Abercrombie & Fitch
Pufftmw
Posts: 1,941
Its my daughter's birthday & she wants an A&F dress, so I dutifully jump on my bike and cycle over to Saville Row to get it.
First thing you notice is that the whole street smells of their perfume :? but anyway, lock my bike to the post opposite, take my helmet off and wander over. Just inside the door is a bloke, stripped to the waist,6'2 ripped & tanned. 2 blokes eiher side, again about 6'2+. OK they're like half my age but almost felt inadequate next to them LOL
Inside its dark and with pounding music but you can clearly see all the beautiful assistants, not a minger amongst them, girls or boys (though I was looking at the girls). Great customer service, as you would expect, and I wasn't the only grey haired older man in there with a shopping list looking for help!
Its quite a bizzare experience to say the least...
First thing you notice is that the whole street smells of their perfume :? but anyway, lock my bike to the post opposite, take my helmet off and wander over. Just inside the door is a bloke, stripped to the waist,6'2 ripped & tanned. 2 blokes eiher side, again about 6'2+. OK they're like half my age but almost felt inadequate next to them LOL
Inside its dark and with pounding music but you can clearly see all the beautiful assistants, not a minger amongst them, girls or boys (though I was looking at the girls). Great customer service, as you would expect, and I wasn't the only grey haired older man in there with a shopping list looking for help!
Its quite a bizzare experience to say the least...
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And it's sooooo expensive in London - the Saville Row store being their only shop in the UK (Europe?). A&F and Banana Republic have tried to pitch themselves as luxury brands in the UK, whereas out in the US they're ten a penny in every mall. I bought loads of A&F and BR clothing in the January sales in Houston, TX when I was there visiting a friend a few years back. They had trendy rugby tops for USD26 which at the time was about £15! Over here they sell that sort of thing for £70 and more....!Do not write below this line. Office use only.0
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A & F were the "Dunn and Co" of New York/New Jersey - amazing turn around!0
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And converse sneakers, and krispy kreme donuts, and jelly belly jellybeans, and so on... after lived in the US, it's weird seeing the prices & positioning some manufacturers try to get away with elsewhere.Headhuunter wrote:A&F and Banana Republic have tried to pitch themselves as luxury brands in the UK, whereas out in the US they're ten a penny in every mall.0 -
Never has such a store shouted "LIFESTYLE - YOU MUST BUY INTO THIS" so loudly - it's ridiculous. However, plenty seem to fall for it.
And having just come back from the States with a few A&F gifts, the prices are insultingly expensive over here.
Banana Republic is just 'posh' Gap.0 -
Yup, both aimed at clean-cut preppie types in the USA, but far from top-end premium stuff.
I have a green card and have to spend at least a small part of each calendar year in the USA - which is when my clothes shopping (all of it) gets done as the price differential is ludicrous! It really is dollars for pounds. Why the hell are clothes so expensive in this country?
The only exception is ties - the diagonal stripe goes the other way in the States to the UK so you have to buy them here unless you want to be mistaken for a septic.FCN 5 belt driven fixie for city bits
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gtvlusso wrote:A & F were the "Dunn and Co" of New York/New Jersey - amazing turn around!
Dunn & Co! Wow I remember them, they were everywhere in the UK... Whatever happened to them?Do not write below this line. Office use only.0 -
I almost ran out of the Hollister shop in Brent Cross screaming due the pounding music and weird dim but bright in places lighting, it does my head in.Bianchi Infinito CV
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That place sounds like a nightmare0
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They have queues around the street in the central London stores when it comes to Christmas time. It looks fine, and seems on a par with Superdry, Diesel and other expensive middle of the road stuff but to actually queue up?!0
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Aparently the employess aren't sales assistance but are employed as models so that A&F can get away with different hiring requirements and work conditions, i.e. low loight levels and lots of noise!FCN3: Titanium Qoroz.0
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Wrath Rob wrote:Aparently the employess aren't sales assistance but are employed as models so that A&F can get away with different hiring requirements and work conditions, i.e. low loight levels and lots of noise!
F*ck me, I've now heard it all. Ridiculous.0 -
They're the ones who had the descrimination case against the pretty girl who only had 1 arm - they lost iirc1997 Gary Fisher Big Sur
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Monkeypump wrote:Wrath Rob wrote:Aparently the employess aren't sales assistance but are employed as models so that A&F can get away with different hiring requirements and work conditions, i.e. low loight levels and lots of noise!
F*ck me, I've now heard it all. Ridiculous.
That is more than ridiculous, it's blatantly ignoring employees rights, health and safety. t's only in the UK that US companies are allowed to come over and ride roughshod over our native employment laws. I had a friend who worked for Bloomberg a few years ago and she was only allowed 10 (10!!!) paid holidays per year, which flies in the face of UK and EU minimum holiday regs. However Bloomberg, a massive US company, was somehow allowed to sidestep that with some special dispensation. No other country permitted Bloomberg to do that.... Don't want to sound like Bob Crow but these are rights that people a hundred odd years ago and onwards fought hard for!Do not write below this line. Office use only.0 -
Pufftmw wrote:They're the ones who had the descrimination case against the pretty girl who only had 1 arm - they lost iirc
Losing a fight against a girl with one arm is pretty poor!
* Don't bother to reply to tell me that joke is in poor taste, I know it is, but posted it anyway. If your are offended then lighten up a bit.
PS I have a mate who lost to a blind Judo player and another who lost lost to a one legged squash player.Bianchi Infinito CV
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I wandered in the Saville Row branch one afternoon and was soon being totally suckered by one of their charming siren 'models'. Like that bloody snake from the jungle book she was, i came out with a load of stuff that didn't fit quite right owing to love handles and the 'fierce' aftershave, £80 for a sparrows tear worth. I must avoid because my will power is poor.Bianchi Nirone C2C FCN40
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Why anyone would want to wander about with a big logo all over the place is anyone's guess.
When I was young....0 -
We don;t have an A&F down here in Devon, but a few years back I wondered briefly into the one in the Eaton Centre in Toronto. After five minutes of trying to look at clothes by the light of my mobile phone during the aural assault of 'music' they played only to be told by the assistant rather rudely that they 'won't have your size'
I went to Roots instead and spent a fortune there
In the UK I perfer Smart Turnout to A&F, same style of clothing, but with more class and no tacky labels showing everywhere.
Jack Wills is another store I dislike for their total inability to do clothing above a size 12Officers don't run, it's undignified and panics the men0 -
I must go there.This post contains traces of nuts.0
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NGale wrote:We don;t have an A&F down here in Devon
That's because the London shop is the only one in Europe...Do not write below this line. Office use only.0 -
It's more or less the same in Hollister (same company isn't it). The one in Bluewater is dark inside and lots of 'cool' people make a beeline for it.
Tbh, with the way the shop entrance looks, I didn't realise they sell clothes! It looks more like it sells quite fancy homeware stuff (a la Habitat or something).
Went in A&F in New York when last there. Felt I needed to but didn't see anything I really liked and, yes, just the same as the ones here (and packed!).Specialized Allez Elite 2011 *NEW*
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Headhuunter wrote:NGale wrote:We don;t have an A&F down here in Devon
That's because the London shop is the only one in Europe...
Oh no, I was wrong - they're all over Europe...Do not write below this line. Office use only.0 -
Well, on the upside, my daughter loved the skirt and looked really pretty in it. Managed to find a nice top to go with it from H&M - £3.99
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Try Christmas shopping in there, plenty of rich fulham and surrey kids (ugg boots, pachminas and hair looking like they've been sodimized in a bush on parsons green) loading up their fathers arms with over £800 of overpriced gubbins.
Who says you can't buy love?0 -
Never been in, never will. It must pain the proper clothes shops on Savile Row to have A&F as a neighbour...
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fenboy369 wrote:Apple crumble and fish.........
Great minds... I've been thinking that since the thread started.
+1 IP, It sounds horrific as a shopping experience. I find over-eager shop assistants in ordinary department stores bad enough (I know what suits me, and I know what size I am. *I* will ask *you* if I need anything; until then please f*** off and wait quietly in the corner).1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
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rjsterry wrote:
+1 IP, It sounds horrific as a shopping experience. I find over-eager shop assistants in ordinary department stores bad enough (I know what suits me, and I know what size I am. *I* will ask *you* if I need anything; until then please f*** off and wait quietly in the corner).
I'd imagine if you asked them, they'd say the opposite, hence the need to give you assistance
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