| Amanda Lewellyn is a producer of the Today, Explained podcast. Before Vox, she hosted and produced a daily tech news podcast at the Wall Street Journal. As a woman in her late 20s, she's been in Abercrombie and Fitch's target demo her entire life.
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| Amanda Lewellyn is a producer of the Today, Explained podcast. Before Vox, she hosted and produced a daily tech news podcast at the Wall Street Journal. As a woman in her late 20s, she's been in Abercrombie and Fitch's target demo her entire life.
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The surprisingly subdued new Abercrombie & Fitch |
Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
It's bachelorette season in America. A couple months ago, I was at one such party in Florida: nine women, one house, a zillion group activities to get dressed for. And something strange started to happen. Almost every time I complimented someone's outfit — a cute jumpsuit or matching set — inevitably the response was: "Thanks, it's from Abercrombie." Wait, Abercrombie & Fitch? The dark store at the mall that reeked of cologne and had salespeople who were hot and white and wearing practically nothing? What year is it? Back home in New York, I stumbled upon a real-life Abercrombie store and decided to investigate. The first thing I noticed was it didn't smell. Like anything. Then, I was impressed by the clothes: pretty good quality, decent price, and styles that worked for the 86 weddings I'll be attending in the next calendar year. I bought an engagement party-appropriate dress, then headed up to Central Park for a softball game with some of my old colleagues. One of them noticed my shopping bag and informed me that I was not alone in my rediscovery of Abercrombie. So many people are getting reacquainted with the brand that its stock quietly gained 285 percent last year, making it the best-performing stock on the S&P index. It even beat out AI chipmaker Nvidia. And it's not like it's just a meme stock: Abercrombie has generated more than $4 billion in revenue in the last fiscal year. So, how did Abercrombie pull off its stunning renaissance — seemingly under the radar? |
Laurent Fievet/AFP/GettyImages |
"Are we exclusionary? Absolutely." |
This is not Abercrombie's first comeback. One of the original American clothing brands, founded in 1892, it dressed everyone from President Theodore Roosevelt to Amelia Earhart. But the company's star turned and it ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 1976. Then, in 1988, it was acquired by The Limited, the owner of big mall clothing brands like Victoria's Secret. It put a new CEO in charge, Mike Jeffries. Jeffries turned Abercrombie into a mall staple by targeting a new teenage clientele with American prep and a new, hypersexualized flavor. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," Jeffries told Salon in 2006. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids … A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely." |
Jin Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
That exclusionary ethos worked in some ways — Abercrombie and Fitch became an iconic part of culture, getting name-dropped in shows like Friends, for example. But in much bigger ways, it ran the company directly into hot water. Over. And. Over. Again. In 2002, they sold thongs emblazoned with phrases like "eye candy" and "wink wink" — in the children's section. Later that year, they dropped a T-shirt designed to look like advertising for a Chinese laundromat, with the racist slogan "Two Wongs can make it white." There was even a Supreme Court case. Samantha Elauf, a Muslim woman, alleged that the company refused to hire her because her hijab didn't comply with their "looks policy" for employees. ("This is really easy," Justice Antonin Scalia said when he handed down a victory for Elauf in 2015.)
This was all happening in contrast to a growing body positivity movement. Eventually, the dissonance — combined with economic fallout from the Great Recession — proved to be too much. Its share price dwindled until finally, in 2016, Abercrombie became America's most hated retailer. RIP.
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After the brand's fall from grace, Abercrombie's C-suite got a makeover. Jeffries was pushed out in the 2010s, and new executives took his place. Their first priority was undoing some of the damage Abercrombie had wrought on its image in the aughts. The old Abercrombie (in)famously refused to sell clothes in sizes larger than L, or above a women's size 10. The new Abercrombie goes up to size 32. Now, instead of overly sexy photoshoots, its ads are more tasteful, featuring models more representative of a broader range of potential customers. The new Abercrombie is also less focused on reacting to fashion trends and appeasing high school hierarchies, and more on equipping a new generation of 20-somethings with basic, quality pieces appropriate for weddings and work, well-fitting denim, and sturdy workout apparel.
"They're using a lot of higher-end materials like wool and cotton and cashmere, and there's also been a lot of focus on fit," Fast Company senior writer Elizabeth Segran told Today, Explained. "This is all really important because this is all happening in the context of fast fashion. And the fast fashion world is famously about making clothes as cheap as possible and making them so trendy that you can throw them out after a few wears. This is very distinctly going against all of that."
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Patrick Smith/Getty Images Sport |
Segran says there's a reason you haven't seen big, splashy ads announcing Abercrombie's return. Rather than do a whole public reintroduction to the brand — which probably would have required some sort of acknowledgment of its sordid history — Abercrombie executives have said they wanted the products to lead. They wanted customers to feel like they had discovered the new Abercrombie for themselves. So they partnered with content creators on social media, opened up new (scentless) stores in strategic locations, and relied on word of mouth to do the rest. "Our plan is to go from being the best-kept secret in fashion to their favorite brand," Abercrombie's head of merchandising Carey Krug told Fast Company. So far, it's working. Segran told Today, Explained that this revival is not just an Abercrombie story. Legacy retailers like J. Crew and Gap — which have struggled to compete with younger direct-to-consumer brands like Everlane and Reformation — could learn a thing or two from Abercrombie's revival. "Abercrombie's story shows us that if a brand has this long history and a place in American retail history, it can come back." —Amanda Lewellyn, Today, Explained podcast producer |
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| What kind of Democrat should Kamala Harris be? |
The last two Democratic presidents took distinct approaches to leading their party and the nation. New York magazine's Jonathan Chait explains why he thinks Harris should embrace Barack Obama's style of governance over Joe Biden's. |
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Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images |
- The "felon vs. prosecutor" narrative isn't so black and white: At the DNC, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris doubled down on her legacy as a tough-on-crime prosecutor primed to take on former President Donald Trump in November. But her focus on his felony record is also a jab at nearly 20 million Americans.
- What's going on in Arizona? Possible voter disenfranchisement. The Republican National Committee wants the Supreme Court to instate a complex voter restriction law from 2022 that never went into effect. The case could affect thousands of potential presidential voters.
- A 20-year-old murder case is new again: Two new true-crime docuseries on the high-profile 2004 Scott Peterson murder trial are now on streaming. Before you watch American Murder: Laci Peterson on Netflix or Face to Face with Scott Peterson on Peacock, read a refresher on the case and the media circus that surrounded it.
- Uh-oh, OPOs. "Organ procurement organizations," as they're known, actually throw out thousands of perfectly good organs every year. An executive order from former President Trump tried to increase the number of organs that can be recovered to save more lives, but organ nonprofits found a loophole specific to pancreata to avoid doing so.
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- Are we putting kids under extra pressure? Back-to-school season is upon us — and so are extracurriculars. Wondering how to pad out another year of resume builders for your kid? Don't think like a college admissions counselor. Let your child's passions lead you instead.
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In debt for Disney: A visit to Disney can be expensive. Many families who are adamant about making the trip might be spending beyond their means to meet Mickey. According to a survey of 2,000 people, 45 percent of parents with children under 18 who have gone to Disney went into debt for their trips. [New York Times] Back to school, with new rules: Student protests and demonstrations are expected to resume in the fall, likely igniting controversy and police presence at universities all over the country. Many colleges are planning their approach with an eye to antisemitism and free speech laws. [Axios] |
Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images |
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Command + F on Post Malone's F-1 Trillion |
Everyone's trying their hand at country music, and Post Malone is the latest artist to lean into the genre trend, with catchy summer singles including "I Had Some Help" with Morgan Wallen and the addictive "Levii's Jeans" on Beyonce's Cowboy Carter. The pop star has always been pretty versatile, but Vox's associate director of audience (and country connoisseur) Gabby Fernandez is enjoying his latest album, F-1 Trillion, in particular. "He taps into his versatility as an artist with a self-awareness of his place in the genre. His many duets feature plenty of country's heaviest hitters, from Dolly Parton to Jelly Roll," she says. "The album is a fun listen that reminds me of how much summer there's still left to enjoy!" |
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Today's edition was produced and edited by senior editor Lavanya Ramanathan, with contributions from staff editor Melinda Fakuade. We'll see you tomorrow! |
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