Failure To Be Undeniably Hot No Longer An Impediment To Getting A Job At Abercrombie & Fitch

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In a further attempt to shed its image as a place where rippling six-packs and bronzed bodies go to commune with the hot powers that be, Abercrombie & Fitch is doing away with its policy on having only super hot sales associates in its stores, opening up its doors to anyone with a dream of selling khaki cargo shorts and pre-ripped jeans.

After doing away with hard-bodied hunks in its ads in February, today marks the first day of a new era at Abercrombie, ushered in by the exit of former CEO Michael “We Only Sell Clothes For Cool Kids” Jeffries in December: As of today, you won’t have to be super hot to work at an Abercrombie store, as the company retires the “appearance and sense of style” hiring rule, reports Bloomberg News.

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

A change in dress code and attractiveness rules is part of the plan to appeal to more shoppers, instead of having everyone just look how Jeffries wanted them to.

This means French-tip manicures, eyeliner, certain hair-styling products, mustaches and other things employees used to be prohibited from using. Sales clerks are now brand representatives and not model, in an attempt to have the focus on selling clothes to customers and not swanning around being vain.

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

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist