Nottingham Students Oppose Abercrombie And Fitch Careers Fair Appearance

Students Pressure University To Ban Abercrombie & Fitch

A university has been forced to defend its decision to invite controversial clothes label Abercrombie & Fitch to its careers fair, after nearly 80% of students opposed the appearance.

Nottingham University released a statement saying its students were "adults" and were able to decide whether or not they wanted to engage with A&F.

The company has been in the headlines recently after its CEO Mike Jeffries publicly announced he didn't want "fat or not so cool" people buying his products.

Abercrombie & Fitch Models during Abercrombie & Fitch Store Opening on 5th Avenue in New York City

Jeffries has previously said his brand is "absolutely.. exclusionary" and he only wants to market to "cool, good-looking people".

A poll by student paper Impact found 78% of students wanted the university to retract its careers fairs invitation to the clothes company.

Nottingham University defended itself, saying: "“We do not think it is appropriate to withdraw the opportunities to those students interested in a possible career with this company on the basis of one person’s ill-considered remarks. Our students are adults and are able to make their own decisions about whether or not they engage with any particular organisation. As such, we don’t think it’s appropriate to rescind A&F’s registration at the fair.

"A&F is one of 40 employers attending the Summer Careers fair, has attended fairs in the past, and is popular with Nottingham students as a graduate recruiter."

Although some students supported the appearance of A&F, second year sociologist and Nottingham student Will Hazell told Impact: "There should not be any room within this University for exclusive, preening vanity. If Abercrombie & Fitch wants to exclude people they deem to be ‘uncool’, then the University of Nottingham should exclude A&F."

We asked our Twitter followers whether they thought Nottingham should retract its invite to A&F and here's what they told us:

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