[Cicero]

At one time, Abercrombie & Fitch dealt with upper class British sportswear—what we would call preppie clothes. Very proper raincoats. And things like shooting sticks—I remember my mother-in-law had one of those for when she went on a bird shoot.

Then came the revolution, and they went metrosexual on us, if not gay/transgendered. Too bad. They used to be kind of like Brooks Brothers was in the old days, only more so.

The cultural revolution of the 60s has a lot to answer for.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

Then came the revolution, and they went metrosexual on us, if not gay/transgendered. Too bad. They used to be kind of like Brooks Brothers was in the old days, only more so.

The fact is that the old company went bankrupt and the name was eventually sold to Limited Brands in 1988, who created the new version. For a few years they had phenomenal success with it, then spun it out as an independent company with an IPO.

The fact that they're closing 56 stores isn't particularly notable, given that they have over a thousand locations. And their sales were actually up 18% over the previous year.

[Richard Kimball]

A&F reinvented themselves and became a trendy campus brand. I checked out a couple of their stores, and shirts that I feared would fall apart in my hands were $75-$150. However, the college kids loved them, and they spent the money for them. The thing about campus trends, though, is they are trends, and A&F should have started reinventing itself about five years ago, if they wanted to remain relevant. The heroin chic cutting edge thing is old hat, now.

FWIW, my youngest daughter (runs a daycare now) was one of the original vampire goths. She bought a pair of Doc Martin's when the only place to get them was the Neo-Nazi stores.(basically the old hippie head shops that converted to Neo-Nazism when tie dyed T shirts quit selling.) The first time she saw a pair of Doc Martin's in a mall, she took them off and never wore them again.