Netflix and BBC documentaries reveal misconduct claims against former Abercrombie CEO Mike Jeffries

COLUMBUS, OH (WCMH) – Earlier this month, federal prosecutors announced the former CEO of New Albany-based brand Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jeffrieswas indicted along with two other men on 16 federal charges, including sex trafficking and prostitution.

The criminal case comes after years of allegations of sexual misconduct, some of which were included in two documentaries that have now taken on new relevance. The films offer audiences a deeper insight into Jeffries’ carefully crafted public image and the disturbing claims that emerged behind the scenes.

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The 2022 Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” directed by Alison Klayman and available on the streamer, highlights the exclusionary culture Jeffries promoted within the brand while only briefly addressing the sex allegations . The 88-minute exhibition includes interviews featuring former A&F employees from retail stores to home office executives and brand models.

“You know you’re getting close when you’re hit by the smell of Abercrombie, the nightclub beats and bare-chested boys,” the Netflix promo opens with several voices edited together. “It was such a pop culture phenomenon. It was the All-American look.”

An IMDb reviewer, who gave the documentary seven out of ten stars, noted that the film “got all the right marks” in previous staff interviews but felt like a “cliff notes version” and suggested it was “a 2 – 3-part documentary” for an extensive “deep dive.”

The 2023 BBC documentary, “The Abercrombie Guys: The Dark Side of Cool,” part of the British series “Panorama,” listed on IMDb as season 71, episode 30, specifically addresses the sexual abuse claims. According to Abercrombie, the disturbing claims in the film prompted the fashion brand to conduct an independent investigation with an outside law firm.

The 59-minute film, directed by Edward McGown, can be watched via the AppleTV and Prime Video apps with a BBC Select subscription, which offers a seven-day free trial.

“Former CEO Mike Jeffries transformed Abercrombie and Fitch from a failing retail chain to a multi-billion dollar empire and the epitome of cool,” reads the BBC Select description. “Now, after months of painstaking investigation, reporter Rianna Croxford speaks to men who say they have been recruited into a dark world created to satisfy the sexual fantasies of Mike Jeffries and his British partner Matthew Smith.”

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In the promo, a former model describes being “introduced to someone to do whatever he wanted,” adding that his experience “changed my life – and not for the better.”

Another model states, “I wasn’t human to any of these people. I was a body.”

An IMDb review titled “The Depth Of Fashion,” which gives the film seven out of ten stars, calls the episode “quite a story that exposes the alleged criminal behavior of… Mike Jeffries and his… silent partner Matthew Smith comes.’ The reviewer adds that despite its controversial “trial-by-media” feel, it reveals “the depraved sexual tastes of the rich and powerful.”

“The point is made forcefully… that while the ‘#MeToo’ movement… should have put the sexual exploitation of young women by rich and powerful old men in the spotlight long ago, similar claims to those made here, only this one times by young people. men, have been largely overlooked,” the reviewer wrote.

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