I, A 26-Year-Old Millennial, Went To Abercrombie For The First Time Since Middle School, And I'm Shocked By How Different It Is Now For Gen Z
In case you haven't been on the internet this past week, everyone's been talking about former mall staple Abercrombie & Fitch — mostly due to the release of tell-all documentary White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch.
The doc goes through a LOT, and I recommend watching it to understand the racist merchandise and hiring practices, as well as the so-called all-American image that was meticulously crafted through the hiring almost exclusively of conventionally attractive, thin, white models and staff.
However, it also touches on a lot of the brand's success and its appeal to young people, as well as its chokehold on 2000s youth culture.
Now, what I remember about A&F definitely lines up with the doc, though I didn't know the more scandalous secrets. Basically, I remember it being a dark, heavily perfumed store with shirtless models and a bunch of overpriced shirts and jeans. The popular kids shopped there, so, of course, I did too — if, by "shopped," you mean rummaged through the sale shelves to find something I could afford with the $20 my mom had given me.
I know you can't tell from this photo, but I swear that was an Abercrombie tank (that I wore over a T-shirt so I wouldn't get dress-coded). I remember it was from Abercrombie Kids, not A&F, because as all my fellow broke prepubescent teens knew, it was much cheaper to shop at Abercrombie Kids, and you could get pretty much the same stuff. After I grew out of Abercrombie Kids, I switched to the slightly cheaper Hollister clothes, and the only A&F clothes I wore were hand-me-downs. Just too expensive!!
I remember the shirtless models and the bags plastered with abs, which were literally like a status symbol to carry around the mall. I also remember their sizes being tiny and having lots of XXS in the store. But, as the doc states, the new A&F is nothing like the old one. CEO Mike Jeffries stepped down in 2014, the Abercrombie-emblazoned T-shirts were retired, the target demo shifted older, and the sexualized ads were taken down from the stores. Now the store's website emphasizes its inclusivity and belonging.
But I was curious...how much has Abercrombie really changed? As someone who literally has not been there since eighth grade, I decided to check it out!
For reference.^
Right off the bat, it was definitely a different experience. While there were some shuttered windows on the second floor and the sides of the store, it didn't quite have that dark, shut-in feel of the store I remember. And, of course, there were no shirtless male models at the door to pass.
But some things never change, because immediately upon entering, I was hit with that Abercrombie cologne smell. And y'all...that smell knocked my brain straight back to the seventh grade.
The amount of insecurity and lack of belonging I felt in that moment...oof. It's as if they bottled the feeling of not fitting in as a seventh-grader. Ah, the memories.
The store itself was basically how I remembered, but not quite as dark. There was music (a lot more throwback songs than I would've thought, since a lot of people shopping there were too young to know them), but it wasn't as loud as it was back in the day. Maybe it's because it's spring, but there was also a ton of beachy stuff. It definitely felt more like Hollister than how I remembered A&F.
Also, there were far fewer clothes. I remember shelves being packed with stuff back in the day. It was kind of, like...empty.
One of the things that struck me most upon walking in was that there was not a single photo of models. Instead of giant photos of shirtless men and bikini-clad women...there were pictures of plants.
And city blocks. They still had that washed-out or black-and-white look, but there were no people.
In fact, the only people I saw in photos or ads in the store came from the kids section. And obviously these were not shirtless or sexualized photos. They were also more diverse, so that's nice.
Well, actually, they also had this guy in the men's exercise section (I literally did not even know Abercrombie did activewear), but he wasn't shirtless and was clearly working out. At this point I started to wonder where I was, because it certainly wasn't the Abercrombie I knew.
Also (and I didn't take photos because that would've been weird), the staff seemed pretty diverse, and it didn't even look as if any of them were wearing Abercrombie. I will say that for a three-floor store, there only seemed to be one set of fitting rooms, and I waited in line for 20 minutes. So...that part's still the same.
But before I get to trying stuff on, let's go over the actual clothes. For a store infamous for its racist and offensive graphic tees, I was surprised to see they still carry graphic tees. But these were a lot more tame. The only somewhat controversial one was this Budweiser T-shirt. Definitely not for middle schoolers, but hey, it's not as if it was in the kids section.
They had a few new sections I didn't remember. Activewear, as I mentioned, but also a somewhat formalwear section. Honestly, this was the cutest stuff in the store.
I'm not sure what the white jeans were doing here. Everything else was like a nice dress you could wear to a summer wedding on the beach.
Instead of being in a separate store, Abercrombie Kids stuff was right near the fitting room. It was all 40% off, and honestly, it was really cute. I would actually probably recommend Abercrombie to a young niece or nephew. They won't have those negative memories the store brought back for me, and the stuff was cute and reasonably priced.
I literally had the urge to try on a few things from there the way I used to, before I remembered I'm 26 and there is no way any child's size, even a loose XXL dress, is going to look normal on me.
There was also a bathing suit section (again, sooo much of their stuff was beachy). There were definitely cute ones, and there was a variety of sizes and styles of varying exposure levels. But honestly, these were really expensive, very few of the tops were lined or padded, and they felt a little cheap.
The bathing suit section is also where I first encountered the label "Curve Love." It wasn't on larger sizes but, rather, styles that I guess were meant with curvy bodies in mind. It was also on a ton of their jeans.
I had mixed feelings about this. Overall, I think I feel positively. Postpuberty, I had thin hips but wide thighs, and I literally could not fit into Abercrombie or Hollister jeans. If they fit my thighs, they'd be too big at the hips or waist. But if I got the right waist size, they literally wouldn't fit over my thighs. Not a great feeling for a vulnerable 13-year-old to be trying to put on jeans I knew were my size that didn't fit. Luckily, jeggings came into style right around then, so I started wearing really stretchy skinny jeans that fixed the problem. So yes, of course it would've been great if A&F and Hollister carried clothes that were a better fit for curvy bodies. But also, it definitely felt "othering" to have them labeled differently from other jeans and other clothes (and it's not as if they had other labels or brands like "tall girl" or "athletic build" or whatever; this was the only one). I don't care now, but I think as a middle schooler in the 2000s, when there was a very narrow definition of the "right" body type, I would've been sensitive about a label like this. But also, that would've been wrong of me, and I think "curvy" had a very different connotation and judgment in society in the 2000s compared with now.
Since A&F is supposed to be a lot more size inclusive now, I was glad to see that sizes went from XXS to XXL in stores — however, I only saw jeans up to size 36/37. Online, they go up to 47, but in stores the range was narrower. Also, the display sizes were usually around a small, or a 27.
After grabbing a few things, I went to the fitting room and, again, waited 20 minutes. The fitting room attendant wasn't giving out numbers, which I thought was weird because I remember them being super strict. Like, my friends and I were always trying to go in together to take mirror selfies in the clothes, and they wouldn't let us. Anyway, here's my 'fit for the day, which I am inserting purely because I think it's cute. And also because within 10 minutes of coming home after this excursion, I spilled tomato soup on this shirt, meaning you will never see me in it again.
I grabbed a couple of tops and a bunch of jeans to try on. Mostly because everything in the store was pretty expensive without seeming high quality enough to justify it, but the jeans seemed well made and durable, so I was willing to spend a bit more on them. Also, my friend still shops at Abercrombie, and she swears by their jeans.
Outfit number one. Sorry I look awkward; it's because I felt awkward. This shirt was really unflattering (who wants to devote more space for their armpits/upper side boobs?), and these jeans were "low rise" without actually being low rise. They looked like mom jeans, and not in the mom jeans trend way, but in the my-mom-actually-wears-these kind of way. (Sorry, Mom.)
Here's another photo with the top and baggy cargos I picked out because I thought I could pull it off (narrator's voice: She could not). My boobs have NEVER looked saggier.
Every once in a while during my work at BuzzFeed, I do something like edit a photo of myself pointing out my saggy boobs and think about the fact that it is an actual acceptable part of my job and that potentially millions of people will see it, and I question my life choices. And then I decide that I have made absolutely perfect life choices.
I tried on these "low rise" shorts too, and I am very confused about their definition of "low rise." I feel like if it hits your belly button...it is not low rise. I also tried this tank, which was just fine, and a few more pairs of pants that are not even worth including photos of.
This top was slightly better, but I still didn't love it.
And then came the one item I liked. The light at the end of the tunnel. The diamond in the rough. These shorts. Looking back, I think they look just okay, but Y'ALL. THESE ARE THE COMFIEST JEAN SHORTS I HAVE EVER WORN. I liked them so much, I took a mirror selfie with flash for old times' sake.
For reference, they were the high-rise "dad short." I literally hate wearing jean shorts because they're uncomfortable and stiff and I can never find the right length where my thighs don't rub together too much, but they're not weirdly long, and these just fit the bill.
Also, they were only $49 because they gave me $10 for signing up for emails, which I obviously canceled as soon as I got home. Not bad for a pair of jean shorts that feel durable and well made. The checkout person asked if I wanted a bag, to which I of course replied yes. I shouldn't have been surprised after all this, but...I was honestly shocked to see NO ABS on the bag.
Just a tasteful lil' "Abercrombie & Fitch."
FINAL IMPRESSION: Abercrombie has definitely changed.
They seem to have done away with all their messed-up hiring practices and their extremely strict rules about how the store and staff look, which is definitely good. They also definitely feel more size exclusive (I believe sizes only went up to L, maybe XL, in the 2000s), though I was expecting a little better based on how much the website emphasizes inclusivity. But honestly, I feel like some of the nostalgia was gone. Not that I need the washboard-abs guys (which was clearly problematic), but I feel as if they should've kept the clublike atmosphere and the darker ambience. And I feel like they could keep photos of models wearing the clothes — just make them more diverse and inclusive! It was weird to just see, like, palm fronds and no one actually wearing the clothes. However, I'm glad they've made such an effort to change, and I think it's overall positive.
And the question you've all been waiting for: Would I shop there again? Uh...probably not. But I would recommend it to kids and young teenagers!
Paramount Pictures
The kids section was really cute and reasonably priced, and it seemed as if there were a lot of teenagers shopping there, so clearly, A&F still has some appeal.
