Abercrombie & Fitch scraps hot sales assistant policy

Rules governing appearance are out following CEO Mike Jeffries' departure

Male models outside an Abercrombie & Fitch store (Getty Images)

The toned abs, naked torsos and slim white models that used to be commonplace on the shop floor at Abercrombie & Fitch stores are officially no more. The clothes company has scrapped rules governing the attractiveness of hires, signalling the end of former ceo Mike Jeffries’ reign at the high street store.

Christos Angelides, president of Abercrombie, and Fran Horowitz, head of sister-company Hollister, told Bloomberg they believe stores and clothes were tailored to Jeffries’ whims for too long.

Jeffries banned French manicures, hair gels and moustaches on stores workers. Until last year he had refused to sell black clothes. He also put together a 40-plus page manual that dictated the behaviour and dress of staff on his private jet.

The new heads hope that cases like the one brought by Samantha Elauf, who claimed in a Supreme Court trial that she was denied a job because she wore a headscarf, are a thing of the past.

Now employees will not be restricted to a dress code as Abercrombie attempts to modernising.

Bloomberg reports that Abercrombie has scrapped completely its practice of having topless models welcome shoppers into stores. It also plans to raise the lighting, lower the music and stop spraying so much cologne into the air. Naked torsos will no longer appear on shopping bags.

“We’ve put the customer at the center of the business,” Angelidis told Bloomberg.