Girls That Wear Abercrombie & Fitch
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Studies in Communication Sciences 18.2 (2018), pp. 325–337 Girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch: Reading fashion branding aesthetics into music videos Myles Ethan Lascity, Southern Methodist University [email protected] Abstract Teen clothier Abercrombie & Fitch’s mix of shirtless associates, nightclub-like stores and risqué photogra- phy 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. Keywords fashion branding, fashion communication, music videos, mediated popular culture 1 Introduction that once outfitted the likes of Teddy Roo- sevelt and Ernest Hemingway had turned Music videos have been a staple of pop- its attention to teens in 1992 and never ular culture since the launch of MTV in looked back. With CEO Mike Jeffries at the the early 1980s, but, their popularity and helm, the store became a mall phenom- influence waxed and waned over the years enon, selling an aspirational lifestyle to (Arnold, Cookney, Fairclough & Goddard, teens through jeans, T-shirts and flip flops. 2017; Middleton & Beebe, 2007). Starting The chain was not without its detractors: in September 1998, music videos regained parents saw Abercrombie’s racy photos prominence with the launch of Total Re- as sexualizing youth while the company’s quest Live – TRL for short – from its studios hiring and employment practices were overlooking Times Square in New York City. thought to be exclusionary and racist. Still, Screaming fans lined Broadway, interact- the company had remarkable growth fi- ing street side with hosts and waving and nancial growth and cultural influence. flashing signs toward in-studio host Car- The worlds of TRL and Abercrombie son Daly. The show was a mixture of music collided with the 1999 release of LFO’s videos, musical guests and friendly ban- “Summer Girls.” The song became the ter. During its run TRL helped launched group’s first (and biggest) hit, but also be- a slew of pop stars, including ’N Sync, the came a major “song of the summer.” Most Backstreet Boys, Brittany Spears, Christi- importantly, the lyrics name dropped Ab- na Aguilera, 98 Degrees, Jessica Simpson ercrombie & Fitch in its refrain giving the and Mandy Moore. As marketing turned store a boost of publicity. The connection to “cool as hunters” to catch teen trends, between the song and the band was so little was an influential as TRL (Dretzin & extensive that when the retailer ran into Goodman, 2001). trouble in 2016, CNN Money used the At the same time, a teen fashion behe- headline “Summer girls no longer shop moth was being developed in the form of at Abercrombie and Fitch” (La Monica, Abercrombie & Fitch. The fabled retailer 2016). In addition to several mentions of https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2018.02.008 © 2019, the authors. This work is licensed under the “Creative Commons Attribution – NonCommercial – NoDerivatives 4.0 International” license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). 326 Lascity / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.2 (2018), pp. 325–337 brand, the video looked like something was competing with the likes of CMT, BET that could have been ripped from Aber- and VH-1 (Rich, 2008, p. 81). crombie’s marketing materials. However, Given their popularity, music videos “Summer Girls” was hardly the only video have long been sites of research and theo- promoting such a lifestyle; videos across ri zation (Arnold et al., 2017; Aurfderheid, the TRL spectrum including from artists 1983; Beebe & Middleton, 2007; Frith, like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera Good win, & Grossberg, 1993; Sun & Lull, and 98 Degrees also reflected the Aber- 1983; Railton & Watson, 2011; Vernallis, crombie style. 2004). Generally, the creation of music This paper is a historical analysis that videos is understood as a postmodern un- seeks to highlight the similarities of popu- dertaking due to its fractured storytelling lar music videos that appeared on the U.S. and hyper-reality (Straw, 1993, p. 12), but version of TRL and the imagery presenta- debate continues over the qualitative dif- tion in Abercrombie & Fitch’s marketing. ferences between music videos and other By examining similarities in aesthetics, media. Vernallis suggests that music vid- props, settings and characters, it is possi- eos are a wholly different media form: they ble to see how the same imagery and life- take parts from film and television, but style that was drawn on for LFO’s “Summer should not be understood in through the Girls” was reflected in other music videos same mechanisms researchers and theo- as well. This understanding of intertextu- rists have used for other cultural products ality within popular culture (Fiske, 2011, (Vernallis, 2004, p. 3). Music videos “are pp. 98–101) has been shown in other col- different from its predecessors – film, tele- lections of music videos (De Cuir, 2017; vision, photography – a medium with its Halligan, 2017) and suggests forms and own ways of organizing materials, explor- aesthetics can influence one another. Tak- ing themes and dealt with time” (Vernallis, ing this one step further, this paper traces 2004, p. x). Vernallis notes that music vid- the influence of Abercrombie & Fitch im- eos come from the songs they are created agery through music videos between 1998 for, but meanings come from the “give- and 2001 and suggests that the brand was and-take” of sound and image (Vernallis, part of the cultural zeitgeist at the turn of 2004, p. x). Like other forms of media, mu- the millennium largely due to its outsized sic videos relay on a mixture of narrative, influence within these music videos. video editing, characters, settings, props and sound for its creation (Vernallis, 2004, p. xi–xiii). 2 Music videos to TRL Some recent discussions of the “music video turn,” as Arnold et al. (2017, p. 5) call While music videos gained prominence it, have focused on how digital platforms with the launch of MTV in 1981, their roots like YouTube have altered creation and can be traced back decades earlier. As consumption of videos (Cookney, 2017; Rich (2008) points out animated videos Manghani, 2017). This changing of context such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melo- brings with it a renewed need for theoriza- dies merged visual art forms with music as tion, and can help shed light on previous early as the 1920s (p. 79). By the 1950s, mu- discussions and times. Both earlier for- sicians were making appearances in films mats like the jukebox film (Herzog, 2007) and TV shows to promote their music – a and contemporary forms of digital videos process that reached a fever pitch with the have helped to separate the MTV channel fictional rock band the Monkees (Rich, from the music video programming which 2008, p. 80). Once launched, MTV’s pop- made it successful (Middleton & Beebe, ularity rose through 1984 before seeing a 2007). Of note for this discussion, is how sharp decline in 1985 due to copycat chan- the channel and context on of music vid- nels (Aurfderheid, 1983, p. 61). Ultimately, eos can mold its influence and consump- MTV continued to grow and reached more tion. Shows like The Ed Sullivan Show and than 52 million households by 1990, and American Bandstand were able to influ- Lascity / Studies in Communication Sciences 18.2 (2018), pp. 325–337 327 ence music consumption and highlight videos’ place as the “Kleenexes of popular particular artists and broadcasting con- culture” (Railton & Watson, 2011, p. 1), but ventions (Coates, 2007). The same can be also due to researchers more sustained said for TRL. interested in representation and embodi- While game shows, comedies and re- ment (Arnold et al., 2017, pp. 91–139; Lewis, ality shows became more prominent on 1993; Mercer, 1993; Railton & Watson, 2011; MTV through the 1990s, TRL’s debut in Vernallis, 2004, pp. 209–235; Wasler, 1993). 1998 brought music videos back to the Still, as Miller points out, “… both spotlight. According to MTV, the show music and fashion marketing are fed by “was one of the first truly interactive tele- a variety of practical and visual interre- vision shows, utilizing the synergy of the lationships in which fashion are style are internet and television to countdown the core to a kind of intertextual taste-sharing top music videos of the day” (MTV, n.d.). between the two industries” (2011, p. 12). The show aired in the afternoon—at 3 Vernallis notes that music videos allow p.m. in the summer and 3:30 p.m. during even more of an emphasis on costume the school year—and boasted ratings 52% and clothing, however, she glosses over the among 12-to-34-year-olds in its first quar- clothing and emphasizes the symbolic na- ter (Heller, 2000). TRL’s peak popularity ture of the garments (2004, pp. 100–104). occurred in 1999 and 2000 when the show There’s no reason to believe that this sym- averaged more than 700,000 viewers.