WARNING - THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS BARE CHESTS
A typical Saturday afternoon
Abercrombie & Fitch Pedder Street Hong Kong
Nice young man on the wall of the shop
A small part of the huge murals dipicting scenes from
a man's changing room.
The location for Abercrombie & Fitch in Hong Kong is in the Pedder Building, Central. They have taken over the space previously occupied by Shanghai Tang and opened back in August with a magnificent event focusing around bare chested male models. I am quite sad that Shanghai Tang has gone because the smell of ginger lilly, to me, meant Hong Kong. Every time I walked past I would get a subtle whiff and feel "Ah Hong Kong, I love it" I bought their room freshener for that very reason. It evokes good memories and connections for me. Occasionally I would wander around that shop and look at their beautiful objects from delicate tableware to stunning silk dresses designed in an original Hong Kong style which has a certain sophisticated elegance. (obviously none of it fits around my womanliness as they are Asian sizes) but that doesn't stop me touching every item and loving the whole experience.
The beautiful tiled floor, original wooden skirting boards and floors with a spiral stair case was a tiny taste of original colonial features and as there are so very few such buildings left because, sadly, Hong Kong likes to smash down the old and build new, this was one place that had been preserved.
It is with even more sadness that upon my visit into the Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt shop which has now taken over the Shanghai Tang building, that they have ripped the guts out of the fittings and replaced them with an unrecognizable floor layout. Now you must remember the next piece of information. Don't forget no matter what you do. It is essential to keep in mind - that - Abercrombie and Fitch sell T-shirts, jeans and very very ordinary casual clothes. But they somehow have manufactured an artificial facade of a luxury designer goods shop - but it not - they sell t-shirts. T-shirts, you know a simple thin jersey tee, round neck, short sleeve and unfortunately have the words Abercrombie and Fitch written on every item. That is enough to put me off wearing any item. Why do I want the name of someone else across my chest I will never know or do EVER!
In order to trick customers from the street and into the shop, Abercrombie and Fitch have a marketing technique that makes us all believe we are actually entering a sumptuous night club with dark wooden staircases, potted palms, chandeliers, loud music and in between all these false fittings and eye catching murals featuring the male physique at its most finest, you can find the odd hanger with one or two items for sale.
The murals on the walls are huge. From floor to ceiling there are scenes of men in various states of undress and I must say they are very good. And in the same way that ginger lilly used to whaft around Central A&F have their own take on the theme but they pump out a different smell which I am convinced is a mixture of male sweat and pheromones (that may be one in the same thing?).
I have to come clean and say right now, hands up and I confess - that I have zero interest in buying clothes or smells from A & F as I will never wear an item with a logo and its all a bit ordinary and casual but I am drawn like a magnet into the shop purely so I can be near the beautiful male models who stand in the entrance and dotted around the shop with their chests out. Each chest is waxed to the point of being smooth as a peach and each set of abs and pecs are precison chiseled making their muscle definition so stunning I just can't help but look. Even if I haven't got time to go in and pretend to look at the t-shirts, I find myself just standing still at the bottom of the steps, staring up to see if those lovely men have got their chests out. If the weather is a bit chilly they do wear shirts, always disappointing.
All in all I am a total hypocrite about this whole t-shirt selling business. I really wish they had left he shop alone. I really wish the greedy landlord hadn't forced Shanghai Tang out and I really wish A&F sold nice clothes. But I just love those chests....
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