A Stain on Savile Row

The new UK Abercrombie & Fitch store on Savile Row has been open for over a month now. I was doing a pretty good job at ignoring the huge adverts on the sides of double-decker buses, but I got a wake-up call today when I ran into a fellow coming out of the lift. He was wearing a lurid blue polo shirt with that evil moose logo on it. I promptly decided that this made him a perfect target on which to practice my black belt vital strikes and proceeded to disable all his limbs in a matter of seconds. Then I ducked into the lift and made a quick escape- I’m stealth like that.

I can’t, however, continue to do that to every Brit that chooses to wear Abercrombie. I can only hope that most of them have the good sense not to do such a thing. After all, the name “Savile Row” evokes a proud tradition of bespoke tailoring. The name “Abercrombie & Fitch” evokes a less-than-proud tradition of mass producing rubbish. Oh, and maintaining discriminatory policies while promoting mass-produced rubbish.

Let me just say that this is not moral high ground. If Abercrombie made nice stuff, I would probably buy it irrespective of their penchant for exclusion. But they don't. Their clothes are fucking fugly. Yes, I needed the repetition for emphasis. The brand reeks of threadbare, uncreative crap that is probably quite similar to the wardrobes of the workers manufacturing on its behalf in third-world countries. Oops, I mean developing countries.

The models are hot, though. Thought I'd give credit where credit is due.

Good people of Britain, please do what you do best and turn up your noses, this time at Abercrombie & Fitch and its attempt to make a mockery of Savile Row. Keep up the tradition of macs, caps and brollies and continue on down the road to Henry Poole.