Models and front [IG] spring 2025 drop, which has strong Sporty & Rich vibes and Ralph Lauren Polo, too. Photographer [IG] captures the collection designed for Abercrombie by , founded by in 2018. / Hair by Jenny Kim; makeup by Maud Laceppe

Abercrombie appears to be in a serious turnaround in its way-too-long already tries to get back on the road to success. The Hollister division had a sales increase of 22% in first quarter 2025. Abercrombie itself has a 3-4% decrease but CEO Fran Horowitz-Bonadies, who replaced the now-infamous Mike Jeffries in 2017, reminded the financial markets that Abercrombie was up against their bridal collection launch.

Everybody is buying into her thinking and the stock has been on a tear in recent weeks — staying steady at $81-82 a share, in spite of the looming, unnecessary tragedy of a tariff way that should hurt them.

I’ve spent a couple hours really looking at Abercrombie — and I admit the Sporty & Rich connection in my brain got my attention. It’s valid as the first data bit, but another topic was working its way to my frontal lobe.

It seems that Danzy Estates has an open door to create very aspirational marketing — even if a luxury hotel in the south of France probably isn’t in the making. Mike Jeffries will hang around Abercrombie’s neck for a long time.

I wanted to do Abercrombie before posting French Open winner Coco Gauff’s Miu Miu collection images. And in a twist, Coco upset my order of things in several ways. I’ve been a Coco fan out of the gate, but also don’t follow women’s tennis as closely, now that Serena is retired.

After the ongoing fan devotion to Naomi Osaka’s mental health issues and every tear shed in public — which is a river of them — I had no idea that Coco Gauff has gone through a similar period of self-doubt, but shorter.

This fact doesn’t come up in this TNT interview, but Coco has worked far harder with her coaches to change her forehand than she admits. More important to her is speaking about the difficult times her people are going through — and she had to win for them.

Writing for The Athletic, Matthew Futterman details with great sensitivity Gauff’s humiliating defeat last September, after hitting 19 double faults and missing countless forehands, in a loss to Emma Navarro.

In came a virtually unknown new coach named Matt Daly, who, along with her longtime coach Jean-Christophe Faurel, convinced Coco that she was capable of big things once again — if she embraced change.

How radical? How about changing the way she holds her racket when she serves, even if she’s been doing it one way for a decade? How about leaning in on her forehand and seizing the initiative, instead of leaning back and resorting to defense too often.

Forgive me for comparing Coco and Naomi, who are friends, but Coco Gauff allowed herself to be broken down and rebuilt again as a tennis player, in a way Naomi Osaka never did — even before having her beautiful daughter. Looking in the mirror and feeling like “you really aren’t that good” Coco Gauff allowed herself to be taught all over again, how to play tennis to her strength — or new strengths she had to discover in herself. And she did it ‘for her people’, not only for herself.

This issue resonated with me, within the context of an Abercrombie & Fitch that was such a racist brand that a documentary was made about the company in 2022.

That era of the store is the subject of White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, a new documentary about how one of the most popular mall brands of the late ’90s and early aughts fell from grace. White Hot details how Abercrombie & Fitch used exclusionary messaging, discriminatory hiring practices and a hyper-controlled work environment to make itself a desirable and aspirational brand for shoppers. Over time, White Hot reveals, the brand’s insidious tactics were exposed and sales declined, leading to former CEO Mike Jeffries stepping down and A&F apologizing and changing direction. 

Before I left Victoria’s Secret, I worked on a mission to help define their identity — which was a joke, given the goals of Mike Jeffries and Jeffrey Epstein. When the very high-ups asked me what I thought about Abercrombie and could I spend some regular time over there — THIS campaign was exactly how I saw it.

Instead, Abercrombie was a modern temple to white privilege, operating as a private, whites-only club.

I never pulled any punches at Victoria’s Secret or into Les Wexner’s office, so I said “For starters, my partner’s [name protected] son is drop-dead gorgeous and he’s not welcome at Abercrombie & Fitch.

So I doubt I can help solve the problem of what Abercrombie should be from a branding standpoint.” This internal conflict is underway in the Netflix documentary in the early 2000s. And it spun absolutely out of control.

They all knew my charming partner, and if I said his son was gorgeous, I probably wasn’t exaggerating. He met every criteria to be welcomed as a customer or hired as a front-room associate after school. Neither was possible for him.

Ironically Coco Gauff’s self-revival comes as part of this entire moment of American reckoning. And for all the MAGA crowd who might accuse her of being overly-sensitive or me for being too woke, I’ll go further into Abercrombie in a separate post in honor of Coco Gauff’s French Open win. [They have gone after Coco; I just looked.]

Clearly, today’s Abercrombie is in the hands of CEO , who has a good grip on terrific positioning for both Abercrombie and Hollister in this shaky moment for retail everywhere and the global economy at large. I want her brands to succeed and love the talent assembled in this campaign from models to photographer to designer.

AOC reminds everyone that Mike Jeffries is gone, suffering from dementia according to the court handling his prosecution. And Jeffrey Epstein is dead by suicide.

What this fabulous young tennis player Coco Gauff has endured psychologically and emotionally in the face of her not having a tennis game that could carry her for the long haul is a form of self-willed determination that most people don’t possess or understand.

While speaking to issues of race and wanting to succeed for her community and as a proud American, Coco never blamed the crowd for her mistakes. After the devasting defeat that would prompt many players to leave the game, Coco surrendered to the rebuilding process.

So I close this unplanned narrative that has evolved as I wrote the words, giving the floor back to Coco and writer Matthew Futterman, who did a masterful job on his long article.

Gauff said in her post-match news conference, the shiny silver trophy beside her. She was here to represent people who look like her, “who maybe don’t feel as supported during this period, and so just being that reflection of hope and light” . . . this action was critical for this powerful, talented American tennis player.

In a nod to her proud heritage, Coco Gauff's maternal grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1961, she became the first Black student to attend an all-white high school, integrating Delray Beach [Florida] public schools.