White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch

I hate writing reviews but decided to write this one after reading several clearly biased reviews on this documentary.

Coming in 2 minutes shy of the 90 minute mark this documentary can give you a bit of whiplash. Brace yourself for a fun but bumpy ride.

What they got right. The former staff interviews hit all their proper marks. The background info on how A&F came to be and how it took itself down by their own policies as informative as reading a NYT write-up about it.

What they got wrong,. Wwll that's easier to explain. They needed more time. I can't believe I'm going to say this but I think this should have been a 2-3 part documentary wat 40 minutes each episode. The reason why I say this is because it truly was rushed. Nothing new was brought to light. No deep dive. It was like the cliftnotes version of what happened.

Yes, we know A&F had a inclusion problem but give me some background on why. Meaning, there are several companies at the time that marketed the exact same way. Yes, they briefly mentioned Polo and CK, but what happened to Structure, Express, Banana Republic? Just my opinion, but I do believe they needed more time to bring in their point.

I could go on and on but I think those were the key things I wanted to point out.

My first experience at an A n F store was it was shuttered, hardly anyone was shopping, it was dark, and tons of cologne was sprayed on everything. So dark you could barely see the clothes. Such a strange shopping experience. I didn't buy anything. Years later the CEO was talking about overweight people while his face is deformed. Ironic. The race stuff was kind of glossed over in the news. This doc touched on the sexual assaults, but not much is said. You know some of these male models were assaulted and fired if they didn't follow through. Horrible. They were just young guys from all over America who wanted a job.

Start your own brand or wear another. The time spent interviewing, court appeals, etc.. you could of all got together and made some brain storming on creating a brand to reach your ideal demographic and employing your « ideal look ». Compete against the brand you find unjust and let the customer determine your success. And Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, etc... they were any different ??? I am not blond, nor American. Their store perfume gave me a headache every time. I still say bravo to A&F for creating a brilliant successful brand. Can you do that?

Top down this is just a lesson in demographic marketing that exists even if it is offensive, being woke and pressing on one company doesn't make a movie about it, and it isn't really even the rise and fall it is mostly rise and wokeness. Right? Wrong? Doesn't matter it happens because it's all about the corporate bottom dollar. I mean this stuff happens to ANY demographically targeted brand. Should we pick Against All Odds and their urban targeted clothing? Should we pick Sears for targeting men with Craftsman because there was no Craftswoman? Pac Sun? Ron Jon? Is an upscale store considered to be forcing out the poors? Someone will always be offended. Supposedly non discriminatory hiring won't help. A white wino and a well dressed black guy walk into a suit store applying for a job the black guy would get hired. A preppy computer nerd doesn't usually turn up at a Cabela's gun counter. Is it necessarily legal? No. But it's not an exclusive Abercrombie & Fitch issue and didn't need a movie. It's not even the reason brands like A&F fall, people move to new brands because it gets old.

There was so much more about A&F, as well as the Wexner empire.

We needed more tracing the money trails and payouts.

Sexual harassment was barely detailed.

The diversity officer was allowed to not answer questions asked.

This was basically the video version of a wikipedia entry.

Why then did I give it five points?

At least it brought the topic up about corporations and branding, targeting consumers, and the impact CEO's decisions can have on consumers' lives and perceptions.

Really, however, it was superficial, which is very sad.