Abercrombie & Fitch was known as the label of teenage youth that filled malls with shirtless models and pungent perfume for years, but now the clothing brand that faced its share of very public fuck ups is introducing a complete identify makeover "reflecting the character, charisma and confidence of today’s consumer while honoring the brand's 125-year heritage as a quality, casual, and distinctively American luxury brand."
Now, the brand hopes to no longer be categorized by its half-naked photos of extremely attractive young people—some of who would go on to become Hollywood stars including Jennifer Lawrence, Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Taylor Swift, Olivia Wilde, and January Jones to name a few.
Instead, the first message of the brand's new campaign video reads, "People have a lot to say about us. They think they’ve got us figured out," which is later followed up with the message, "This is Abercrombie & Fitch."
The clothing company announced in 2015 that it would be ridding itself of any over sexualized marketing materials, including the many images of men and women that lined the stores and made up their campaign ads in recent years.
If you remember, the brand also came under fire back in 2006 after Abercrombie & Fitch CEO, Mike Jeffries, made comments about excluding people from the brand. "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." Abercrombie also faced criticism for its size restrictions, selling a maximum of women's size 10, and men's 34. Then, 62,000 of the store's employees filed a class-action suit that claimed the employer was in violation of the state's labor codes. On a separate occasion, the brand was ordered to pay over $158,000 to settle a discrimination lawsuit.
Needless to say, the brand was due for a major makeover. Watch Abercrombie & Fitch's video above and look for the brand's campaign to kick off this holiday season.
