Girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch: Reading fashion branding aesthetics into music videos

Abstract

Teen clothier Abercrombie & Fitch's mix of shirtless associates, nightclub-like stores and risqué photography by Bruce Weber helped propel the brand into icon status. The brand's name entered the popular lexicon as a synonym for cool and even received a memorable call out in LFO's pop song, "Summer Girls." This paper explores the interplay in aesthetics between A & F Quarterly, the brand's popular magazine-catalog hybrid, and popular music videos of the time. Specifically, this paper analyzes videos that appeared on MTV's Total Request Live between September 1999 and April 2001. In total, 42 music videos were found to contain elements of the "Abercrombie" lifestyle, including clothing that was sold by the brand, and props and settings similar to those found in the A & F Quarterly. In sum, this suggests that music videos from the time were instrumental in spreading the brand's aesthetic, and that the interplay between media popular culture and the aesthetics of fashion brands could yield productive future research.