Norviel's A&F Analysis

1. The author's main idea of this piece of writing is to make people aware of the hidden meaning and discrimination that Abercrombie and Fitch is based on. He is saying that A&F is a racially discriminating clothing line, and only directs its advertising to a very specific group of people. For the reasons that I will explain later, is the reasons as to why McBride claims to hate A&F.

2. McBride starts off by talking about how the company of Abercrombie and Fitch was started. He explains that from the beginning A&F was where the wealthier group of people would go for their clothing. Because of this early trend, Abercrombie and Fitch clothing still is used to represent people who come from money, based solely on the name that is displayed on their shirts. McBride says later that people are not buying clothes, but are buying a membership into a lifestyle; an expensive lifestyle. McBride talks about the Abercrombie "look" that people who work for and model for this company must have. There are many rules that must be followed to be an Abercrombie and Fitch employee, that seem to be very unnecessary. A&F is thought to be solely for white, straight, wealthy, good-looking people. He states examples of different instances when black, and/or gay people were not hired or were treated worse than those employees who were not gay or black.

3. If A&F were represented more by only blacks, or gays would it be as big of a deal and analyzed as much? If McBride were really wealthy would he wear this clothing brand also? Or its equivalents such as Hollister or Banana Republic? When A&F was first established, was the criteria that managers looked for in potential employees as strict as now? Was Mr. Abercrombie and Mr. Fitch racists?

4. I have always found it odd that in the catalog for this CLOTHING company, none of the models are even wearing the clothes that they are attempting to sell. This obviously shows that they are basically just selling the image of sex and attractiveness, somehow persuading people to buy their clothes. Even though it seems a little silly that there is such a critique that must be followed when working for A&F, if that is what the owners of the company want then why should it be changed? I have seen plenty of black people wearing A&F clothing, so I have never even given the issue of racial discrimination as a part of this clothing style a thought.