good-looking people attract other good-looking people

"We love attitude."

If you think this guy is creepy based only on the above picture, I urge you to read this Salon profile, which will show you that he's creepier than you could have even imagined. He is Mike Jeffries, 61-year-old CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and peroxide cautionary tale, and he finds your cynicism and moodiness unattractive. He attended Claremont McKenna College.

Some other choice tidbits from the profile:

• [A]t A&F headquarters Jeffries always goes through revolving doors twice, never passes employees on stairwells, parks his Porsche every day at the same angle in the parking lot (keys between the seats, doors unlocked), and has a pair of "lucky shoes" he wears when reading financial reports.

• And for a man obsessed with creating a "sexy and emotional experience" for his customers, Jeffries comes off as oddly asexual. He is touchy-feely with some of his employees, both male and female, but the touch is decidedly paternal.

• At home, a photo of a toned naked male torso shot by Herb Ritts hangs over the fireplace in his bedroom.

• [W]hen I ask him how important sex and sexual attraction are in what he calls the "emotional experience" he creates for his customers, he says, "It's almost everything. That's why we hire good-looking people in our stores. Because good-looking people attract other good-looking people, and we want to market to cool, good-looking people. We don't market to anyone other than that."

• As far as Jeffries is concerned, America's unattractive, overweight or otherwise undesirable teens can shop elsewhere. "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids," he says. "Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don't alienate anybody, but you don't excite anybody, either."

While I admire Abercombie's efforts to put younger and younger women in sexually suggestive underwear, I have never been able to shop at one of their stores because they are unbearably loud. And also because I don't have a great attitude or a lot of friends. Or any, really. Sometimes I have thought about finding an attractive homeless man and paying him to go in and buy the clothing for me, but I chickened out at the last second. I would shop for Abercrombie via catalog, but I have heard from a few people that looking at an Abercrombie catalog can make you gay. Maybe that's why there are so many gay customers:

For many young men, to wear Abercrombie is to broadcast masculinity, athleticism and inclusion in the "cool boys club" without even having to open their mouths (that may be why the brand is so popular among some gay men who want desperately to announce their non-effeminacy).

Anyway, this is sort of a long for a post that was mostly an excuse to post that creepy picture. But if any of you have siblings who have modeled for Abercrombie, I would love to hear their impressions of meeting Jeffries (he demands that he meet and approve every single model).