But this guy's hatred of people he deemed less-than-perfect extended so much further than those who wore his store's clothes. During his tenure as head of the company, he also micromanaged the looks of every member of his personal staff, as well as those who worked on the corporate plane.
This was not your standard guide to workplace attire. This was a 40-page manual the actors and models had to follow every word of. (To be clear, that's actors and models he hired to be staff, not to star in ad campaigns or commercials for the brand. Forget Hollywood; if you were hot enough you could clean this guy's toilet!) It detailed how they had to behave and the clothes and cologne they had to wear. Some of the weirder bits included making sure the collars of their polo shirts were popped at all times, wearing flip-flops in all weather, and never putting on a coat if it was above 50 degrees or hats and gloves above 40. For our Celsius-loving friends, that is getting damn near close to freezing. And lest you think Disney was the only company with weird rules about employees' underwear, Abercrombie's male staff was required to exclusively wear boxer-briefs.
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There is a LOT more, which can be summed up as NO WIRE HANGERS, EVER!
This all came to light when one of the cabin crew was fired and sued, saying it was due to age discrimination. That's right; apparently it wasn't enough for Jeffries to surround himself with pretty, well-dressed (in his mind, anyway) people at all times. He presumably wanted to stop any reminder of the slow march of time, taking him ever closer to death. God forbid the guy serving you peanuts at 35,000 feet have a few wrinkles that remind you of your own mortality.
Still, considering the crew member would have had to constantly listen to the same song by Phil Collins during takeoff and landing, getting fired was probably worth it.
Kathy wrote a very funny book called FUNERALS TO DIE FOR, and you can buy it here. Or follow her on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.
Deep inside us all -- behind our political leanings, our moral codes, and our private biases -- there is a cause so colossally stupid that we surprise ourselves with how much we care. Whether it's toilet paper position, fedoras on men, or Oxford commas, we each harbor a preference so powerful we can't help but proselytize to the world. In this episode of the Cracked podcast, guest host Soren Bowie is joined by Cody Johnston, Michael Swaim, and comedian Annie Lederman to discuss the most trivial things we will argue about until the day we die. Get your tickets here!
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