How a Scene in ‘Spider-Man’ Predicted the Downfall of Abercrombie & Fitch
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Nearly 20 years before creating #GayNrd, editor Savas Abadsidis was running the A&F Quarterly, American retailer Abercrombie & Fitch’s singular magalog and primary advertising vehicle.
A telling moment in White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch shows how Sam Raimi’s blockbuster called out the toxic brand just before the world did the same.
There is a moment halfway through White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, the UK chart-topping Netflix documentary about the rise and fall of one of the most toxic fashion brands of the 1990s and 2000s, when one the film’s interviewees describes the moment he knew the brand had become ‘problematic’.
Savas Abadsidis was the young Editor-in-Chief of A&F Quarterly, Abercrombie’s in-house magazine which, in line with the company’s advertising campaigns and alleged in-store hiring policies, insisted on using white, young and pretty models.
Abadsidis had been part of Abercrombie since its 1990s resurgence under CEO Mike Jefferies: a time where a refocus on aspirational but attainable preppy outerwear, risqué advertising involving mostly beach-strewn, sculptured male torsos, and the rise of ‘mall culture’ turned a stuffy clothing company into the it-brand at the centre of the American zeitgeist.
Many of the employees, as White Hot shows, had a blinkered, cult-like devotion to their employers. But for Abadsidis, the cracks finally began to show in 2002 when he saw Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man film, one of the biggest box office releases of the year.
“The first time I became aware of the image [of Abercrombie] becoming problematic for me was Sam Riami’s Spiderman in 2001 with Tobey McGuire,” he tells the camera.
“If you know the comics, Peter Parker’s biggest bully is Flash Thompson and he’s traditionally been a big blonde asshole. And in the movie he is dressed head to toe in Abercrombie the whole time.
“It upset me, it really, really upset me. I was like: that’s not good. I just knew something had shifted.”
Something had indeed shifted. 2002 was just before criticisms about the company went from costumes in action movies to a tidal wave of protest from customers themselves, signifying a much wider cultural shift felt not just in fashion, but in broader society.
Watch the clip below.
