‘White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch’ [Trailer]
“All-American doesn’t mean all white.”
Netflix and director/producer Alison Klayman goes behind the shirtless models of the one of the biggest brands of the 90s to reveal greed and exclusionary practices at their most craven in a new documentary hitting the streamer on April 19.
In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Abercrombie & Fitch was the first stop for many shoppers on their trip to the mall. Shirtless jocks stood guard at store entrances, selling a potent mix of sex and wholesomeness. Pulsing dance beats and the brand’s fierce scent drew in hordes of young people hoping to buy themselves a seat at the cool kids’ table. Led by outspoken CEO Mike Jeffries, A&F cashed in on an “all-American” image and enshrined its clothes as must-haves for the new millennium. But over time, revelations of exclusionary marketing and discriminatory hiring practices began to engulf the white hot brand in scandal.
Featuring interviews with dozens of former employees, executives, and models, as well as LGBTQ+ journalists NYT Best-Selling author Benoit Denizet-Lewis and activist/producer Ben O’Keefe, White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch unravels the complex history of the iconic brand that influenced an entire generation.
Here is the trailer.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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