BY KIMBERLY LUSTE MARAN*
eddy Roosevelt and Ernest Hemingway used to buy clothes here for safari. John F. Kennedy bought his conservative weekend look here. But oh, how times have changed.
Gone is the very classical, upscale look. It has been replaced with tighter jeans, shorter skirts, and smaller tops--and a controversial catalog (see Cultural Exegesis of the Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly Catalog, November 20, 2003).
Since 1998, Ohio-based Abercrombie & Fitch has specifically targeted young adults and teens with increasingly racy products and advertising. Up until recently the racy approach had worked. A&F has more than 600 stores bringing in annual revenues well over $1 billion. In fact, retail analysts have agreed that Abercrombie's racy magazine has helped drive sales of its generic preppy wear to more than $1.2 billion in 2000, and $1.6 billion in 2002 (up 14 percent over the previous year).
But finally, the combination of large-scale consumer boycotts (many through Christian activist groups), a major lawsuit accusing the retailer of racist hiring practices, and the latest A&F 280-page Christmas catalog, where there was much more skin than clothes on display, has outraged enough of the population to cause a drop of 13 percent in November 2003 (And, according to Focus on the Family president Don Hodel [from a Wall Street Journal report], its stock has lost over 16 percent of its value since Focus on the Family and other pro-family groups urged Americans not to buy the retailer's clothes. In addition, recent trading volume is more than twice normal.).
Realizing that the "more sex sells more" approach wasn't working, A&F pulled the holiday catalog from its stores' shelves in early December 2003 (A&F claimed that it stopped selling the catalog because its stores needed the shelf space for a new fragrance line). Negative reactions toward their company has caused A&F to consider a shift toward the conservative and classic. Says company spokesman Hampton Carney in reference to the more traditional catalog the A&F plans to distribute next spring, "We just felt it was time to retire it and come back with something that has beautiful imagery and classical photos. . . . but that doesn't mean they're going to go totally conservative and lose their nerve."
There isn't smooth sailing ahead for the company, however, as they face a serious discrimination lawsuit alleging that race, color, and/or national origin prevented young adults from obtaining employment at A&F stores. The suit claims that the retailer enforces a nationwide corporate policy of preferring white people for sales positions, desirable job assignments, and favorable work schedules.
And for many Christian groups, including the American Decency Association, the less suggestive change is too little, too late. "'There will probably still be kissing and beautiful bodies,'" says an anonymous source familiar with the company, in a December 16, 2003, New York Times article. "'There just probably won't be themes,' like three-way sex." As of December 10, 2003, shares of Abercrombie and Fitch fell 30 cents to close at $24.37 on the New York Stock Exchange.
*Information in this report gathered from several news sources: CNN Money (December 2 and 9, 2003), CBSNEWS.com (60 Minutes, December 5, 2003), Focus on the Family, American Decency Association, The New York Times (December 16, 2003), Washington Post (December 10, 2003) , and NBC4.TV (Southern California, December 10, 2003).
Links to stories/sources
Recent news stories on the controversial A&F catalog:
http://www.nbc4.tv/ print/2696176/detail.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/ stories/2003/ 12/05/60minutes/ printable587099.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ wp-dyn/articles/ A54231-2003Dec10.html
http://money.cnn.com/ 2003/12/02/news/ companies/abercrombie_catalog/ ?cnn=yes
http://money.cnn.com/2003/12/09/news/ companies/abercrombie/ ?cnn=yes
Information on racial discrimination lawsuit:
http://www.afjustice.com/ index_printable.htm
Christian advocacy groups' reports and message boards:
http://www.americandecency.org/ abercrombie.htm
http://www.family.org/cforum/ feature/a0029021.cfm
http://www.family.org/welcome/ press/a0029318.cfm
http://www.family.org/welcome/ press/a0029160.cfm
http://www.family.org/cforum/ feature/a0029156.cfm
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Kimberly Luste Moran is an assistant editor of the Adventist Review.
