Bye-Bye, Beefcake: Abercrombie’s Hot Salesclerk Policy Is Over

Starting Friday, you won’t have to be good-looking to work for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. You’ll also be able to wear eye-liner, though not necessarily a nose ring.

The changes are the latest for the once high-flying retailer, which pioneered the sexy preppy look and made male models with ridiculously ripped abs a billboard standard. By retiring the “appearance and sense of style” hiring rule that stipulated attractiveness, Abercrombie is scrapping the last of the legacy of former Chief Executive Officer Mike Jeffries, who left in December.

“We’ve put the customer at the center of the business,” said Christos Angelides, president of the company’s Abercrombie brand, who along with Fran Horowitz, the Hollister brand’s head, are among the internal candidates for the CEO job.

Sitting at a conference table with Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Ramsden at the company’s wooded campus in New Albany, Ohio, the two presidents said that dress-code and other changes are part of their plan to cater more to shoppers. For too long, they said, stores and clothes were tailored to Jeffries’s whims.

So gone is the legendary “Look Policy” for employees, which banned French-tip manicures, certain hair-styling products and, among other things, mustaches. Clerks will be referred to as brand representatives, not models. They still can’t wear extreme makeup or jewelry, but the rules are gentler. The idea is that sales forces should focus on selling, not on obsessing over their level of accepted handsomeness.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-23/bye-bye-beefcake-abercrombie-s-hot-salesclerk-policy-is-over