Abercrombie & Fitch reopens at Arese mall

Something like a decade ago Abercrombie & Fitch was the sensation in Milan. Lines, models with their abs in the wind even in December, pounding music spilling out of the store doors along with truckloads of that perfume that would be impossible to forget - and for all the wrong reasons. Those who lived in the provinces and had the chance to go to Milan always came back loaded with bags of Abercrombie - a status symbol denoting internationality, economic means and total attunement to the cultural zeitgeist of the time. Then the Abercrombie & Fitch myth collapsed, problematic shirtless models fled in search of editorials or discovered that they could strip on Instagram without suffering the cold of the Milanese winter, and fast fashion conquered the world with its fleet of flagships. Even Abercrombie & Fitch found itself having to close the doors of its Corso Matteotti store; it was the end of an era marked by hedonism and vague bad taste. But what's not dead shows up again: in fact, the brand has announced its imminent return to Lombardy, at a prudent safe distance from the Quadrilatero though. The new store will in fact reopen in Arese, in the "Il Centro" shopping center, on August 12 and will be the first in Europe to feature the new concept entitled "The Getaway."

The idea for the new concept comes, of course, after a difficult period for the American brand, which, while too big to collapse suddenly, had last May experienced the biggest drop in its stock since 1996, a -28.5 percent drop that, added to the other declines, has seen the brand's stock value drop a total of 44 percent in the past year alone. This slump has been attributed by the company to inflation and the high cost of energy and raw materials, although surely the release of the documentary White Hot on Netflix, which dredged up the various scandals in which the company was involved, will have played its part - jointly also with the forgetfulness of the public who, compared to the early 2000s, possess new outlets for their Sunday shopping. This does not hinder the optimism of CEO Fran Horowitz, who has estimated that by 2025 the company could reach a turnover of more than $4 billion. Certainly, expansion into the European market will be a central element of that growth, and it appears that Arese will be ground zero for the brand's new life.