Like Burberry and Tommy Hilfiger, ubiquity was the death knell for exclusivity. Suddenly, the gigantic lettering they emblazoned across everything they sold may as well have said: “I only had to go to town to buy this old thing.” The downfall of the label, for Irish kids anyway, began the second Abercrombie opened a store in Dublin. Celebrities like Heidi Klum and Jennifer Lawrence endorsed the clothes.įor Irish kids Abercrombie was part of the same Noughties douchebag uniform that also featured Dubarry shoes/Ugg boots and, as the brand was still decently confined to the US at that point, wearing it was evidence that you had money to travel. The brand became a gigantic publicly listed concern, and was among the first to have its own campus, which looks in the promotional videos like some kind of creepy retail cult.