'White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch' Trailer Delves Into the Dark Side of the Famed Retailer

Recently, Netflix has put out several popular documentaries, from fraud stories like Bad Vegan to dark serial killer tales like Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes. Their latest documentary film is about an altogether different subject – a fashion scandal.

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, which chronicles the rise and fall of the brand and exposes the racist and toxic culture that flowed onto the pages of its infamous catalog and the policies of its club-like stores. Initially established in 1892, it wasn’t until under the leadership of CEO Mike Jeffries, that the retailer went on to define a generation with its “potent mix of sex and wholesomeness” and elitist take on the “all-American” image. During its reign, everyone from Channing Tatum to January Jones modeled for the brand’s racy, homoerotic marketing campaigns led by photographer Bruce Webber while consumers spent billions in sales across thousands of stores in the U.S.Even Chris Evans modeled for the brand at one point, taking to Instagram to share his photo shoot “for Abercrombie, which during the late 90’s was the holy grail of overpriced clothing.” A post shared by Chris Evans (@chrisevans)“This was a shared experience for a generation of people,” director Alison Klayman tells ET about the brand’s reach and monolithic place in the zeitgeist.

Matching the surface-depth of an Abercrombie advertisement circa 1998, Alison Klayman’s “White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch” is a standardized and, unfortunately, scattered look at the titular company at the height of its cultural dominance in the 1990s and 2000s. What could’ve been an interestingly short segment on, say, CNN”s “The Nineties” is stretched to the breaking point as Klayman unpacks the moment that A&F went mainstream and the social backlash that ensued from their terrible — and often illegal — work practices.

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Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticFashion, of course, is rarely just fashion — it tells a story about whoever’s wearing it. And in the ’90s and 2000s, the preppy youthquake mall-fashion outlet Abercrombie & Fitch told a very big story.

Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” out April 19.The documentary traces the explosive growth of the fashion and pop culture sensation and how its clothing and seductive marketing dominated youth culture for over a decade. Under the stewardship of ultraprivate CEO Mike Jeffries, the brand was aspirational — and, as lawsuits later alleged, discriminatory in its hiring practices. Bogged down by bad press, legal issues and its reluctance to move with the ever-changing times, it had fallen out of fashion by the late aughts.The original Abercrombie & Fitch was founded in 1892 in Manhattan by David T.

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Wilson Chapman editor“White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch” will debut on Netflix April 19, the streamer has announced.Directed by Alison Klayman, who helmed the Alanis Morissette documentary “Jagged” last year, “White Hot” explores the rise in popularity of casual wear retail chain Abercrombie & Fitch, which was first founded in the 1800s, during the late ’90s. Under the leadership of CEO Mike Jeffries, the store became known for its sexualized advertising and its emphasis on an “all-American” look –– which, to many, was code for “white.” As the store developed a dominance in the retail world off of its brand, growing criticisms regarding discriminatory hiring and marketing practices eventually engulfed it in scandal.

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