Some Things Never Change: Undercover at Abercrombie & Fitch London

British writer Tom Mitchelson was scouted and hired to "model" at the New Abercrombie & Fitch store on Savile Row in London. Naturally, he couldn't resist turning the experience into a scathing article for the Daily Mail. It appears that Abercrombie is just as whacked in London as it is here.
Some choice excerpts:

I threw myself even more furiously into my only practical function: pursuing customers zealously and refolding the moment they ruffled anything. Soon I couldn't stop. I was heading for an obsessive compulsive disorder.
One model told me he'd been instructed to smile till his jaw ached. The room was empty at the time: "What do they want me to smile at: the clothes?" he muttered.
The company told us it was an equal opportunity employer. Funny, because all its visible staff are young and beautiful.
The unattractive, the overweight and the disabled just don't seem to make it on to the shop floor. In fact, there is no lift and therefore no way for wheelchair users to work or shop upstairs.
As far as age goes, at 29 I was probably the oldest there. I thought that if the law permitted it, managers would have exercised quality-control over the customers, too, and I might be assigned to blow a whistle if anyone old or fat ventured in.

I don't get out of bed for less than £6.50. Fortunately this was A&F's hourly rate. They trade on the inexhaustable supply of beautiful dimwits for whom the excitement of being hired as "model" matters more than the pay scale. I got the impression that, ideally, they'd like us to pay them, rather than the other way round.
The men who stood semi-clothed at the entrance earned an extra £1 an hour. But they had the required A&F six-pack. The new way of selling clothes seems to be not wearing them.
Then there was the little clutch of dancers who have to jig around endlessly on a sort-of platform. Some of the customers thought this was cruel.

Gee, I don't recall any dancers in New York!
Poseurs Paradise! What's it really like to work at the new Abercrombie & Fitch store? by Tom Mitchelson (Daily Mail via Towleroad)
Previously: What, No Drink Tickets?: Abercrombie & Fitch