White Hot: The Rise And Fall Of Abercrombie & Fitch is the latest scandalous documentary that needs to be on your radar, but these are the questions we were left contemplating after watching the Netflix film.
In the world of documentaries, there’s something about a film that blends nostalgia and scandal that really strikes a chord. Netflix’s recent docufilm release, White Hot: The Rise And Fall Of Abercrombie & Fitch, does exactly that and offers us a long-awaited look inside the Abercrombie phenomenon that gripped the high street – and us all – in the early 2000s.
While working in the store was a rite of passage only reserved for a ‘lucky’ few of us, there’s no denying that the basic T-shirt and jeans company embodied a moment in popular culture that, looking back now, is hard to explain.
Well, in Netflix’s new documentary, we not only get a taste of just how the clothing brand came to be so popular but it also explores the scandals that seemed to be bubbling away beneath the surface. The film is packed full of nostalgic references and interviews with former employees but even so, we were left with a few questions still whirring away in our heads after the documentary ended.
If, like us, you’ve lapped up the film, scroll on for the questions we were left pondering after finishing White Hot.
What happened to ex-CEO Mike Jeffries?
The documentary does a good job of underlining the impact that businessman Mike Jeffries had on the company when he joined as CEO. While he’s no longer the CEO of Abercrombie, we were left wondering just what happened to him.
He refused to provide comment for the film but his words rang out throughout the documentary. He was unapologetic in stating: “In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, 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. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla.”
Because of this, nobody really batted an eyelid at Abercrombie’s “classic” image that it sought to push in its advertisements, stores and employees. Ultimately, if you were attractive and white, Jeffries wanted you in the store. But if you were anything else, you didn’t quite fit the image that A&F sought to portray.
Jeffries stepped down as CEO in 2014 after more than 20 years at the helm of the company and has stepped back from the limelight in a drastic way. Apparently, he still owns a small number of shares in the company but apart from that, we’re left to wonder what happened to Jeffries and where he is now.
Why was Abercrombie & Fitch committed to its exclusionary mission?
In an age where brands and stores are striving to be the most inclusive, it’s weird to watch a documentary that underlines just how exclusionary A&F was.
Although it seems clear to see that these practices were as a direct result of Jeffries’ own views, it’s still confusing to think that an entire company and its employees just went along with what appears to be such ridiculous and discriminatory hiring practices. Just why was the company apparently so committed to sidelining people of colour, plus-size and LGBTQ+ people? We guess it’s a question that would require its own documentary.
Were Abercrombie’s hiring practices just a reflection of America generally at the time?
Among the testimonies and interviews from former A&F employees, there was one sentiment that rang out throughout what they were saying. It’s the idea that the way Abercrombie was allowed to continue was just an extension of what general America was thinking, feeling and doing at the time anyway.
One ex-employee states that although the company began to make changes, “upper management stayed white”.
“You could call it a glass ceiling for all people of colour,” he said. So that begs the question: did the way that American society was in the early 2000s allow for the company to thrive and ignore the exclusionary practices and prejudice it appeared to perpetuate?
What does “cool” and “classic” actually mean when it comes to clothing?
If there are two words that flowed throughout the documentary, it was “cool” and “classic” when it came to describing how Abercrombie wanted to be.
The brand appealed to the middle class, athletic, cool kids and, as consumers, we all sought to embody that feeling when we slung on one of their logo emblazoned tops. But what does a “cool” clothing brand actually look like, and why did we all accept that it was a store full of slogan T-shirts and jumpers?
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Netflix’s White Hot: The Rise And Fall Of Abercrombie & Fitch documentary is out now and lifts the lid on the popular retailer
Is there really a future for the once popular clothing store?
While Abercrombie is very much a brand that’s still alive and kicking, the ending of the documentary got us thinking about the need to confront its past.
While diversity and inclusion seem to be high on the agenda for the company now, is there really any escaping from the damage caused by its (now public) discriminatory practices?
While those in the documentary state that the company has improved a great deal “on the surface”, is a wipe clean of social media really enough to forget the past of Abercrombie?
Images: Netflix
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