Elements movement on the all-new homepage
feat. a translucent "sticky" nav. bar.
feat. a translucent "sticky" nav. bar.
Personal account and shopping features access
in clean, clear minimalist form.
in clean, clear minimalist form.
Mens and Womens divisions continue in form introduced in February,
though side menu has been more appealingly spaced.
though side menu has been more appealingly spaced.
Purely beautiful. This sums up the clean, classic aesthetic of the
new enhancement incorporating an elegant play of white and bright
and light tones with bold, sophisticated dark grays.
new enhancement incorporating an elegant play of white and bright
and light tones with bold, sophisticated dark grays.
Item presentation continues in form as introduced in February,
though it and the new upgrades work beautifully for a
highly pleasing shopping experience.
though it and the new upgrades work beautifully for a
highly pleasing shopping experience.
The introduction of the all-new superior upgrades – reaffirming sophistication and higher-grade ethos – comes at a time right before the arrival of the Christmas 2014 fashion season which, #THEHOTTESTBLOG points out, will incidentally be ten years after the introduction of Casual Luxury. Back in the Letter from the Editor from earlier this year introducing a perspective on what was to come this year, it was pointed out that "history does not repeat itself, but it does echo" – as in 2004, Abercrombie & Fitch has in 2014 been pushing to reaffirm its footing in the industry, and we've witnessed many new progressive initiatives throughout the year hitherto in pursuit of the realization of that effort. This site enhancement has got to be the most beautiful of the many happenings yet, and it comes at a time when ecommerce is more critical and growing than ever and only as result of ever advancing technological influence in the consumer lifestyle; it falls inline with continuing to capture and grow direct-to-consumer business with intelligence and appeal.
In more closer terms of graphics, truly the most ingenious thing from a visual and navigational perspective is the beautiful full-stylized brand label centralized with quadrant-organized, perfectly positioned lead links. Furthermore, the double row main-with-supplementary links placement has been format familiar to abercrombie.com since the Casual Luxury years...
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| Screenshot of abercrombie.com during Christmas 2005. Seen here is the aesthetic during the pre-Christmas 2006 Casual Luxury period. The site was redesigned Xmas 2006 to full white. |
As you can see, so has the norm of utilizing three spaces, underneath the home image, for promotional material. Because of the way they hide by scrolling down on this new 2014 upgrade, it also reminds one of those on gillyhicks.com during its early online store days; those were individual frames, though, that were hidden except for a slight portion at their top and would rise up when nearing the cursor to them, and the website was Flash Player enhanced really sophisticated and beautiful. Anyway, it's highly intelligent, the homepage and site navigation format.
"My first time on abercrombie.com was during Christmas 2005 in December. I was 14. I'll never forget it, captivated, and I've always loved and been inspired by it of then, and the Casual Luxury years in general. I grew up an Abercrombie guy during the Casual Luxury (A&F) and Classic Cool (a&f kids, then initialized "a92") micro-era, and it'll remain with me forever. It shaped me in a lot of ways. And Matt was the lead model of my first ever season venturing with A&F, and he has since then and forever will be my utmost favorite A&F model of all time: to me, he's the exemplary ideal of the Abercrombie & Fitch man, in the modern era, as captured by the lens of master Bruce Weber. He was highly prominent for that campaign and for the inauguration of the first A&F Flagship, Fifth Avenue. Rookie Dreams of Greatness, by Bruce, focused on him and was sold at the flagship; Matt signing copies. He's my ultimate favorite, and no one comes close. (I could say more, and my love of Jessica Perez and other models, including my most recent obsession with Fall 2014's long-haired, fair-faced beauty poised in easy-fit sweater, fine floral skirt on wicker chair, is a totally different discussion). Anyway, personally I'm a mind majorly of bold sophistication, brooding, and romanticism, and the aesthetic of the pre-Christmas 2006 website – it was entirely redesigned for that season – had that with my first visit there featuring the Xmas 2005 campaign with its attitude. It's classical Abercrombie to me, and I always look to it for inspiration and reinterpretation. I feel like this 2014 upgrade on the site has brought an updated attitude from the mid-2000s: utmost sophistication – dark grays and light tones, with compelling design – fitting of the time, and I am very impressed and appreciative of that. I'm also literally OCD and will seriously stare legitly admiring the corner of a tab or the certain space and placement and form of letters/words, lines, movement, whatever else have you in design wherever on screen or out there live, for an obscene amount of time. I am beyond impressed and obsessed with this new 2014 upgrade, and I strongly feel it will definitely encourage more time spent on and more visits than already by the fans and newcomers alike. It's sure got me." - C.E.R., Editor-in-Chief, The Sitch on Fitch
Stay FIERCE!