What did abercrombie and fitch ceo say

Do your kids wear Abercrombie & Fitch clothes? You might be interested in what the CEO, Mike Jeffries, has to say about fat women.

To keep it quick: He doesn't like them. They're not cool. That's why he won't make women's slacks larger than a size 10.

In a 2006 interview with Salon, he said this:

"In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he told the site. "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."

His remarks are getting a new round of attention thanks to a book, The New Rules of Retail by Robin Lewis and Michael Dart, which looks at the changing retail business model.

Lewis told Business Insider that Jeffries "doesn't want larger people shopping in his store, he wants thin and beautiful people."

Jeffries' comments are so upsetting that a Central Florida man started a petition on Change.org, asking Jeffries to apologize and start selling larger sizes.

In his petition, Benjamin O'Keefe, 18, of Gotha says, "In a world where teens are constantly under pressure to fit the societal norms of beauty, we should be building them up and helping them love themselves. ..."

As of Friday afternoon, the petition had almost 5,000 supporters.

Here's the thing: Jeffries is a businessman, and he can certainly market to whomever he wants.

But who does he think is paying for all those Abercrombie & Fitch jeans and tops? That's right. Moms. And I suspect not all of them can fit into size 10 jeans.

Seems like alienating the folks who buy his merchandise might not be a smart thing.

(Thankfully, my 16-year-old son's A&F phase ended a few years ago.)

Abercrombie & Fitch were the quintessential American fashion brand of the 1990s - they cornered cool, their clothes were expensive and had mass appeal and their ads featuring almost naked models certainly caught the eye.

But beneath the glamour was a hidden string of controversies and legal issues.

The Netflix documentary White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, dives into the company’s use of exclusion to build its brand.

Documentarian Alison Klayman, who made Take Your Pills and The Brink spoke to former employees at all levels of Abercrombie & Fitch to piece together this exposé.

Abercrombie & Fitch have been accused discriminatory practices in the past

Abercrombie & Fitch is a near-luxury casual wear retailer which was founded in 1892. The company also owns Hollister Co., which was founded in 2000.

Since the 1980s and ‘90s the company has focused on the young adult demographic and was notorious for its provocative advertising campaigns using near nude models.

In just over a year and partly as a result of the great recession the value of the company plummeted from 2007-2008.

Struggling to compete against fast fashion companies, Abercrombie & Fitch shifted its focus, toned down the sexually explicit advertising and rebranded as an inclusive pro-diversity retailer.

Today the company has a value of more than £1.3 billion and has carved out a niche as a fashion brand somewhere between the cheap fast fashion of H&M and the more expensive luxury designers like Ralph Lauren.

The fashion company was known for its sexualised branding and

As is explored in the Netflix documentary, Abercrombie & Fitch has been involved with several legal issues over the years.

In 2004, legal action was taken against the company for discriminating against African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and women by giving preferential treatment to white men.

The company was accused of favouring white men when offering floor sales and management positions - the class action suit was settled to the tune of $40 million.

Other poor employment practices included moving a member of staff with a prosthetic limb from the shop floor to the warehouse out of sight of customers, and telling a woman who wore a hijab to remove it - in both cases the employees were told they had violated the company’s ‘Look Policy’.

More broadly, the documentary explores allegations that Abercrombie & Fitch had a policy of exclusion - one person interviewed for the documentary said: “Abercrombie rooted themselves in discrimination at every single level.”

Other issues included an investigation that was launched after it was suspected that the company predominantly hired staff under 25 years old and offered a premium to male models who worked shirtless.

Mike Jeffries was CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992 until he resigned in 2014.

It was Jeffries that spearheaded the exclusionary marketing techniques, including the hiring of young, attractive staff to work on the sho floor.

In addition, the company only offered clothes in limited sizes - shirts went stopped at a large, and trousers only went up to size 10.

Jeffries had said whilst CEO of the company that his clothing is only for cool people - he was later reported as saying that he didn’t want overweight or unattractive people to wear his clothes. He apologised for the comments in 2013.

Mike Jeffries was CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch from 1992-2014

As a result of these legal issues, Abercrombie & Fitch have undergone a dramatic rebrand - the company’s website claims that they are “championing inclusivity and creating a sense of belonging.”

The Abercrombie Equity Project was launched to help advance social and racial justice - a marked difference in the values of the Abercrombie & Fitch of 20 years ago.

The documentary will be released on Netflix on 19 April.