Abercrombie and fitch nude gay models
Abercrombie & Fitch ex-CEO accused of exploiting men for sex
BBC News and BBC Panorama
The ex-CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and his British partner face allegations of exploitation from men recruited for sex events they hosted around the world.
A BBC study found a highly organised network used a middleman to find young men for the events with Mike Jeffries and Matthew Smith.
Eight men told the BBC they attended these events, some of whom alleged they were exploited or abused.
Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
But the couple's middleman denied any wrongdoing and said men went into these events "with their eyes broad open".
Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) - which also owns the Hollister brand - said it was "appalled and disgusted" by the alleged behaviour.
Two former US prosecutors who independently reviewed documents and testimony uncovered by the BBC have called for an investigation to determine whether charges for sex trafficking could be brought. Under US commandment, sex trafficking includes getting an grown-up to travel to another state or coun
Soft porn, white supremacy, and Epstein: Abercrombie & Fitch’s sordid past
Shopping centres smelt differently in the mid-00s. From Wisconsin to West London, cavernous barns pumped a blend of woody musk, surf spray, and neurotoxins into the brains of pubescent passerbys, setting off a tinderbox of hormones, flushed cheeks, and cash register ker-chings. Instantly recognisable as Abercrombie & Fitch’s Fierce, the scent was collected, exclusively, from the ravines of sweat that gathered in the clavicles of all-American sports scholars, bodies hairless and buff like a shit-tonne brickhouse. It was enjoy huffing the inside of one of their team jerseys. It was “aspiration”, bottled.
Inside the label’s mahogany-panelled stores, bare-chested assistants gun-fingered to floor fillers and spritzed piles of rough-hewn graphic tees with yet more of those pheromones. To venture into the darkened belly of a flagship Abercrombie & Fitch was like taking a trip to Le Raidd, a blue-lit gay club in Paris where amateur pornstars foam themselves into a lather in claustrophobic shower cages. The walls, covered in monochromatic portraits of college life – a dog pile of Greco-Roman limbs
Case study: Abercrombie & Fitch
Successful gay marketing, est. 1892
Arguably one of the most successful brands that crossed over from ‘gay’ to mainstream via a launch in the same-sex attracted market. Or rather: after a (re)launch in the lgbtq+ market.
Abercrombie & Fitch, also acknowledged as A&F (with sub brands Abercrombie kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hicks, and until 2010 Ruehl No.925) was originally founded in 1892 in Fresh York, as an elite outfitter of sporting and excursion goods, particularly noted for its luxurious shotguns, fishing rods, and tents.
It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, finally closing its flagship Manhattan store in 1977, but the label was revived shortly thereafter, when in 1978 Oshman's Sporting Goods, a Houston-based chain, bought the defunct firm's label and mailing list. Oshman's relaunched A&F as a mail-order retailer specializing in hunting wear and novelty items.
In 1988, Oshman's sold the company identify and operations to The Limited, a clothing-chain operator based in Columbus, Ohio.
The current version of A&F sells mostly clothes for the youth market, and describes its retailing niche as an aspirational "Ca
The Hunks Are All Right
In the midnoughties, the era that fashion forgot, there was one brand in the mall that loomed larger than any other. Abercrombie & Fitch had more than 1,000 stores and held teenagers all over the world in their thrall, desperate for a slice of the California beach bum envision in the form of a $30 pair of flip-flops. But what these stores had that others didn’t was not just wildly high markups and levels of lighting so low it verged on the unsafe. They had the Shirtless Guys. There were the pictures of buff men rippling on the front of the store’s bags and staring in their ad campaigns. But there were also the ones that hung out in the flesh, as greeters, available for photo-ops. They were chiseled and beaming with abs for days, if not weeks, and absolutely no body hair whatsoever.
Abercrombie’s reputation has suffered over the years. The brand was always kind of exclusionary; you were either the kind of teen whose parents could afford to buy you Abercrombie polo shirts or you felt keenly the fact that you weren’t. Racism and sexism were rife in its employment practices, and countless staff members possess spoken publicly of their mistreatment. As part of the
Modelling agency Models Direct has become used to controversy surrounding American sportswear firm Abercrombie & Fitch over the last few months. Back in August the risque brand upset parents over padded bikinis that were being sold as part of its childswear range, and more recently it became the attention of media attention relating to its latest homoerotic video campaign – Abercrombie & Fitch Out Of The Closet With Queer Kiss Video By Bruce Weber.
The most recent Abercrombie & Fitch controversy, however, is far more shocking than anything that we have previously seen relating to the brand – and suggests something very sinister indeed.
According to Courthouse News Service, former A&F male model Benjamine Bowers has claimed that he was the victim of “shameful and embarrassing sexual harassment” at the hands of an A&F recommended modelling agent named Brian Hilburn.
In an uncomfortable examine – that throws up serious concerns around the welfare of other aspiring A&F models – Bowers says that he was coerced by Hilburn into posing nude and masturbating in front of the camera “under the pretense of achieving a relaxed ‘look’