Abercrombie's new aesthetic is a $50 knitted polo shirt Goodbye bare chest and sculpted abs

What's left today of the dimly lit Abercrombie & Fitch Co shops, the ripped boys at the entrances and the pervasive whiff of cologne in the malls? Unfortunately or fortunately nothing. After a drastic rebranding, the brand founded by David Abercrombie in 1892, which saw its greatest explosion in the late '90s and early 2000s to the point of dreaming at the beginning of 2014 of opening no less than 100 stores in China over the next ten years, has abandoned the anachronistic cool kid aesthetic to approach a much more current (and inflated) look. In fact, the $50 dollar good-guy polo shirts in different patterns and colours, which GQ defined as a must-have for every daily outfit and which at the same time are in the wake of the knitwear trend that has dominated the streets and catwalks throughout the season, openly clash with the brand's orientation of a few years ago, when former CEO Mike Jeffries defined Abercrombie's customers as "not overweight or unattractive high school kids".

In a process of renewal of values as well as aesthetics, Abercrombie has emerged as a healthier and more trendy brand aimed at those entering adulthood and no longer at teenagers, a reflection of the growing spending power and changing desires of consumers. A simpler, more refined look that could be perfectly summed up in this very polo shirt.