Posts Tagged ‘ Hollister ’

Hey Hollister: What about Cross-Dressers?

May 12th, 2010. By AbiK

So American Eagle Outfitters has “agreed” to get rid of a rule they had that banned male employees from showing up to work in women’s clothes, and to be fair, women employees from showing up in men’s clothes.

For American Eagle Outfitters (AEO), the issue arose out of a complaint filed by Make the Road New York with NY State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s office that stated there was a “pattern of discrimination against transgender job hunters.”

According to the NY Daily News, a probe into the situation revealed that, indeed, there was such a pattern.

Of course, a spokeswoman from AEO has issued a statement indicating that “AEO is not admitting to the findings”.

Meanwhile, AEO has also agreed to train its staff on transgender issues such as how to refer to a transgender employee—is he a she or she a he? I’m not sure how one crafts the lingo on that in the company handbook other than to simply follow the wishes of the transgender employee. Bathroom assignments I guess are another issue, and one I’m not tackling here. None the less, it’ll now be addressed in AEO’s training.

But it begs the question, what about retailers like Hollister—who recently came under fire for allegedly dismissing an employee for another form of dress: a hijab. This isn’t a judgement statement here, but you’d have to agree that a head scarf is perhaps a little less visually in the raise-an-eyebrow range for most customers than a gentleman in hose and heels. I’m exaggerating here, but I’ve certainly come across a wide variability among cross-dressing styles.

So would a qualified gent in hose and heels get a job at Hollister?

Tags: American Eagle Outfitters, Discrimination, Hollister
Posted in Employment | 5 Comments »

You Don’t Look Hollister: You’re Fired

February 26th, 2010. By AbiK

What? The uber-hip, ultra-prep and ubiquitous Abercrombie & Fitch is at the center of an EEOC Complaint re: banning a Muslim employee from wearing her hijab (aka head scarf, for those of you less “hip” to all things diverse). Perish the thought!

Say it isn’t so, but oh, it’s true! Seems the Brand is the Look, and the Look is All-American-prep and so—you know, by that theory of transitivity you learned in prep school—well, the Brand is All-American-prep. Like complete mirror image. And we know brand integrity is Everything. Cap E intended.

Abercrombie & Fitch lost me a number of years ago—they used to be this quiet, reserved, quality outfitter with a store nestled in the upper recesses of Trump Tower on 5th in NYC. But then things changed. With folks like J. Crew eating up market share, well, A & F apparently found themselves in need of a re-image. Repositioning. ReBranding.

Rebrand—and expand with companies like Hollister—they did. Go into a store now and you’ll be greeted by a sea of 20-something oneness and assimiliation set to the backdrop of glaring music. Their black & white ads suggest a more “knowing” (yes, sexually) and somewhat monied and genteel crowd that I imagine the sales side of the biz only wishes it could duplicate on the sales floor. But there’s the rub. It can’t.

See, you can homogenize your ad campaign. Not so your sales staff.

So what happens when brand image isn’t playing out at the stores, or in this particular case on the stockroom floor of A&F subsidiary brand Hollister? If you’re a district manager who clearly didn’t read Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Abercrombie & Fitch, EEOC, Hajib, Hollister, Muslim, Umme-Hani Kahn
Posted in Emerging Issues, Employment | 4 Comments »