‘People thought we liked being touched and grabbed’: a former Abercrombie model recalls brand’s dark days
Kai Braden was a shirtless greeter during the brand’s mid-aughts peak. Twenty years later, his advocacy has helped secure first-of-their-kind protections for fashion workers
Something felt off about Kai Braden’s first day working retail at an Abercrombie & Fitch store in 2006. His bosses sat him down to watch an onboarding video, but instead of learning how to properly fold shirts or work the register, Braden watched a corporate-produced montage of young men romping through fields in various stages of undress.
“[It was] stock footage of shirtless guys with their jeans falling down so you could see a little bit of their butt,” Braden remembered. He struggled to understand how this would relate to his job. “I was like, ‘What does this have to do with anything?’”
[#item_full_content]
