If things like exclusion, racial profiling, and favoritism make you sick, prepare to lose your lunch. Netflix has debuted an official trailer for White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, the steamer’s new documentary about the high-profile clothing brand. The White Hot trailer is triggering, so watch at your peril.
The White Hot trailer chronicles the brand’s astonishing dominance in the late ’90s and early 2000s and delves into the company’s horrendous business practices and extreme acts of discrimination.
White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch comes from director Alison Klayman, who previously helmed the Steve Banon documentary The Brink, as well as Jagged, about Alanis Morissette’s chart-topping album, Jagged Little Pill.
“While I was working on this film, I learned that whenever I mentioned Abercrombie & Fitch to someone, I was going to hear something personal,” Klayman said in a statement. “About first kisses and teenage insecurities. About where they grew up and how much money their family had. About their relationship to beauty standards, race, and sexuality. About belonging. This film is for everyone who came of age in those years when the brand and its exclusionary vision of what it meant to be “all-American” were touchstones in the culture.”
I’ve got some personal thoughts about Abercrombie & Fitch. Suffice it to say that the high-profile brand was not my thing and that it was often associated with people who acted as if they wiped their asses with hundred-dollar bills on the regular. I remember going to my local mall and hearing generic DJ beats inside the store. I can also recall the smell, which always reminded me of cheap perfume filtered through an intense locker room.
But I digress; the White Hot trailer looks like the documentary will shed a harsh light on many of the company’s more despicable aspects, including details about competitors going after A & F’s market share and lawsuits that hit the brand right between its tweezed eyebrows.
White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch premieres on Netflix on April 19. Be sure to bring a barf bag and enjoy what I’m sure will be an eye-opening look at a clothing brand that spurned some disturbing stories about its influence and legacy.
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