"You're looking really A&F today, dude."

There's a two-year old article in Salon that's getting some new traction on teh Internets; hopefullly more people will read and think about it than those urban legends like the one about Tommy Hilfiger going on Oprah and totally hating on the fact that non-whites are buying his clothes.

Anyway, this article is one of those spectacular moments when the normally reclusive head of a massive, potentially evil culture/trend/corporation fucks up and talks to the press. This particular chap is a plasticine Svengali named Mike Jeffries (though given the lack of basic info on the guy, I'm thinking it's not his real name), the 61-year-old head of Abercrombie & Fitch. This is the lifestyle apparel conglomerate that includes the Hollister label, which, as author Benoit Denizet-Lewis puts it, "has quickly become the brand of choice for Midwestern teens who wish they lived in Laguna Beach, Calif."

The piece reveals that pretty much every creepy thing you suspect about these sorts of companies is true. Also, as a side theme, the article implies that A&F's popularity in the gay community may have a root in the owner's own dispositions. See, A&F is popular with the masses of straight, well-toned, intellectually bereft young America (and until recently, the company sold T-shirts with slogans like "Gentlemen Prefer Tig Ol' Bitties"), but it's actually totally gay, which is ironic, ha ha. Still, it's not much of revelation. What is unceasingly amusing to read is Jeffries' inability to shut up, which I imagine is related to his making $24 million in 2004.

As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."