Pursuits
Modesty Is the New Abercrombie
The retailer tries to lure teens with less nudity and more black
This article is for subscribers only.
Subtlety has never been Abercrombie & Fitch’s thing. It is corporate policy to spray perfume in stores. Scantily clad greeters stand out front beckoning passersby. Pop music blasts through the aisles, and the clothes are just as loud. The 1,006-store clothing chain hewed to this formula throughout 2013, a year when there was plenty of drama on the management side of the business. As sales dipped—along with those of much of the retail industry—and the stock price fell, hedge fund Engaged Capital pushed for the ouster of Abercrombie’s longtime chairman and chief executive officer, Mike Jeffries.