Here’s a question for y’all, vis-à-vis the Abercrombie and Fitch comeback we keep talking about: at what point, exactly, is a “comeback” complete? It feels like a little clarity would be helpful here, because at this point, Abercrombie has been quite good for quite some time.
There’s something of a formula to how they’re getting it so right: classic staples are imbued with a bit of volume and a dash of archive inspiration, and everything clocks in at prices that won’t make you blanche. After a few years in the wilderness, Abercrombie’s clothes now feel nostalgically like how mall brand clothes used to feel—substantial and well-made, yet easy to wear from day one. As a result, these days they’re kind of appealing to, well, everyone. Their baggier pants are a favorite among those both veterans of and newcomers to the Wide Arts, while their knitwear catalog contains plenty of all-time classics, and their basics are just as considered as those four times their price.
This all adds up to mean that you can easily turn to Abercrombie and Fitch to build the foundation of your whole wardrobe, or just use certain pieces as spackle to cover up some of your existing closet gaps. Still, because the offerings are plentiful and it’s nice to have some guidance, we thought we’d make things a little easier and round up both our favorite categories, and our favorite pieces within them. (I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time amidst the brands digital and IRL racks in my life, so I do feel quite comfortable speaking on the matter.) Now, happy shopping, and may all your sizes be in stock.
The Abercrombie Shopping Guide, by Category
A-Plus Pants
If you’ve tried on a pair of Abercrombie pants in the past year or so, there’s a good chance you did so with some sort of agenda. Maybe you wanted to give a wider pair of pants (or RealTree camo print) a shot, or maybe you just had gotten tired of your denim rotation and “heard good things.” Whatever your end goal was, however, there’s a good chance Abercrombie delivered, thanks to fabrics structured enough to hold their shape over time, but still soft enough to move around in comfortably. These days, the brand’s bread-and-butter is baggy, but they’re still pumping out excellent straight and tapered pieces if that’s more your bag.
Broken-In Basics
When it comes to basics, the more considered the cut and materials, the more expensive they usually are. Usually. Not at Abercrombie, though, where well-priced tees, sweats and the like are preposterously soft, and available in a range of silhouettes and fabric weights. . Particular highlights include the cropped tees, the Essential Hoodie (offered in washes that look straight off a thrift store rack) and the waffle tee, but the entire suite is worth your serious attention.
All-American Outerwear
Outerwear—especially outerwear for city or suburban life—really doesn’t need to be as technical as the Gore-Tex’d mainstays we’ve all been buying up these past few years. On that note, if you’re not planning to summit K2 soon, Abercrombie has some real heaters. The Cropped Workwear Jacket, for instance, looks like the hand-me-down trucker we all wish our Dads had given us. . The Hooded Bomber Jacket looks quite a bit like one from a certain venerated Detroit-based workwear brand, just without that noisy, impossible-to-remove outer label. What’s more, their vegan leather trucker ages surprisingly well, and there’s even a double-breasted overcoat fit for a stroll with King Charles.
Smart Shirts
Aside from the Wide World of Pants, the button-up space is one of the more ascendant in all of menswear. For years, unless you were searching for a slim shirt, there wasn’t really anything interesting out there for you at a price point south of $Welp. This meant your only bet was going vintage. But in recent seasons, mall brands have blown out their slate, and it’s no longer difficult to find a host of cuts at exceedingly reasonable prices. Abercrombie is one such purveyor: Today, their flat-hemmed flannels will remind you of some of the best on offer from venerable Scandinavian brands, their Oxfords are stupid soft and rightly roomy, and their cropped Work Shirt is simply a sleeper for anyone looking for a new daily beater button-up.
Sneaky-Good Suiting
We’ll level with you: suiting probably won’t ever be the leading category at Abercrombie, and it’s also not necessarily the first place we’d look on our own hunt, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have some great options at even better prices. Particular standouts include the just-loose-enough A&F Collins Tailored Double-Breasted Blazer, as well as its single-breasted counterpart. And of course, if you’re just looking to add another pair of dressier slacks to the rotation, there aren’t many better $100 options on the market.
Nice Knits
Knitwear isn’t an easy category to nail. Oftentimes, it’s best to stick to a few styles, engineer the living daylights out of them, and offer a tight, thematically similar selection. But this isn’t one of those times. Abercrombie has never agreed with this sentiment, and that’s really a good thing for all of us. Right now, they’re running a whole slate of killer classics—beefy rib-stitch crews, chunky cable-knits, fuzzy cardigans, roomy v-necks—but they’ve also got a whole range of freakier knitwear that reads far fancier than it’s two-digit price tag.
“ID?”-Elicting Graphic Tees
For years, the only way to get your hands on a wonderfully worn-in, perfectly faded graphic t-shirt was to hit the vintage racks. The dealers knew this, which meant sometimes the best ones could run you hundreds of dollars. Well, Abercrombie has democratized that process in an astounding way. Not only have they licensed some of the coolest graphics from the most popular properties of decades past—particularly ones from the 1980s and 1990s, when hand-drawn design was still popping—they’ve also applied those graphics to their broken-in, vintage-mimicking blanks. Wizard.
Popping Polos
We probably could have included polos in the knitwear section, but Abercrombie’s current output is so notable it deserves a standalone category. In summer, their lightweight, more porous variety go absolutely nuclear, but the winter line-up is just as strong. The long-sleeve Johnny collars, for instance, will look great dressed up a bit with some slacks or toned down with some cords or jeans, as will the cable-knit short-sleeve versions. There are also button-through polos for anyone looking to thread the needle between a button up and a classic cardigan, and those crazy kids even put out a Plisse nod that’s plenty good and doesn’t need to be put in a special net to launder.