Shopping At Abercrombie In The 2000s Vs. Now

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 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FINAL IMPRESSION: Abercrombie has definitely changed.