STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful
In the 90's, as 'mall culture' took off in the states (and to a great extent across the pond) and teens strive to look as cool and trendy as their peers, Abercrombie and Fitch cornered the market, employing some high concept ideas to really stand out from the competition. Originally an outdoor men's clothing wear company, founded by Les Waxner, flamboyant entrepreneur Mike Jeffries brought it and transformed it into the top name in retail fashion. However, as time went on, evidence of nefarious, discriminatory employment practices came to light, which started the ball rolling on its shattering fall from grace.
Although I was a teenager in the 90's, I must confess keeping up with fashion wasn't really my thing, and the name Abercrombie & Fitch didn't mean anything to me. I definitely wasn't one of the 'cool' kids, and I definitely didn't belong to that crowd. Indeed, the only time I heard the name mentioned was when that LFO song was in the charts, which as a former employee notes here, was when he knew the brand had made it. And the second time I heard of it was in this documentary, charting the rise and fall of the fashion giant, which ends up shining a wider light on the ethics of capitalism.
It certainly was a time when kids were bombarded with constant reinforcements of 'the perfect look', with American teen dramas like Dawson's Creek populated with almost exclusively chiselled, good looking characters, whilst adverts for retail brands on billboards featured similar such figures. A&F, under Jeffries, tapped in to this culture, with a business model that was actively discriminatory, and geared towards a particular customer, which eventually manifested into outright bigotry and racism, which sparked its downfall. Other reviewers have mentioned other retailers that catered to a more urban environment, but an organisation as mainstream as that really should have been seen what a wider demographic groups like African Americans represented and responded to it.
Thankfully, things have changed a bit today, where individuality is celebrated over rugged conformism. Director Alison Klayman's film is certainly exploring an interesting shift in societal attitudes, but is presented in too much of a light, fluffy fashion to really scrutinise the issues on hand with as much power as it needs. ***
In the 90's, as 'mall culture' took off in the states (and to a great extent across the pond) and teens strive to look as cool and trendy as their peers, Abercrombie and Fitch cornered the market, employing some high concept ideas to really stand out from the competition. Originally an outdoor men's clothing wear company, founded by Les Waxner, flamboyant entrepreneur Mike Jeffries brought it and transformed it into the top name in retail fashion. However, as time went on, evidence of nefarious, discriminatory employment practices came to light, which started the ball rolling on its shattering fall from grace.
Although I was a teenager in the 90's, I must confess keeping up with fashion wasn't really my thing, and the name Abercrombie & Fitch didn't mean anything to me. I definitely wasn't one of the 'cool' kids, and I definitely didn't belong to that crowd. Indeed, the only time I heard the name mentioned was when that LFO song was in the charts, which as a former employee notes here, was when he knew the brand had made it. And the second time I heard of it was in this documentary, charting the rise and fall of the fashion giant, which ends up shining a wider light on the ethics of capitalism.
It certainly was a time when kids were bombarded with constant reinforcements of 'the perfect look', with American teen dramas like Dawson's Creek populated with almost exclusively chiselled, good looking characters, whilst adverts for retail brands on billboards featured similar such figures. A&F, under Jeffries, tapped in to this culture, with a business model that was actively discriminatory, and geared towards a particular customer, which eventually manifested into outright bigotry and racism, which sparked its downfall. Other reviewers have mentioned other retailers that catered to a more urban environment, but an organisation as mainstream as that really should have been seen what a wider demographic groups like African Americans represented and responded to it.
Thankfully, things have changed a bit today, where individuality is celebrated over rugged conformism. Director Alison Klayman's film is certainly exploring an interesting shift in societal attitudes, but is presented in too much of a light, fluffy fashion to really scrutinise the issues on hand with as much power as it needs. ***