Time Goes By

Time keeps moving, and with it, everything changes. We're not the same today as we were yesterday, and we won't be the same tomorrow. Life keeps going, and we keep changing along with it.

Gareth Cade for Abercrombie & Fitch, Bruce Weber

Fashion is a reflection of our times. I’m not the one who came up with this. Anna Wintour did. These are not just good words that look pleasing on paper. They speak a real and undeniable truth. If we looked back at every single decade of our history, we’d see how our way of dressing has changed based on what was happening in the world. So, let’s run through a couple of examples. The 1930s put the world on its knees because of the Great Depression, affecting the happiness of each individual. The deep economic difficulty many families had to go through inevitably took a toll on the possibility they had to fully enjoy life. The scarcity of money called for more thoughtful daily decisions, which completely cut off overall shopping for our leisure lives. That’s why clothes became way more modest than ever before, with tailored suits for men and long hemlines for women. The 1950s brought us instead in a different and more enjoyable direction due to the Economic Boom. All of a sudden, the post-war period fueled unprecedented positivity that contributed to the creation of the myth of the American Dream. Anything was possible if only you worked hard enough to get it. This aura found its reflection in fashion that became glamorous and elegant. New jobs and opportunities led to bigger disposable incomes, which consequently brought more and better clothes into our homes. The 1980s went down as the era of excess and opulence that brought to the surface new brands - like Versace - who were able to encapsulate that lifestyle into a kind of fashion made of bold colors and exaggerated silhouettes.

But why take fashion in particular as a comparison tool? Well, unlike many other forms of cultural expression - such as literature or music - it’s primarily visual. It’s part of our daily life. We all wear clothes. Every single morning we make a choice on what to wear - because we know that’s the most immediate impression others will have of us. When someone is wearing a uniform, we know that’s a badge of distinction to identify a particular team or community. Clothes give us the possibility to show the world different shades of ourselves based on a situation - casual life, work, sports, etc. - or our daily mood. Fashion gives a voice to those who are not able to speak.

Brand perspective.

Now, let’s shuffle the cards on the table. Let’s move away from what we think - as consumers - and let’s jump straight into what brands see. Yes, the way we dress is a reflection of our times. But it becomes such because brands are called to do so. If a label wasn’t open to embracing current times, it would be out of the market in the blink of an eye. That’s why many designers need to keep one thing in mind above all. Your taste is incredibly crucial, and your touch is what makes your brand unique. But way more critical is your ability to translate what you like into what the world needs. If the need to embrace up-to-date behaviors is required, the necessity to stay true to our roots is certainly not less important. In moving from decade to decade and trend to trend, we can’t take our eyes off the ball. Meaning - that no matter what happens - we can’t lose our identity. Our biggest reward would be people in hundreds of years looking back at us and acknowledging our effort into creating something authentic that kept its vision no matter what. And matching these two tasks - my friends - is the biggest challenge of all - determining if we are truly successful or not. Now, all existing brands have gone through a similar path, with the only difference being that some succeeded in winning this challenge and some obviously didn’t.

Today, it’s Abercrombie & Fitch’s turn.

Anybody today must’ve heard about Abercrombie & Fitch at least once. And what we’d remember would be a very specific period that went from the 1990s up to the 2010s. Abercrombie was this: free self-expression, youthfulness, and sexiness. Young individuals were looking for brands that allowed them to express their unique personalities. The key to understanding the success of this brand lies in the essence of American society back in the 1990s. Exclusive. Excessive. Self-expressionist. It was the time in which people felt the need to be recognized for what they truly were, leaving free space to their imagination. But at the same time, it was also the period that witnessed a society telling us what to do. Standards were given everywhere. Music. Movies. Life. Boys and girls were raised by constantly looking at stereotypes of what they should have been. The All-American guy represented the image of the perfect high school male, balancing out activities such as sports, school, and hanging around with friends. By being exposed to standards and an overall fragmentation of society, young people immediately understood which were the right or wrong boxes. We were put with our backs to the wall, having to choose what to be. Who to be. And sex became one of the foundations of society, coming up as a form of rebellion and subversion. Abercrombie’s success was based on a simple principle yet difficult to achieve. Don’t give people what they are asking for. Make them ask for what you are offering. By creating an aura of exclusive appeal made of a unique store experience - dim lighting, loud music, and shirtless models - intertwined with the body as a symbol, the brand conceived a lifestyle that we all wanted to be part of. Why? Because it was cool.

Abercrombie & Fitch, 2003, Bruce Weber

The downfall. 

But then things changed. Times changed. The perception of life changed. If the 1990s and 2000s saw a narrative driven by exclusivity and standardized beauty, the 2010s took on a different lead. Social changes like body positivity and inclusivity became the new reigning evaluation methods, telling a new story that many brands fully embraced. After more than 20 years, people started wondering if the portrait of life given by our society was the right one to follow. We asked ourselves if having a chiseled physique was the only way to be considered cool, and therefore accepted. And all this wondering turned out to be one of the factors that dragged Abercrombie down into the abyss. Unfortunately, the list of problems the brand had to face wasn’t limited to a simple mixture of mission, vision, and values. The year 2002 saw Abercrombie & Fitch withdraw from the market a line of Asian-themed t-shirts picturing sentences like “Wong Brothers Laundry Service: two wongs can make it white” or “Abercrombie and Fitch Buddha Bash: get your Buddha on the floor”. In 2003, the brand got in the middle of a lawsuit based on general misconduct regarding discriminatory behaviors against Black, Latino, and Asian American applicants and employees. In 2017, the stack kept on piling up with an additional stain on the reputation represented by various sexual allegations made against the former CEO Bruce Weber.

Redemption.

At this point, put yourself in Abercrombie’s shoes. What would you do? Well, according to what we’ve said before, we should change direction towards the new set of values people currently believe in. Right? And that’s exactly what Abercrombie & Fitch did. Since 2017 - when the board decided to make a change in management by hiring a new CEO - the company has completely turned it around. Moving away from the old purpose of “chasing the cool guys” to the current one of “leading with purpose, championing inclusivity, and creating a sense of belonging”, the brand has embraced a vision of the world led by respect, honesty, and righteousness. The old image that we’ve always had has been swept away by a fresh perception. And let’s be honest. The plan that has rebuilt the brand is admirable, giving the feeling of a label that is actual and that truly understands society. From an objective point of the view, there’s absolutely nothing wrong. The care for materials and the attention developed to meet sustainability requirements and other important social themes have definitely brought the brand back from the dead.

Abercrombie & Fitch, “Fierce Campaign”, 2020

But here comes the problem.

How would you interpret the choice of a brand that - wounded by allegations and penalized by an out-of-touch approach to business - shifted from a pole to the opposite one? How would you look at a brand that is now on the right edge, but that - to get there - has completely distorted itself? Admirable. Not credible though. Do you know what we should call this? The art of counterbalancing. Imagine being in the same situation. Imagine being in the wrong. What then? In the most predictable pattern even written by God, we’d do everything in our power to change the perception of ourselves - even if at the cost of losing our identity. That’s why the Abercrombie & Fitch that we see today is nothing more than an old memory of what it used to be before.

Now, remember what we said earlier regarding the two pillars we should keep in mind if we were designers? Up-to-date approach and authenticity. It’s tough. It’s a hell of a job. These are elements that go hand in hand. If you believe you’d be able to be successful just by accomplishing one of the two, you would be mistaken. This is one of the reasons why fashion is such a hard area to do business in. It calls for a meticulous method that leaves nothing to fate. Every single time we decide to propose something in the market, we know it has to be actual and relevant. But we also know it has to be in line with our image and heritage. How difficult is that to do? Incredibly. But this is the reason why we remember some brands as opposed to others. If we want to do this job we already know what we are running towards. A life made of continuous challenges that we need to face day by day. A life made of tough decisions. A life that sometimes requires a shift in our priorities. Long hours. High pressure. Lots of competition. But how exciting is this?