Dispelling the Myth: Abercrombie & Fitch from the Inside
By Allie Davey
Monday 2nd November 2009
Monday 2nd November 2009
Ever since Abercrombie & Fitch’s controversial rebranding in the hands of CEO Michael Jeffries in 1988, it has received an onslaught of negative publicity. Criticism has been levied at Jeffries’ shameless admission, ‘We hire good-looking people in our stores’. Such policy only serves to encourage what journalist Angela Hoyles called a ‘twisted looks-based culture’ promoting homogeneity and superficiality. Others have opposed the blatant sexual overtones of their promotional shots, the prominence of naked male torsos accused of being borderline pornographic . One of the most recent and memorable accusations made against the contentious clothing company was by 22 year-old law student Riam Dean, who claimed that she suffered from discrimination because of her prosthetic arm. Just as the media furore took a hold of Dean’s story, I took up a job at the same London Saville Row flagship store.
Before I explain any further, I must make it clear: I am not a model. Abercrombie & Fitch divide their staff, all of which are part-time unless at managerial level, into a variety of categories: Model, Impact, and Visual, as well as an Overnight team who work into the early hours of the morning, folding piles of clothes to aesthetic perfection (something to consider if you’re one of those shoppers with a penchant for decimating stacks of clothing as you browse)... I, like the now-famed Dean, was hired as a member of the Impact team.
I’d like to blow some common misconceptions out of the water. Number one being that all A&F staff stand around vapidly chatting or churning out taglines such as ‘Hey, how are you?’. Whilst this might be true of a few of the models, the Impact team work slavishly as the fundamental cogs of an extremely well-oiled machine. An ‘Impacter’ is positioned in each room of the store, “maintaining” its appearance and helping out customers. They also “pull” replacement items from the labyrinthine stockrooms, “prep” them (really just a euphemism for “fold”), before “running” them back up to the floor, ready for customer consumption. Impacters also perform “updates”; that is, switching over or moving stock around after hours, or in the early morning before opening, and size checks: locating specific items in the stock room for shoppers who can’t find their size on the shop floor. Whilst it is not necessarily the definition of a brain strain, it requires commitment, energy and a good sense of the value of customer service.
Based on my experience working for the company, I would argue that it is another common misconception that Abercrombie employs a rigid ‘type’. My co-workers and the friends I made were of all different ethnicities and a variety of different backgrounds: some were working part-time to finance their studies at London universities, whilst others had come to London on a whim to improve their English. One of the best friends I made at work was of Columbian origin, and despite choosing to pass on university was a voracious reader who consumed everything from philosophy to psychology and who would often challenge me to an intellectual discussion whilst prepping polos in the stockroom. Not only does he fit the category of ethnic minority that is so often reported as being discriminated against by the company, he was also my “Lead”, or in other words, my senior. Furthermore, he was not an exception. I met other staff from Italy, South Africa, Kenya, Chile, Sweden and Australia; the cultural melting pot was strangely reminiscent of St Andrews’ international community, except the diversity in my employer’s case was far more deliberate. It actually serves to benefit the company to maintain such a diverse set of staff. From a marketing perspective, employing staff of different ethnicities and nationalities make the brand aspirational to a wider cross-section of customers, and having multilingual staff is also pretty handy in a store whose majority of customers are tourists. It was not unusual for me to meet families who had come to England from countries like Belgium for a day of shopping, Abercrombie being top of their hit list.
So was Dean mistreated? I could not claim to know the intricacies of her case, especially considering that the manager accused of being ‘aggressive and combative’ towards her no longer worked at Abercrombie by the time I began my job. What I can claim is that whilst the store’s Look Policy seems in this case to have been callously implemented, I feel it must be clarified that the rules are upheld regardless of the individual. I have been sent to the Wash and Wear department to remove my excessive eye make up before being allowed up onto the shop floor at the start of one shift; similarly, a male colleague was sent down to the stockroom from the shop floor for not being clean shaven. The Look Policy is not one to be breached by anyone for the sake of consistency and maintaining a carefully constructed, cohesive image, and often the managers are indeed ‘aggressive and combative’ about it’s implementation. In all Wash and Wear changing rooms, a poster reads, ‘We’re sure you look great, but please check with a member of the Visual Team that you are styled correctly.’ Consistency is vital to the marketing of the brand, and it is this rigorous upkeep of it that contributes towards a strong brand identity that generates a £250,000 turnover in Saturday sales alone.
I have learnt a lot working at Abercrombie & Fitch. That the moose head that takes prominence on the ground floor is real… That protein shakes are the secret to the Greeters’ Olympian torsos… And that refolding hoodies for five hours straight on a busy, suffocatingly hot Saturday is not dissimilar to a kind of torture. But what I really have learnt is that whilst it is true that the company might have a conception of beauty that some find alienating or excluding, it is incorrect to make claims of absolute uniformity, racial exclusion or vacuity. The expansion into the Japanese market and the opening of the Italian flagship at the end of this month prove that the brand does not and cannot exclusively maintain a ‘mostly white, all-American boys and girls’ image. There is no cookie-cutter A&F staffer and there is no secret cloning system; even Abercrombie’s marketing genius doesn’t stretch that far.
Before I explain any further, I must make it clear: I am not a model. Abercrombie & Fitch divide their staff, all of which are part-time unless at managerial level, into a variety of categories: Model, Impact, and Visual, as well as an Overnight team who work into the early hours of the morning, folding piles of clothes to aesthetic perfection (something to consider if you’re one of those shoppers with a penchant for decimating stacks of clothing as you browse)... I, like the now-famed Dean, was hired as a member of the Impact team.
I’d like to blow some common misconceptions out of the water. Number one being that all A&F staff stand around vapidly chatting or churning out taglines such as ‘Hey, how are you?’. Whilst this might be true of a few of the models, the Impact team work slavishly as the fundamental cogs of an extremely well-oiled machine. An ‘Impacter’ is positioned in each room of the store, “maintaining” its appearance and helping out customers. They also “pull” replacement items from the labyrinthine stockrooms, “prep” them (really just a euphemism for “fold”), before “running” them back up to the floor, ready for customer consumption. Impacters also perform “updates”; that is, switching over or moving stock around after hours, or in the early morning before opening, and size checks: locating specific items in the stock room for shoppers who can’t find their size on the shop floor. Whilst it is not necessarily the definition of a brain strain, it requires commitment, energy and a good sense of the value of customer service.
Based on my experience working for the company, I would argue that it is another common misconception that Abercrombie employs a rigid ‘type’. My co-workers and the friends I made were of all different ethnicities and a variety of different backgrounds: some were working part-time to finance their studies at London universities, whilst others had come to London on a whim to improve their English. One of the best friends I made at work was of Columbian origin, and despite choosing to pass on university was a voracious reader who consumed everything from philosophy to psychology and who would often challenge me to an intellectual discussion whilst prepping polos in the stockroom. Not only does he fit the category of ethnic minority that is so often reported as being discriminated against by the company, he was also my “Lead”, or in other words, my senior. Furthermore, he was not an exception. I met other staff from Italy, South Africa, Kenya, Chile, Sweden and Australia; the cultural melting pot was strangely reminiscent of St Andrews’ international community, except the diversity in my employer’s case was far more deliberate. It actually serves to benefit the company to maintain such a diverse set of staff. From a marketing perspective, employing staff of different ethnicities and nationalities make the brand aspirational to a wider cross-section of customers, and having multilingual staff is also pretty handy in a store whose majority of customers are tourists. It was not unusual for me to meet families who had come to England from countries like Belgium for a day of shopping, Abercrombie being top of their hit list.
So was Dean mistreated? I could not claim to know the intricacies of her case, especially considering that the manager accused of being ‘aggressive and combative’ towards her no longer worked at Abercrombie by the time I began my job. What I can claim is that whilst the store’s Look Policy seems in this case to have been callously implemented, I feel it must be clarified that the rules are upheld regardless of the individual. I have been sent to the Wash and Wear department to remove my excessive eye make up before being allowed up onto the shop floor at the start of one shift; similarly, a male colleague was sent down to the stockroom from the shop floor for not being clean shaven. The Look Policy is not one to be breached by anyone for the sake of consistency and maintaining a carefully constructed, cohesive image, and often the managers are indeed ‘aggressive and combative’ about it’s implementation. In all Wash and Wear changing rooms, a poster reads, ‘We’re sure you look great, but please check with a member of the Visual Team that you are styled correctly.’ Consistency is vital to the marketing of the brand, and it is this rigorous upkeep of it that contributes towards a strong brand identity that generates a £250,000 turnover in Saturday sales alone.
I have learnt a lot working at Abercrombie & Fitch. That the moose head that takes prominence on the ground floor is real… That protein shakes are the secret to the Greeters’ Olympian torsos… And that refolding hoodies for five hours straight on a busy, suffocatingly hot Saturday is not dissimilar to a kind of torture. But what I really have learnt is that whilst it is true that the company might have a conception of beauty that some find alienating or excluding, it is incorrect to make claims of absolute uniformity, racial exclusion or vacuity. The expansion into the Japanese market and the opening of the Italian flagship at the end of this month prove that the brand does not and cannot exclusively maintain a ‘mostly white, all-American boys and girls’ image. There is no cookie-cutter A&F staffer and there is no secret cloning system; even Abercrombie’s marketing genius doesn’t stretch that far.