Joseph H. Hancock

Chelsea on 5th Avenue: Hypermasculinity and Gay Clone Culture in the Retail Brand Practices of Abercrombie & Fitch

Abstract The major focus of this research demonstrates how the retail branding practices of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) borrow from hypermasculine gay clone culture to create a distinct brand image. This interpretative analysis, conducted through an examination of the overall shopping experience at A&Fs flagship 5th Avenue New York City store, suggests how A&F has borrowed from a homoerotic hypermasculine theme to create meanings, stories, and associations to the products. Martin Levines 1970s hypermasculine gay clone culture as well as Douglas Holt and Laurence Vincents theories of how fashion intermediaries borrow from culture to create “fashion themes” further contextualize this research. A&Fs use of these iconic gay characteristics in their branding not only creates a distinctive brand image, but also disseminates fragments of gay culture and history through the customers who wear the clothing.

Global fashion brands : style, luxury & history

Fashion branding is more than just advertising. It helps to encourage the purchase and repurchase of consumer goods from the same company. While historically fashion branding has primarily focused on consumption and purchasing decisions, recent scholarship suggests that branding is a process that needs to be analyzed from a style, luxury, and historical pop cultural view using critical, ethnographic, individualistic, or interpretive methods. This collection explores the meaning behind fashion branding in the context of the contested power relations underpinning the production, marketing, and consumption of global style and fashion.

A Deconstructionist Perspective on Menswear: A Conversation with Siki Im

Joseph H. Hancock, II is an associate professor at Drexel University, Department of Fashion and Design & Merchandising. He is currently the Vice President of Area Chairs internationally for the Popular/ American Culture Associations. He has a twenty-year retailing background (The Gap Corporation, The Limited, and the Target Corporation) and is currently working on an Introduction to Fashion textbook for Berg Publishers. jhh33@drexel.edu A Deconstructionist Perspective on Menswear: A Conversation with Siki Im Joseph H. Hancock, II