Abercrombie & Fitch on both sides of the Atlantic

American companies kick the crap out of their British counterparts when it comes to brand marketing and management - especially in the transference of these brands out of the domestic market and into foreign waters.

I remember when Krispy Kreme first branched out into the UK and you could only buy them in Harrods or Selfridges. Talk about manipulating the image. In the States, Krispy Kreme is ubiquitous - you can buy your original glazed boxes of sickly sweet sticky doom in MacDonald's style drive-through. But when glamorous women in Louboutin heels come strutting out of Harrod's with their doughnuts in a frosted plastic bag, it sends out a whole different message. The aura conferred by these women and the expensive bazaars which stocked KK meant that eventually the brand could branch out into high street: they are now sold in some high street Tesco's or stand alone shops.

But the best example of a brand purchasing a much bigger status over the pond is Abercrombie and Fitch. Walking down Burlington Gardens last Friday afternoon, on my way to get some Laduree macarons, I walked past Abercrombie and Fitch. The location of the shop in between Saville Row and Old Bond Street on Burlington Gardens tells you pretty much everything you need to know about A&F's aspirations in the UK.

This is what most of the Abercrombie stores look like in America:

This is what the Abercrombie store looks like in London:

This is a brand better known for its 'sexy' soft-porn ads that wind up the parents of the kids who buy the clothes. The style is a sort of over-priced Gap: boring, yet still managing to encourage a slightly slutty jeans and t-shirt look. They aren't prep enough to be J. Crew or J.Press but they're expensive enough to be cool in that just out of reach way for most American teenagers.

Funny then that Jack Wills wearing Sloaneys are totally buying into the A&F look. Actually, a lot of people I know got (and still are) really excited when the A&F shop opened in London. A girl I used to work with received an A&F hoody for her birthday and she was jumping up and down clutching the thing like a winning lottery ticket. It was a plain, pink hoody, with A&F plastered across it in big letters, which cost around �70. I just don't get it.

The funniest thing though was when I finally got to Lauduree, three kids (two guys and a girl) came into the shop behind me who had just been to Abercrombie. The were talking about all the different outfits they had purchased and what they would wear on their impending trip to San Francisco. They bought a wardrobe full of chavvy American clothes to wear on their holiday to America! It's absolutely brilliant - the triumph of pretending to be an exclusive brand when you export it around the world. I was so tempted to turn around and shatter the illusion these poor kids had created of Abercrombie and Fitch - I think they actually thought it was the US equivalent of a 5th Avenue brand. Or maybe they were more clever than I gave them credit for and they actually wanted to look like young, sheep-herded American teenagers. And anyway, even if I did explain to them what A&F or KK meant in America, it would still be like telling a chav that Burberry plaid isn't cool anymore.

I have a dream...

Disclaimer: The following was written under a state of extreme annoyance using some rather large-scale generalisations. I like to generalise. It�s my blog. I�ll write what I want. Nice one me.

Having been back in my home country for all of three days, it still surprises me that no one has yet juxtaposed the famously held view of Greece, by Byron, Massimo, and others (lovely place, shame about the people) onto the United States. Get out of most of the cities and much of the country is astonishingly beautiful; some of the national parks are stunning bits of the planet, but in the cities, the endless idiocy of the people subsumes any potential aesthetic merit. For me, the primary annoyance of American people stems from their general lack of awareness that they share their cities with other individuals. On the West Coast anyway, I think people pretend that the abundance of physical, geographical space means that there�s no accountability to others who live in the same city. Why would we need to consider other people, there�s plenty of room for everyone, seems to be the mentality. Arizona, and correspondingly, Phoenix are very large places, with plenty of room for people to spread. In London there�s no room anywhere; people live on top of you, you get crushed on the tube in the morning, navigating a Saturday walk on Oxford Street requires SatNav just to avoid the throngs. Consequently, an �awareness� of other people takes place, consciously or not, all of the time. But here people pretend that no one else exists on planet Earth. No man is an island simply does not apply. It�s why everyone lives in a huge house (flat-sharing is pretty much unheard of), drives a giant 4 x 4, petrol prices be damned, eats too much, talks too loudly, and generally does what ever the hell they please. As Prince of Planet Me, why act otherwise?

My European friends never fail to offer the counter argument that Americans are �lovely people, so friendly and helpful.� Let me clarify: Americans love strangers (qualifier � white, European strangers. Top marks scored by the Anglo-Irish in particular) and hate their neighbours. Don�t be fooled for a second by the Obama �change� fervour. Americans don�t want change � there is no love of the social welfare here. They just want their cheap petrol back and no negative equity on their mortgages. The NHS is suspiciously viewed by Americans (those who know what it is anyway) as a borderline socialist farce, hence the perpetuation of the sometimes efficient, yet financially inane US healthcare system. Friends pay $80-200 per month for health insurance policies - and this is only their cost, the remainder is met by your employer - they may use once every two years, if that, yet which in no way subsidises the cost of health care for the poor. In essence this means not paying a health insurance premium means no health care, full stop.

Public transportation is impossible in cities designed to subsidise the American motor industry. There is no social responsibility, least of all where environmental issues are concerned. No one carries a bag for shopping. A supermarket charging for plastic bags would probably start a riot. Yesterday at the supermarket I bought some houmous (which was disgusting), some radishes, a bunch of celery, and a bottle of water. Not only did this cost me $7.63 (sales tax results in annoyingly odd prices), but the cashier put my FOUR items in TWO bags. When I took them out altogether to carry, he looked at me like I ought to be committed to an insane asylum. If I would have faked a public school girl accent and said something like �Oh no really dahling, I have no need for a carrier bag,� he would have smiled brightly and said �Oh my god! Are you Irish? Do you guys, like, have supermarkets in Ireland? My great-great-great-great-grandfather�s from Galway? Do you know it/them/my relatives/etc.� Nutters. A dear friend has suggested I look at this involuntary exile as a learning opportunity for personal growth or some other such nonsense, but what I really want is just to go home. Now that I finally know where that is�

More observations from the �big island� coming soon. Less generalisations next time. I promise�