Perhaps you do not know. A&F was a legitimate high-end retailer. If anything, Eddie Bauer copied them as A&F was founded in 1892 essentially for the rich Adirondack camp and safari set. Far more than just clothing, A&F's flagship store in New York had an indoor shooting range where you could practice or guns could be custom-fitted and tuned for your shooting style. It was as if you'd expect to see Henry Stanley or Teddy Roosevelt shopping there. It was the one place where you could find a custom-fitted pith helmet or kepi. Posted to the Transvaal? Taking your wife on the Paris-Dakar? Going up the Amazon in a dugout? A&F was THE store to shop.
The most striking room was the trophy room. The walls were covered with the heads of exotic game animals from all over the world including black and white rhino, and one enormous African bull elephant with a matching Indian elephant on the opposite wall. It was the sort of place where the characters in
Out of Africa would have shopped.
That version of A&F died in the late 70s and with it passed an era of the aristocratic outdoorsmen and explorers; images now only found in history books and in the minds of Kipling's readers.
I remember those days. It's like A&F went from a store that outdoorsmen and bears shopped (trying to edge in on Eddie Bauer's market) to a store that markets to a much more trendy (pretty-boy/twink) crowd (Like they got "edgy when the Gap got boring and American Eagle went younger and trendier) and has been embraced by those who view clothes as status symbols. A&F seems to be viewed as "chain store designer vogue." I just don't see it.
I much prefer to buy pieces of clothing from any store where I see something that I like and work it into my own way of dressing accordingly. Finding your own style can be an incredibly liberation experience.
