By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
June 17, 2001
Illinois Lt. Gov. Corinne Wood has called for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch, the clothing chain that has spiced up its bland image with a quarterly catalog featuring nude and semi-nude models.
“For a store that’s supposed to be selling clothes, why is there so much nudity in their catalogs?” says Wood. “These clothes are marketed to teens, preteens and younger. We would like to send a message to Abercrombie & Fitch to stop using soft porn to sell their clothes.”
The first 122 pages of the company’s 280-page summer catalog feature shots of models in beachwear or wearing nothing.
Some women are topless, and many men’s bare buttocks are displayed. These shots are tame compared to the 1999 Christmas issue, which featured a naked woman riding bareback on a horse, Santa and his Mrs. playing S&M games and an interview with porn star Jenna Jameson.
In a statement released Thursday, Abercrombie & Fitch said the catalog, which was launched in the fall of 1997, is “targeted to the college student. And like other products that are geared to the adult market, we have gone to lengths to make sure that only they can buy it. Each Abercrombie & Fitch Quarterly for sale in our stores is shrink-wrapped and denotes the mature content of the publication. Our policy requires purchasers show proper identification to complete the purchase of the [$6] Quarterly magazine. We are confident that this insures that the book is sold to our intended audience.”
Wood doesn’t buy any of this.
“The last time we contacted them about their catalog [in 1999], they gave us that same suspicious answer,” she said. “They said they marketed to a clientele that was 18 to 21 years old. If that’s the case, why did they offer drinking tips in [their 1998] catalog, considering that the average national drinking age is 21?
“What we do as adults and for adults is a different issue than when sexual imagery is used to make something `cool’ to sell to your kids. Even Victoria’s Secret–which has primarily an adult customer base–doesn’t use nudity in their catalogs. Clearly, children younger than 18 buy Abercrombie & Fitch clothes,” said Wood.
To support her boycott of the clothing chain, Wood has created an online petition at www.stopAandF.com.
The latest catalog also contains interviews with actors Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Paul Reubens (a k a Pee-wee Herman) and Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell. All the interviewees have their clothes on, though 18-year-old Dunst is suggestively sucking on a cherry and holding her breast.
For all the raciness of this catalog, the fact remains that Abercrombie & Fitch’s clothes aren’t much sexier than the camping, fishing and hunting gear that was the firm’s foundation when it launched in 1892. Heavy on khakis and T-shirts, the designs are hardly haute couture or cutting edge even by teenage standards.
