Words Dept.: entry

Mike Jeffries, the boss of Abercrombie & Fitch, thinks the store will still be trading from London’s Savile Row in “200 years time”.

He appeared on BBC Four’s documentary series Savile Row tonight, which featured a lot of grumbling, sharp-suited tailors bemoaning the presence on “the Row” of A&F, which opened its first store outside North America there last year. Actually, all but one of them was grumbling. One of the tailors at Norton & Sons (Est. 1821) said he wished A&F well and dropped the bombshell that Jeffries likes to come in for bespoke suits.

Cue the blond-haired, square-headed dude in flip-flops, who claimed to have never had a Savile Row suit before because he could never afford it. He espoused a deep, glassy-eyed wonder for the craftsmanship and retailing prowess of Savile Row’s tailors and suggested that Abercrombie & Fitch could evolve in similar terms.

I seem to remember blogging about Jeffries before at Vox, but it bears repeating that he is a very strange bloke. His face looks like it’s made of Play Doh, he’s about seven foot tall, orange and, as mentioned, always wears what the Americans call “thongs”.

He’s incredibly intense and “lives the brand” like no other CEO in the world. None of which would stick in the mind that much were it not for the fact that A&F’s flagship stores, with their high camp intensity, penchant for darkness, booming disco and barely dressed models pretending to be shop assistants are, themselves, pretty weird places to be.

I find him fascinating. Not necessarily in a good way. But fascinating. Kind of like Tom Cruise. Or Satan.

And despite being in his sixties, Jeffries wears nothing but Abercrombie gear, which is a little creepy considering it’s really aimed at teenagers. I guess we should be thankful he isn’t the boss of Agent Provocateur.

Image: Salon.com