The Unbranding of Abercrombie

K-HOLE and Box1824 captured the new landscape in their breakthrough 2014 report “Youth Mode.” They described an era of “mass indie” where the search for meaning is premised on differentiation and uniqueness, and proposed a solution in “Normcore.” Humorously, nearly everyone mistook Normcore for being about bland fashion choices rather than the grea... See more

This started with the Seventh Avenue, shop-and-copy approach that has defined the industry, but no longer works with consumers on a global scale. America created the concept of lifestyle brands—it drove the rise of casualization as early as the 1950s, first through denim, then khakis, and now leggings. But the fashion itself has long been predicate... See more