans and asians eat that shit up. I can't believe a french or otherwise western european person would queue to get into a store on a lovely saturday afternoon. Fuck that. Have some pride already.

Brilliant marketing concept by AF I guess and there's probably plenty to be learnt about human herd behaviour from it.

Post: #28

I worked at Ruehl once for a holiday season. The Limited’s upscale brand meant to appeal to post-graduates that wore A&F in high school. I despised retail, but working there was a blast. I got just over minimum wage to wear comfortable clothes and flirt. You really do hold status there as floods of young girls would come in and approach you with a gleam in their eyes. The clothing stipend, which I received immediately since it was the holiday season, was used for sweat pants, a henley, a cashmere sweater, and of course, flip flops. There was hardly any manual labor since the “impact” team stocked in the back, and cheap labor came in at night to sort and fold clothes. A girl I banged worked there, but I knew here from the neighborhood across from mine, so it didn’t count as a A&F flag (lol). I was actually considering going back to work there as a manager, but they sadly closed all stores. Its a shame since they had really cool storefronts and layouts inside. I don’t know how the A&F brand has held up after all these years, but it seems to have lost its appeal from what I can tell.

Post: #29

I love A&F for their lack of political correctness:

• Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't want "larger people" shopping in its stores (2013)
  

• Abercrombie & Fitch refuses to make clothes for large women (2013)
  

• Teens launch “girlcott” against Abercrombie & Fitch (2005)
  

Their fat-shaming campaign reminds me of RVF. Here's the man behind A&F (yeah, he dyes his hair blond):

Post: #30

This was in the headline of my local, seemed somewhat relevant to this topic





Talk about a hater.

Post: #31

(05-13-2013 10:58 AM)Icarus Wrote:  

This guy is one seriously fucked up looking pedophile. And yes, he's a pedophile. Go to google. Search for "Abercrombie thongs for children." It won't show you flip flops for kids. It'll bring up articles and images about the time when Abercrombie decided it would be a good idea to sell thong panties to 7 year old girls.

You all might think they're great because they won't cater to fat chicks. But thong panties for 7 year olds? That's kind of fucked up.

Post: #32

(05-16-2013 04:19 AM)porscheguy Wrote:  

(05-13-2013 10:58 AM)Icarus Wrote:  

This guy is one seriously fucked up looking pedophile. And yes, he's a pedophile. Go to google. Search for "Abercrombie thongs for children." It won't show you flip flops for kids. It'll bring up articles and images about the time when Abercrombie decided it would be a good idea to sell thong panties to 7 year old girls.

You all might think they're great because they won't cater to fat chicks. But thong panties for 7 year olds? That's kind of fucked up.

Not as fucked up as the moms who buy them for their daughters. There's a market, and this guy is just stepping in to fill that need. How does that make him a pedophile any more than the owner of Pac Sun or something?

Post: #33

You guys are attaching a sexual element to thong underwear.
It's underwear he's selling not dildos.

They(not Abercrombie) sell two piece bathing suits for kids too.
That's no more or less sexual than thongs. It's just a style of clothing.

Post: #34

This thread is the tits - I wish I had known game at ages 18-23

Post: #35

(05-16-2013 04:19 AM)porscheguy Wrote:  

(05-13-2013 10:58 AM)Icarus Wrote:  

This guy is one seriously fucked up looking pedophile. And yes, he's a pedophile. Go to google. Search for "Abercrombie thongs for children." It won't show you flip flops for kids. It'll bring up articles and images about the time when Abercrombie decided it would be a good idea to sell thong panties to 7 year old girls.

You all might think they're great because they won't cater to fat chicks. But thong panties for 7 year olds? That's kind of fucked up.

You're overreacting a tad and kind of come across like the moral police. If its such a shitty product it won't sell. If it sells then who would you be mad at - the owner? The parent? American culture?

That guy (by the way) is proof that men should never get Botox - looks fucking retarded.

Post: #36

(05-16-2013 08:01 AM)Parlay44 Wrote:  You guys are attaching a sexual element to thong underwear.
It's underwear he's selling not dildos.

They(not Abercrombie) sell two piece bathing suits for kids too.
That's no more or less sexual than thongs. It's just a style of clothing.

Actually Abercrombie was the one attaching a sexual element to underwear when their line of thong panties for 7 year old children were adorned with little embroidered slogans that read things like "eye candy." Seven year old kids running around in thong panties with "eye candy" printed on their crotch is a rather explicit attempt to sexualize children IMO.

FWIW, that line failed miserably because Abercrombie's target demographic are upper middle class white people, who generally object to people trying to sexualize their young children. You can pretend it's harmless because your rationalization hamster keeps reminding you that this place doesn't sell shit for fat people which makes it great and forgives any of its other transgressions, but most decent people with kids would beg to differ.

I wonder what el mech would say/do if his kid started strutting around the living room with "eye candy" written on her undergarments.

Post: #37

Yeah...I'd have to agree. There was no market for thongs for 7 year-olds. Consumers weren't clamoring for them. A&F CREATED the market for them merely by putting them on the shelves. I'll give 'em credit for understanding the consumer though. They figured that all they had to do was put them on the shelves, and bubbleheaded moms would think they were cute.

The overwhelming majority of the heat A&F has taken over the years has been about how they use sexuality to sell. Remember the controversy over the A&F catalog several years ago? How they were accused of sexualizing teens because of the provocative poses and semi-clothed young models in the catalog? That's always been their thing. Of course, there was a ton of overreaction to the catalog, with some calling it soft porn even. But this is how they've gotten the brand out there - by saying and doing what will get media attention, and make their brand even more desired by the demographic they want to reach.

Post: #38

Victoria Secret has been taking A&F's spot in the sexualizing young ones.

The VS PINK line is the worse offender, ever since they opened one here, tons of tweens wearing stuff that says "come and get it"

Post: #39

Face it, the culture is fucked and blaming any one company isn't gonna do anything. The company doesn't put out sexy underwear for no reason, they've done their market research and determined that it has a chance of succeeding.

Someone's approving these purchases and shelling out for them, that's where you should be looking to place the blame.

Post: #40

A&F is strangely polarizing. A bit like Apple, actually.

A&F sells youth, beauty, sex-appeal, and the eternal hope of joining an imaginary world where everyone stays beautiful and young forever, where there are no ugly or old people, where there is no unpleasantness or drudgery. The young & sexy people identify with this ideal. The ugly people realize that they can never join this world, so they despise A&F.

The more controversial A&F gets, the more the PC crowd attacks it for "sexism" or "racism", the more effectively the "us versus them" polarization works. Alliances are strengthened or broken during crises. Seeing your beloved brand attacked by people you regard as contemptible and below you makes you love the brand you identify with even more. It's all about tribal warfare.