Abercrombie pisses me off

The BBQ Pit
81

It the ‘in thing’ to have the high priced logo.

Just let mom and dad give the rug rats an adequate allowance with the admonition that they can buy whatever they want BUT there is no more allowance until next month.

Within less than a week they will be weeping and wailing that they have to have this and that for school or whatever activity they want to participate in AND they are dead broke. Then is the time to advance a ‘loan’ with the stipulation that it comes out of next weeks allowance first.

It won’t take long for the spoiledlittle darlings to come to the conclusion that the Logo isn’t wotrh a tinker’s dam and begin to come around to the cold had facts of getting what you need without going overboard on non-essentials, i.e. Logos.

82

On the contrary, I just thought one non sequitur deserved another.

This is tiresome. I leave the floor to you to defend the right to be a gullible dolt.

83

I honestly do feel like I’m talking to an extraterrestrial with entirely different thought patterns. So if it’s good for the economy, it’s good? Regardless of whether it’s engendered by herd mentality and the marketing of an aesthetic morality? There’s little I find more abhorrent than an aesthetic morality, and all of the current teen snob-fashion stores sell that more than they sell the clothes.

“Wear A&F or be a sloppy, friendless, blobby geek!” “Weigh 96 pounds or be a cow!” “Be under 25 or get ready for life-long loneliness!”

Fuck 'em.

84

We’re not talking about anyone’s “rights” here, dude.

What we’re doing is looking in on a transaction like a fly on the wall, and the transaction is a person buying a t-shirt at A&F. You and others say that person is doing a stupid act because they could buy a t-shirt for less money elsewhere, and I’m saying that the act is not stupid at all.

I take stupid to mean “less than rational” or “the product of a flawed thought process.”

85

Can you define “aesthetic morality,” please?

Also, I think we’re talking at cross-purposes, here. (I.e., even though you’re saying it’s stupid for people to buy t-shirts at A&F, you don’t really mean that you believe it’s irrational for the person to engage in the transaction. You really mean that you disagree with their values.)

But it’s fun nonetheless. :smiley:

86

I’m sorry. Did you sleep through the last several thousand years and just wake up to the realization that style is sometimes more valued than substance, thin is more attractive than fat, youth is more desirable than old age and people do a lot of things that don’t make sense in the name of fashion?

It’s not the stores fault that people are vain.
Look, you have to wear something. You mind as well something that makes you look good. The whole point of wearing A&F or Brook’s Brothers or Armani or Dolce & Gabbana or any label is 1) the clothes generally are cut better, use better fabric and dyes and generally look better and 2) to indicated to other people “look how much I can spend to look good you insignificant peon slobs!”

The fact that some people are like “that’s stupid to pay that much” (which it may be) or “those A&F clerks are a bunch of good looking stuck-up jerks” means that the marketing guys are doing their job - keeping poor and ugly people from buying clothes and diminishing the image of the brand like the giant POLO or TOMMY jacket from the outlet store has turned the Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger brand from a trademark of elitism to one of urban ghetto-riche.

87

Aesthetic Morality = beautiful is good, not-beautiful is bad. All of those perfect-complected, anorexic-bulimic, $60,000 of orthodontic work models are the ideal and sweep everyone else under the rug. Anyone who wears a size larger than Kate Moss is ignorable and we won’t make anything that they can fit on one leg, let alone their torso. And if people want to be beautiful and good and popular, they must do drastic things to change their outer appearance so that they, too, can fit into the club and be worshipped by the cattle of society. Mooo…

And yes, msmith, I’m aware that it’s been going on a long time. That doesn’t mean I’m going to lay down and keep quiet and pretend it’s okay. Maybe you’re so physically perfect that this whole cultural bent doesn’t bother you at all. Maybe you’re not so perfect but are instead so brainwashed into accepting it that you prefer to say of yourself “I’m ugly and fat! I must spend thousands of dollars to make myself look just like those beautiful models!” than confront the idiocy and shallowness.

Fuck it.

88

Don’t you mean “ba-a-a-a-a”?

I guess since I’m not in the film and/or entertainment industry I don’t really feel any pressure to look like Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. I don’t know, do most people beat themselves up because they don’t look like an airbrushed, perfectly lit, digitally enhanced model?

89

Well, I can’t speak for everyone else who shops there, but I buy clothes from Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean because the clothes fit. I’m not looking for a name plastered across my chest (with the exceptions of my college, a few odd tourist attractions that I’ve actually visited, and images of a certain 1/4-ton 4x4). I’d really love to be able to go to Target or someplace and buy pants, shirts, and shoes; unfortunately for me, the clothes sold in these stores simply do not fit my body properly. And the same goes for other products–I didn’t buy an L.L. Bean bookbag because I wanted to project some kind of rich yuppie image, I bought it because it was exactly what I needed. I won’t settle with a random brand just to save a few bucks or project a different image.

90

Wow, this thread’s all shot to shit.

On one side we have people trying to put shit all over Aber-whatever for overpriced clothes and spreading of unrealistic body images to teens in a way that’s almost actively encouraging anorexia.

On the other side we have that Australian wanker saying he wants to pump all of $160 Australian dollars on a silly shirt (hell, I thought when I ironed that $5 note I was wasting money, though for some reason I feel it was more productive than buying those silly clothes). A cying, bitching dolt screaming his lungs out about the economy.

Personally, I’m with msmith, though perhaps a little more resentful of A&F (sorry, but I’ve never seen one of these in Australia so this might seem a tad ignorent). I think it is just about showing off that you’re so great, as most teens seem to want to do. Sure, they are arseholes, but that’s the image they’re trying to show to all those “shiznez gangstas.” This may be a wild stab in the dark, but aren’t their clothes supposed to give off an air of “I’m rich, young and good-looking, so fuck you! I hope you worthless peasants die in a ditch, since you aren’t as rich as me!” Personally, I believe that you’re just buying into their silly marketing campain. Leave the kids to waste their dosh on A&F shit, they’ll soon realise what morons they were being anyway.

91

I’ll take irony for 500 Alex. :stuck_out_tongue:

I think the point of all this is that Western children often have far too much discretionary cash, long before they have any inkling at the true value of money. When they buy over-priced clothing, they advertise their naivette to the world, this making them laughing stocks to anyone who can see through all the marketing gimmicks. Wearing A&F clothing (or any such overpriced clothing) is like wearig a big sign that says “GULLABLE FOOL”.

Like the police captain in that Police Academy movie that had “DORK” written in sunscreen on his chest, you can’t help but to snicker when you see it. :smiley:

92

Am I the Australian wanker?

A$160 doesn’t = US$80 anymore. We’re a little bit better than that. And I’ve got reports of the t-shirts being US$20 in this thread. Which makes them cheaper than the A$40 you can expect to pay as a minimum for a label shirt at an Australian store (like say, General Pants).

But yeah, if I could afford to spend $160 on a shirt, I would. My money’s for getting me stuff I want/need, not for keeping from companies that I feel are making too much profit out of me.

Was the $5 note one of the old ones, or the newer plastic ones?

93

Don’t forget, “A fool and his money…”

I don’t know why, but I feel I should answer TaxGuy… call me crazy. I didn’t post a dig on homosexuals. I posted a dig on fraternity boyos.

I actually have a friend that is going to each fraternity in the area and making a killing selling A&F… go economy, wooh. He said it’s easy to make a thousand bucks at each house–even if it’s a small school.

“A grand for your thoughts…” damn this crazy inflation.

94

Hey, ever stop to think paying $40 for a t-shirt contributes to social order among teenagers? After all, that’s about $34 less to spend on beer, pot, and hookers than if they’d bought the t-shirt at Target… god bless you A&F for soaking up all that extra money among the rich disaffected adolescent set so they don’t have money to pay for gas in order to drive down my street and take a baseball bat to my mailbox…

95

No (heey! it’s the pit) fucking way.

I took a course in high school called “sewing and fashion”. A quarter of the year, instead of sewing nice pretty skirts or cute little knit tops, we learned about the fashion industry.

Let’s have a mini lesson, shall we?

Brand names are just that. Brand names. Just because some guy slapped a label on it does not make it better.

Example:

Let’s say there’s a guy named Snobby McStuckUp who wants to start his own line of clothes. He coins his line as McStuckUp but you know what? He most definately does not design any of the clothes. Designers that he has hired do not design most of the clothes. What really happens is that “independant designers” design the clothes, and then they head over to McStuckUp headquarters to purchase the labels to slap onto the mass produced clothes. This is good for both parties. McStuckUp gets clothes that aren’t necessary superior to the other brands, but they can sell it at a jacked up price simply because of the label. The independant designer benefits because his/her clothes, since they are under a label, will probably sell better than with no label.

This was drilled into our heads by our teacher, various videos, and even a few guest speakers.

In this class, we were also assigned a project to see how truthful this was. I went into Tommy to scope out the fashions, and I wrote down the price of a few simple t-shirts and skirts. I headed over to Zellers and did some comparision shopping. I didn’t find anything that matched exactly, but close enough.

A striped cotton button up shirt at Tommy: $59
A striped cotton button up shirt at Zellers: $20

The difference? The shirt at Tommy was blue while the shirt at Zellers was black. And oh, $39.

Some brand name clothes may SEEM superior, but it has nothing to do with the brand. It has more to do with the shipment and how well it was made by the factory workers who have no fucking clue who the hell “Tommy” is.

It’s a shame this course wasn’t mandatory because as a person who never bought into the “Brand name = better” hype, it could have taught my brother a thing or two.

96

Plastic. It’s well and truely dead.

97

wearing Abercrombie is a phase. I went through it, my friends went through it, my younger cousins are now going through it.

the kids buying these clothes don’t give a shit about quality or economics, they want to fit it and wear what’s cool. give them 5 years and they’ll realized how ridiculous the prices are and how friggin’ shoddy the quality is (yes, it sucks. most of it is half destroyed when purchased). anyway, let them out grow it. if they’re your kids–don’t pay for it.

*one exception–their long sleaved t-shirts, yeah yeah the one’s advertising their stupid logos and fake rec leagues, when bought on clearance are a pretty good deal and actually quite durable.

98

Isn’t Abercrombie and Fitch the trash men from the “Hi and Lois” comic strip?

99

Perhaps, but I do know that if I try on clothes at Target or wherever, they’re too big for me. It’s a pain in the arse, cuz I’d like to be able to fill my wardrobe out with some cheaper stuff rather than having to buy label stuff just to get a fit.

100

Life’s a Fitch, and then you Buy.