What to stream: ‘White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch’
The documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch” does more than look at the financial ups and downs of a retail chain that went from a stuffy outdoor outfitter (founded in 1892) to a shopping mall staple 100 years later, with the arrival of CEO Mike Jeffries, who transformed it into an avatar of exclusivity and soft-core sex appeal.
Make that an avatar of exclusion: The narrative spine of “White Hot” is the buildup to a 2003 class-action lawsuit against the clothing company alleging racial discrimination in the stores’ hiring policies, which, as the plaintiffs argued, favored white applicants of a particular “look” – thin, preppy, “all-American,” in the words of an in-house manual – over people of color. It’s a fascinating tale of hubris, bigotry and, ultimately, social reckoning.
Among the film’s taking heads is the Washington Post’s Robin Givhan, who brings insight and context to the saga of aspirational marketing. It’s a cautionary tale that is not peculiar to one company, either. As Givhan notes, A&F was just doing what many other merchants do in this age of quasi-addictive consumerism: “The goal is not to give people what they’re asking for,” Givhan says, “but to make them ask for what you’re offering.”
TV-MA. Available on Netflix. Contains nudity and strong language. 88 minutes.
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