I visited Abercrombie & Fitch for the first time in years. It's come a long way, but I'm not completely sold.
- I visited Abercrombie & Fitch to see if the brand is living up to its recent hype.
- The brand has been revived, in part, by millennial nostalgia, but I don't feel a connection to it.
- The store had solid basics, but most of the menswear options felt like a boring sea of neutrals.
As the retail scene and style industry as a whole navigates the age of changing TikTok trends and fast-fashion spirals, many once-thriving brands have had to answer an existential question: Die or reinvent?
Abercrombie & Fitch has attempted the latter.
The popular mall destination — once famous for drawing in shoppers by stationing Adonis-like men at its front doors — has seen an uptick in the past few years thanks to millennials who have reconnected with the apparel brand.
The American clothing brand's most notable transformation in recent years began as sales dipped throughout the 2010s.
It ditched its "nightclub" aesthetic by turning down the music and up the lights. It also began phasing out having logos prominently featured on nearly every piece of its clothing.
The reinvention eventually paid off. In late 2023, Abercrombie & Fitch saw massive success — sales had increased and its stock was up by more than 210%.
Although the models-turned-greeters have since been scrapped from Abercrombie's structure, a commitment to being "cool" remains.
But while visiting one of the brand's physical locations, I discovered that its definition of "cool" is, well, pretty boring.
Part of Abercrombie's revival is tied to consumer nostalgia, but my days shopping there as a child were short-lived.
By the time high school rolled around, I had sized out of its offerings.
My limited memories of the brand consist of being uncomfortable in its fitting rooms while trying to squeeze my plump body into its XL offerings and feeling inadequate as I watched my friends revel in the stylistic magic that was wearing clothes from Abercrombie, Hollister, American Eagle, and every other mall-famous retailer.
However, a decade later — and 100 pounds smaller — I'm finally able to shop at this once hot and thriving destination.
Abercrombie has changed a lot since then, and I could see just how much its aesthetic and offerings have shifted by looking at its online presence.
On the brand's Instagram page, I found a curated collection of models, "real people," and new clothing drops.
I would encapsulate the brand's aesthetic in three words: carefree, chic, and "cool" — purposefully in air quotes so its definition can be debated among shoppers.
But that's enough about "cool." Here's my experience shopping Abercrombie's menswear section for the first time in over a decade: the good, the bad, and the very, very neutral.
Although the brand has shifted its aesthetic in recent years to appeal to Gen Z-ers taking over the fashion industry, Abercrombie has held onto its signature exterior.
The bold black lettering on a white storefront felt nostalgic, and it also seemed to paint a clear picture of the sea of neutrals waiting inside.
As I took my first few steps into the store, not a shirt, pant, nor short was out of place.
In fact, this location's superbly organized selection of clothing made the overall shopping experience the easiest I've had in a very long time.
I was first met with a selection of button-ups, polos, and slacks that could easily be paired together.
It was quickly clear to me that Abercrombie had established a color palette and clung to it, playing more with texture and occasional pattern than shades of the rainbow.
There was no avoiding the fact that Abercrombie seems to envision its customers wearing its clothing selection on a beach getaway — the sea-themed photos nailed to each wall made that clear.
As I made my way past the dressier selection of pants and button-ups, I arrived at Abercrombie's summer collection, which, to my surprise, included a small offering of color otherwise not found in the store.
This playful selection — with shades of green, blue, and the occasional orange — was a breath of fresh air. However, it all felt very familiar.
I quickly realized I'd seen similar garments in other mall retailers in the past few weeks, including Zara and H&M. Most items felt "cool" and somewhat fun but lacking in originality.
Again, I have to give it to those store associates: Not a pair of pants seemed out of place. They were folded and organized well.
However, my one qualm was dealing with a very sporadic size range. Some garments were stocked in all sizes, and others — well, many — only in smalls and mediums.
Instead of tees covered in its logo, Abercrombie had a fine selection of shirts featuring bands and references to the Olympics.
I love graphic T-shirts and was pleased to see this. They're truly the easiest and most versatile garments to style.
Even though I could, for the first time, easily fit into the brand's clothing, Abercrombie's dressing rooms were a quickly triggering mess for me.
The lighting, for starters, didn't feel very flattering.
And the heat within the dressing rooms seemed to have been turned up an extra 10 degrees — though, to be fair, the weather outside was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so who's really to blame: Abercrombie or Mother Nature?
I took a few pants, shorts, and tops to the fitting room and had a major win: Everything fit.
In fact, I found Abercrombie's garments to fit more reliably than ones from other mall retailers I've visited.
For context, the clothing I tried on was either in medium or large sizes. The fit felt standard and reliable across all the items I tried.
I was perfectly content with the garments I tried on, but the prices seemed somewhat too high for generic clothing that I could easily find at another retailer.
Most items ranged from $40 to over $100, which felt standard for these types of basics.
But the pricing also warranted a certain level of "Why get this at Abercrombie?" that I didn't feel was answered by the time I left the store.
I, unfortunately, realized midway through my recent shopping spree that perhaps I'm simply too late to the Abercrombie craze to feel any sort of special favor toward the brand.
For me, someone who spent half a decade working in New York City's fashion scene, Abercrombie's definition of "cool" is as plain and generic as most other retailers I've come across.
The brand really is "cool" enough for the closets of what seems to be its current target demographic: teens and young adults with limited budgets.
And I can't say I won't ever step into an Abercrombie again. After all, the brand has an easily accessible range of fashion basics that can fit into any wardrobe.
But is its menswear selection, a sea of mostly neutrals, "cool" enough to really stand out? I'm not so sure, but I guess that's up to the shoppers, who currently seem happy to be keeping Abercrombie alive.