Jezebel
bright future in sales
Posts Tagged “
Abercrombie & Fitch
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bright future in sales
spank bank
The Insane Story Of Stuart Miller's Hollywood Sperm Bank Bondage Cult
Meet Stuart Miller. You thought Dov Charney was a creepy boss? In Stuart's defense, he runs a sperm bank. But Growing Generations is a high-end sperm (and surrogate) bank catering to Hollywood agents and assorted other corporate bigwig types that was just profiled in W Magazine! So you can imagine how Miller's old marketing manager Scott Glasgow found it a little inappropriate when the Boss Man, according to a lawsuit just filed in federal court in Manhattan, emailed him this picture of himself. (There's an even more surreal — though surprisingly SFW — specimen from a company "team building" exercise after the jump.) Still, Glasgow liked his job. He made $100,000 helping gay couples "create new life"! So he had endured Miller's insistence that they share a bed on the company "Vision Cruise" even though he had no interest in actually doing him. The boss was going to make him VP! But then came all the cult classes: More »
rag trade
Retraction: Agyness Deyn Is Offically Actually Awesome
- Breaking news: a Telegraph profile today inspired me to finally watch the Agyness Deyn music video. It is generic and derivative and cynically targeted at the aging Britpop nostalgists who write blogs and I fucking love it. Oh man, and I don't even hate myself for this. Embedded after the jump. [Telegraph]
- Tinsley Mortimer's makeup may look light and natural but it is actually deceptively heavy and high-maintenance! One brave New York writer consumed three hours she will never get back in an effort to emulate the Tinz. And you wonder why they pay her the big bucks. [NY Mag]
rag trade
We Couldn't Have Put It Better Ourselves, Agent Provocateur
- Prestige magazine has the "world exclusive" of the new Agent Provocateur campaign starring Kate Moss. Note the black models featured also in the shoot! They are slightly less prominent, but no worse fed. [Prestige HK]
- And look her! The notoriously tight-lipped Kate Moss granted an actual interview to the Guardian! Does she have anything to say for herself? "After a long pause," the story reveals..."Not really." [Guardian]
- More "authenticity" from the trailers of the upcoming Sex & The City movie: It was like being in [NY department stores] Bergdorf Goodman and Saks combined. There was an overwhelming amount of branded product...The characters were defined via their wardrobes and the products they used: Carrie, for example, was a creative, fashion-obsessed writer type, so she used an Apple Mac because of its design value and wore all these crazy clothes.... [FT]
- "China is about brand, brand, brand." [NYT]
- India "is a fast growing economy and with consumption so robust and with incomes rising, it's a fertile ground for the print media." And all the crap Vogue and GQ would like to sell to them! [Reuters]
obamacrombie chronicles
Which Politicians Do Your Favorite Mall Retailers Really Support?
We still don't know who those Abercrombie-wearing toolbelts at the Barack Obama speech were. But we do, thanks to the media's dogged refusal to back away from this story, know they weren't sent by Abercrombie & Fitch. Employees of the world's worst company only gave a total of $500 to the Obama campaign, and that was the donation of a single employee. We checked campaign finance records to find out what sort of political agendas you are really supporting when you don a retailer's sweatshop-manufactured logo T-shirt. We did the math on Abercrombie, Urban Outfitters, Forever 21, Barney's and J. Crew so you wouldn't have to be reminded how much you suck at basic arithmetic! More »
rag trade
Will Italian Vogue Break With Fashion Mag Tradition, Feature Black Models?
- Europeans are always more progressive than Americans. Rumor is, Italian Vogue may be producing a cover featuring only black models. [Fashionista]
- Oh. My. God. High School Musical and Hannah Montana-inspired Crocs, soon available at a store near you. [Yahoo]
- Francis Ford Coppola and Sofia Coppola will be the next faces of Louis Vuitton's "core values" campaign (the very same campaign in which Keith Richards agreed to participate in exchange for a LV monogrammed guitar case.) What do you think the Coppolas get out of this? An LV director's chair? An LV vinyard? [WWD, 1st item]
- "Boyfriend" jackets are big for spring. But Peter Som says the ones he designed for Bill Blass are inspired by Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. [WSJ]
crappy hour
Sure, Hillary Won Pennsylvania, But Barry Nabbed The Hateful Ignorant Fratboy Demographic!
They are known to let dead people come back to vote for ward leader in Philadelphia, but when I arrived at my polling place of the last two elections yesterday, I found my name mysteriously removed from the rolls. My friend and South Philadelphia homeowner Ryan, meanwhile, got turned away for not being a Democrat, even though he changed his registration the last time he realized the Green Party was lame during last year's mayoral primary. Look: the last machine still running in Pennsylvania runs its voters. Hillary was going to win that. No one on Crappy Hour ever predicted Barack was going to carry this, or even get close, or if we did it was a joke or we were too hungover to know what we were doing, obvi. So I'm not really that mad about Barry's inability to "close the deal." I am, however, kind of baffled by the Abercrombie & Fitch thing. From blind gayvotion to NAFTA to centimillionaire executive pay packages to endemic racism to bland pointless predictability Abercrombie is the epitome of everything about the America that is not "ready" for a black Muslimy Marxist freethinking president. Were those the best white kids you could find, Axelrod? That and more minutiae with me and a very hungover Megan after the jump. More »
long goodbyes
"Aspirationalism" Is Just Code For Racism, Conde Nast
Hey guys! More big news! Dodai and Anna have left us. No one is really talking to me. The new owners say they want me to stay, they just want to "edit" me a bit, and by "edit," they are saying, they mean more than my copy. "You may have to shower," is how this Daphne woman put it. Smell ya later, Daph! So anyway, Dodai and Anna were not a "good fit." No seriously, people actually do actually say that, as she did, on a conference call just now. So here is my theory: they were fired because they are black. There is a vain side of me that briefly wondered whether Conde saw in my exquisite internet photos the potential for Total Fashion Aspirationalism. They could give me a makeover, like in the movies! And then I could write a brutally honest tell-all about the process; and that could be a movie! And I would get rich, because the movie would have an excellent makeover montage! More »
news roundup
Really, Eliot? You Interfaced With This?
- Commenting on an Eliot Spitzer whore scandal is vaguely as exciting than reading about the intricacies of trade negotiations — and also, somewhat less important — but I had to point out this quote from a source close to Kristin "Billie" Davis (who "hails from a rough-in-tumble California trailer park.") "She personally interfaced with Spitzer a number of times." Wow, "interface." That used to be corporate jargon for "talked to" and now it is being used to denote... bareback anal. [NYP]
- "His sex appeal lies in being a successful businessman and politician. Women like a guy who is in control, and a man who knows what he wants." That's the editor-in-chief of Playgirl on why she'd like to land Eliot Spitzer for a cover shoot incorporating a young woman in a Girls Gone Wild T-shirt. I know; you're creaming just thinking of interfacing with it right? [US]
- Wait, speaking of: raunchy outtakes from the Abercrombie & Fitch catalog are now being sold as a $200 "art" book. [NYP]
- Wait, no, really speaking of, Barack Obama was interviewed by Maria Bartiromo, who tried to paint him as some sort of Hugo Chavez character by baiting him with a question about the Fed's bailout of Bear, to which he said, "Well, I wasn't privy to Bear Stearns' balance sheet." He doesn't sound like a socialist! [CNBC]
rag trade
Anna Wintour And Carine Roitfeld: It Is So On
- Anna Wintour on being called a "puppet" by French Vogue editor-in-chief Carine Roitfeld in New York Magazine: "Maybe you should ask Carine. I have no comment." [Frillr]
- But you should ask her about it if you happen to be at Oxford University today, where La Wintour will be speaking about her "media career and extensive charity work." If you are there please email us with details from her chat! [Vogue UK]
- "Ashley was surprised. The women were really chic. A lot of them had such great style. And we didn't expect there to be so many women like that." That's Rae Miles, commercial director of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen's clothing line, The Row, about her and Ashley's visit to Dallas to promote the line. Because clearly no one outside L.A. or New York knows how to dress themselves! [WWD, sub req'd]
rag trade
Patrick Dempsey Welcomes Donatella Versace Into His Family
- Now the face of Versace menswear, Patrick Dempsey has started referring to Donatella Versace as his "Italian mother." [Fashion Week Daily]
- Model Erin O'Connor musing on the end of another fashion season: "...yes I'm howling, oh how woeful I was when the mini cab rocked up early Sunday morning to collect the regal attire, literally stripped from my back to be sent back to each designer. Kind enough to donate for the week I hear you mutter? Jees, and Cinderella thought she had it bad? Hark, where for art thou my four-door Sports Series Maseratti? Not even a pumpkin post-shows for this lowly creature, just her own two spindly legs to get her from A to B..." [Vogue UK]
- The Herve Leger dress that Victoria Beckham wore to the Marc Jacobs show last season is now on sale at Intermix. Er, maybe not? So many people tried to buy it online that the Intermix website crashed. [Fashionista]
rag trade
Heidi Klum Makes It Work; Designs For Jordache Jeans
- The facts speak for themselves: Heidi Klum is designing a capsule collection for Jordache, for which she has been modeling over the past year. Think she'll offer hair extensions to cover nipples as well? [WWD, sub req'd]
- Kathy Hilton just released her own perfume. It's called "My Secret." We don't really want to think about what Kathy Hilton's secret might smell like. [BellaSugar]
- Gloria Steinem would not approve: Georgina Chapman, Marchesa designer and wife of Halston co-owner Harvey Weinstein, was named "Georgina Weinstein" on her front row seat at Halston yesterday. Only, as Chapman herself put it, "I didn't change my name, they did it for me." [WWD, 1st item]
- Jimmy Choo's CEO Tamara Mellon thinks that boyfriend Christian Slater should take a more active, or acting, role in fashion. Mellon says Slater would be "perfect" to play Halston in any upcoming biopic on the designer. [WWD, 1st item]
rag trade
Chloe Sevigny Designs Luggage, Mocks Fashion
- Is there anything Chloe Sevigny can't do? Playing a polygamist's wife, designing a clothing line for Opening Ceremony, acting as style adviser to British ELLE, and now, designing hand-crafted steamer trunks for Samsonite. [WWD, sub req'd]
- Sevigny reportedly laughed loudly and openly at last night's Miss Sixty show. From the front row, no less! [NY Mag]
- Several models were burned by faulty lighting used during a shoot for Marc Bouwer last week. Says a rep for Bouwer, "No one knew the lamp was giving off that much heat until the shoot ended. If they had known, they would have stopped right away." [Page Six]
- Fashion victim! A Cosmopolitan fashion editor is suing a slew of people, including Diane von Furstenberg, following the 2005 incident in which she was injured by falling lights from the fashion runway. [UPI]
File this under one under "Sad yet inevitable truths": A new study out of the University of Alberta shows that when shoppers see an attractive person trying on an item of clothing, they are spurred into buying it for themselves. Maybe this means that Abercrombie & Fitch needs to stop hiring the hotties as salespeople and instead install them as plants in the fitting rooms? [Scientific American]
rag trade
Posh & Marc: 1. Haters: 0.
- The new Marc Jacobs ads featuring Victoria Beckham have finally been made public. And they're awesome. Also: We seem to remember a certain Glamour magazine beauty editor who took to doing this with a Gucci bag. [WWD, 1st item]
- Madonna swears that the Fox News reports aren't true and that she didn't screw Gucci over and trick them into hosting a fundraiser for the Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles. [WWD, 1st item]
- Giles Mendel's thoughts on Project Runway after serving as a guest judge on Wednesday night's episode: "OK...The authority of a TV show might not be good enough at the end to make a successful fashion house. That's a different ball game." Whoah — he didn't just question The Greatest Show on Earth, did he? [WWD, 5th item]
rag trade
Porny Abercrombie & Fitch Catalog To Make Triumphant Return To Store Shelves!
- Holy Aryan Smut Closet Case Pride, the A&F Quarterly is back and under the same old management? Have you ever looked at this catalog? Click to see enlarged Heidi Klum!
- ...anyway, I'm not sure it was possible to actually purchase clothes with it, because there didn't even seem to be any clothes displayed in it. (Also missing: Black people.) But there were a lot of naked tits and weird date-rapey advice columns and stuff until CEO Mike Jeffries decided he was "bored" with the stale pornyness of it all. Big mistake! Look at American Apparel! [Fashion Week Daily]
- Hannah Montana is an icon of neo biker chic style. [NY Times]
- To attract men — and one assumes, Jezebel editors! — beauty salons are offering free Sam Adams, gin and scotch and pool tables. [WSJ]
- Blind item guessing game, Arden WOHLcat edition. "Which socialite and vague designer was so high on ecstasy on New Year's Eve that she fell out of her cab on her way to a tiny, exclusive, and smoke filled tavern in the West Village? She might not have even remembered the next day, if it weren't for the massive bruise on her..." [Fashionista]
i work retail
Hollister: Sort Of Like "Girls Gone Wild", Only With Girls Too Young For Joe Francis
It's Fashion Week, and we know how much that means to you all, but we thought we'd throw a bone to Jezebel readers who'd trade their newfound understanding of Vena Cava for a decent glass of vino. This is the story of Hollister, a powerful branch of the Abercrombie & Fitch youth retail empire and the sort of work environment and probably middle America's closest approximation to working in fashion. All through the country, thanks to retailers like Hollister, average heartland American teenagers are trading wages for status, obsessively attuning themselves to tiny aesthetic tics, throwing themselves into the insecurity-superiority spirals and learning to hate bread. And the tiny crop of straight dudes smart enough to plant themselves in the middle of it is getting unjustly and prodigiously laid. Meet The Douche. His name might have been Scott. Reader Christine has blocked it out. He was her first retail boss, and he was verrrry good at preparing his charges to meet Joe Francis. Welcome back to "I Work Retail," the Jezebel column about the only industry more depressing than women's magazines.
More »
rag trade
Djimon Honsou Is Packing It In For Calvin Klein
- Actor Djimon Hounsou is the new face of Calvin Klein underwear for men and took "months" at the gym to prepare for his photo shoot. One of the flagship billboards is being erected around the corner from our apartment. [Fans self]. [WWD, sub req'd]
- Gisele Bundchen is in talks with Bono to star in U2's next music video, which is almost as admirable as being in talks with Bono to personally eradicate poverty. [Vogue UK]
- Yves Saint Laurent was released from the hospital with a mild case of hypochondria. [Vogue UK]
- Abercrombie & Fitch is expanding its European presence with the opening of stores in Denmark and Sweden. We assume they'll have better luck with the class-action, race-discrimination suits in Scandinavia. [WSJ, sub req'd]
