Alison Klayman: Last News

Not so cool. Michael Jeffries made headlines in 2014 when he retired from his role as CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch — and his controversial work with the company is back in the news thanks to Netflix’s new documentary.

White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, he was just the visionary micromanager to heat up the retailer’s image and sales.Jeffries sought to encapsulate the brand’s lusty, youthful mystique in their stores — dimly-lit, permeated by cologne and thumping club beats, guarded by statuesque, shirtless “brand representatives.” Abercrombie became a pop culture phenomenon.“That smell. That music.

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.

, 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.

Netflix is diving into the behind-the-scenes drama and controversy behind the famed retailer Abercrombie & Fitch.The streaming platform dropped the first trailer for their new documentary, , on Thursday, which examines the early days of the company as it skyrocketed to fame in the '90s and early 2000s.«It was such a pop culture phenomenon,» one interview subject says in the trailer, recalling just how popular the retail chain was for a time.However, the trailer quickly lays out one of the major controversies that would arise for the company, as one interview subject recalls comments made by former CEO Mike Jeffries, «We go after the cool kids… if they didn't look a certain way, they didn't belong in our clothing. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.»Helmed by documentarian Alison Klayman — the filmmaker behind 2021's and 2019's — features candid interviews with dozens of former employees, executives and models as it unravels the darker side of the high-end clothing store's business practices.

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.

EXCLUSIVE: HBO is turning up the volume of its music documentary slate. The network has renewed Music Box, its Bill Simmons-led collection of feature docs, for a second season.