The photos above are what we saw just outside the Abercrombie and Fitch store in Paris last year. It fascinated Kev and I to no end at just why people would want to wait in line for so long to buy some overpriced, basic (in our minds) polos, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. For me, personally, I was over the Abercrombie/Hollister clothes a year or two into University. I never wore it much in high school anyway as my parents refused to pay for it. I'll admit that because the brands were "cool" then, I was pretty let down by this!
Hamburg opened their first Abercrombie downtown this past April, two days after Kev and I flew home for the summer months. After seeing the energy around the Paris store, I was very curious if it would be the same in Hamburg and was sad to miss seeing the opening. I've been in Hamburg's Abercrombie and Fitch once this year and didn't notice much of a fuss. Although, I did get a good chuckle as the welcome crew consisted of a shirtless male model. I know Abercrombie can strike up quite the controversy in the U.S., but after seeing Hamburg's store this weekend, it doesn't seem like the promiscuousness of the brand affects the European buyers!
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| The line outside Hamburg's Abercrombie and Fitch |
My friend and I wanted to stroll by the store so my she could take a look (hopefully get a photo with the male model!!) and see just how luxurious it is inside. We never did go inside the Paris store with that line (however, after seeing the outside, I'm sure the inside is beautiful), but the interior of the Hamburg store is pretty extravagant with chandeliers and artistic murals on the walls. With both stores, I almost walked by them not realizing they were there because the buildings look too nice to house a store that I am familiar with seeing done so simply in every mall back home. It was actually the cologne smell outside the Paris store that made me realize we were there!
We had no intention of waiting in line, so we continued through downtown and to the indoor shopping complex. It wasn't more than a few seconds walking in that I looked up and said, "I wonder what that line is for!" What do you know, it was the Hamburg Hollister.
After seeing these lines at three different stores, I thought I would do some research into the topic. Besides, Abercrombie and Hollister aren't the only popular American brands in Europe. There are many, including Tommy Hilfiger, Gap, and Ralph Lauren. I read that the popularity of American brands began as a showcase of status (1). Status of having the ability to fly to New York and shop there. Now, it seems, with the younger generation, globalization is not such a big deal anymore and with the media, people are able to "cross the pond" daily and read the same books, watch the same TV shows. And it shocked me to find out that in 2009, Tommy Hilfiger actually had higher European revenues than in the U.S. (2). I suppose that it goes vice versa as well, with European brands from Chanel and Louis Vuitton to H&M being popular in the states.
I never would have thought that a spontaneous Saturday wandering around downtown would have turned into a bit of cultural education on brand globalization. Have a great start to your week and Tschüss!
