Pretty enough to be a model

In Abercrombie world a model is almost equivalent to a sales associate. It is someone who is on the floor selling merchandise and assisting customers. These people need to represent Abercrombie to a T.

When I told my friend I was applying for a job at Abercrombie the first thing she told me was about her friend from school who worked on the Impact side of Abercrombie and when she asked if she could switch to a model the managers told her she wasn't pretty enough. I had decided going into Abercrombie that the story I had heard must have just been a few jerks at one store, but I soon found out that those opinions came from a much higher authority.

At orientation our manager reminded the models to stay after orientation was over so each person could have his/her pictures taken to be sent to Corporate so they could approve of the manager's choices.

I desperately wanted to switch to a model when I got to Abercrombie since no one on impact, who at this store was all male, wanted to talk to the new girl. When I finally got up enough courage to mention it to one of my managers she said " we need you down here." I accepted that answer at the time, but it didn't occur to me until much later that these words that I took as a compliment may have been code for "corporate wont think you are good enough."

On one early morning, or a very slow afternoon, summer was winding down and the summer employees were asking the managers about transferring to other stores. One of the male models, who was a fairly large build with slightly chubby cheeks asked the manager about transferring to the NYC Abercrombie. Her response: "your not pretty enough to be a model there. Their models are..... actual models."

For some reason after all of these comments I still wasn't convinced that it was real until I caught a peek of a store evaluation buy one of Abercrombie Corporate secret shoppers. There was a checklist with questions about the look of the store, customer service and whether or not specific tag lines and questions were said buy the employees. Under a box regarding Abercrombie staff was a box to rate how good looking the store's staff was overall. ( I was told by a manager of the store I was working at later that when District Managers come in or when secret shoppers may come in the managers only put the best looking employees on the schedule).

Although I shouldn't have been surprised by all of this I was. There are days where I stayed up late doing homework or talking to friends, or where my face is not looking its best, where on most weekend afternoons the growth of the dark circles under my eyes, a new pimple, my jeans not fitting exactly right wouldn't bother me, on these weekend days I work at Abercrombie. So I may put on a little extra concealer or eye liner, or an extra layer or two only to get to the store and hope that I look pretty enough that day.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3-WzqfbVHU

The link above is a skit from Mad TV making fun of Abercrombie. Even though some of it is a little rediculous there are so many parts of these skits that are so true.


Next time on Clothing store Crisises: Tardiness