26 Hemingway’s A&F Gun Purchase
Ernest Hemingway, a frequent customer of Abercrombie & Fitch, purchased the gun he used to commit suicide in 1961 from the store. After his death, his wife consigned several of his guns back to the company.
27. During the Nazi occupation of France, Coco Chanel leveraged her “Aryan” status to claim sole ownership of Chanel, a company co-directed by Jewish partners. However, the Wertheimer family, anticipating this move, temporarily handed control to a Christian French businessman, who returned the company to them after the war.
28. Gianni Versace’s favorite niece, Allegra Versace, inherited 50% ownership of his fashion empire due to a long-standing disagreement within the Versace family. She was only 11 years old at the time of his death, but on her 18th birthday, Allegra became worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
29. The Swatch Group, a multibillion-dollar holding company, owns the iconic 1980s watch brand Swatch. The group also controls ETA, the largest manufacturer of Swiss watch movements, which holds a near-monopoly in the industry.
30. The name “Rolex” holds no specific meaning. Its founder created it as a completely made-up word that could be easily pronounced in any language.
31 The Venetian Party of Century
A 1951 costume ball in Venice, hosted by eccentric millionaire Carlos de Beistegui, earned the title “party of the century.” Over a thousand guests attended, including Salvador Dalí, Christian Dior, and Orson Welles. Hoping to gain entry, uninvited attendees anchored their yachts offshore.
32. In 2011, Abercrombie & Fitch offered Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from Jersey Shore $10,000 to stop wearing their clothes. The company believed his association with their brand could cause “significant damage” to their image.
33. After Christian Dior introduced the “New Look” fashion collection in 1947, protests emerged against the extravagant designs. One group, the “League of Broke Husbands,” comprising 30,000 men, opposed the high costs linked to the large amounts of fabric required for the outfits.
34. Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dior, Bulgari, Marc Jacobs, Tag Heuer, Givenchy, and Fendi all fall under the ownership of Bernard Arnault, the head of LVMH, the world’s largest luxury conglomerate.
35. Google Images came into existence after Jennifer Lopez wore her iconic green Versace dress to the 2000 Grammy Awards. The dress sparked an unprecedented surge in Google searches, making it the platform’s most popular query at the time.
36 Shoe Polishing with Champagne
Members of Olga Berluti’s exclusive Swann Club polish their shoes using Venetian linen soaked in Dom Pérignon champagne and expose them to the light of the quarter moon. Berluti claims, “The moon gives transparency to leather. The sun burns; the moon burnishes.”
37. Contrary to popular belief, Dom Pérignon did not invent champagne in the late 1600s. Benedictine monks in 1531 pioneered double fermentation by bottling wine before the process ended. Later, English scientist Christopher Merret advanced the method by adding sugar to create a second fermentation. Pérignon, however, refined the process and made significant improvements.
38. In 1989, a wine bottle from Thomas Jefferson’s collection was valued at $500,000 by its owner, William Sokolin. During a Margaux dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel, a waiter accidentally knocked over and shattered the bottle. The insurance settlement paid Sokolin $225,000.
39. Employees at Four Seasons hotels enjoy a generous benefit: a complimentary five-night stay at any Four Seasons property every year.
40. Gucci’s competitors once sent Gucci handbags to Jersey Shore star Snooki as a counter-branding tactic. They hoped to avoid her being seen with their own merchandise.
41 A&F’s Workplace Discrimination Lawsuit
In 2003, Abercrombie & Fitch faced a workplace discrimination lawsuit for firing Asian, Black, and other minority employees, claiming they “did not fit the A&F image.”
42. Tom Cruise revived Ray-Bans’ popularity when their sales plummeted in the 1970s. A product placement deal for 60 films led Cruise to wear Wayfarers in Risky Business, Aviators in Top Gun, and sunglasses in Rain Man, causing sales to skyrocket.
43. The Ritz-Carlton has a long-standing policy of empowering employees with $2,000 in discretionary funds to resolve customer complaints as they see fit.
44. Some luxury buildings in New York City require board approval before allowing buyers to purchase apartments. Mariah Carey was famously rejected after attending an interview in a midriff-baring outfit and responding, “He be dead,” when asked if Biggie Smalls would visit.
45. Introduced in 2018, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree topper boasts 3 million Swarovski crystals and weighs an astounding 900 pounds (408.23 kg).
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
46 Gucci’s Historic Tax Settlement
Gucci faced accusations of tax evasion on more than €1 billion in revenues between 2011 and 2017. Although its owner, Kering, denied wrongdoing, the company agreed to a record $1.4 billion settlement with Italian tax authorities in 2019.
47. Tiffany & Co., renowned for its luxury jewelry, began as a stationery and fancy goods store. It also crafts the Lombardi Trophy, awarded to Super Bowl champions, at a cost of approximately $50,000.
48. Louis Vuitton sued dog toy company Haute Diggity Dog over its parody “Chewy Vuiton” handbag. However, the court sided with the dog toy company, ruling in their favor.
49. The International Debutante Ball, held every two years at New York City’s Waldorf Astoria, is an exclusive event introducing young women from affluent families to high society. Participation fees alone start at $22,000.
50. In Japan, melons are considered luxury items, with certain varieties fetching prices as high as $22,500 each.
RE: Fact #13 (Hamilton’s Trademark Legal Battle) – He thinks he’s all that important?
RE: Fact #1 (Luxottica’s Eyewear Market Monopoly) – Lots of places sell glasses, like LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, and Pearle Vision. They also carry popular brands such as Ray-Ban, Persol, and Oakley.
It’s basically a monopoly, controlling everything from making the glasses to selling them. The Justice Department hasn’t touched them because of, uh, money.
The Oakley deal is nuts! Luxottica controlled all the stores, so Oakley couldn’t sell their sunglasses anywhere. Plus, Oakley blew it by not selling more online or through the mail. Luxottica had a total monopoly. They scooped up Oakley when it was practically worthless.
It’s also insane how they made Ray-Ban a luxury brand. Remember those huge, clunky, cheap Ray-Bans your grandparents wore? You’d see them at Kmart and places like that. Luxottica bought them, shut them down for a while, and then relaunched them as high-end.
RE: Fact #8 (Limousine’s Aristocratic French Origins) – Their cattle are really strong and muscular, too.
RE: Fact #7 (Payless’ Luxury Store Prank) – Back in middle school, I got these cheap basketball shoes from Payless—twelve bucks! Two minutes into my first practice, someone’s yelling about scuff marks on the floor. Turns out, it was me! My shoes were leaving these huge black streaks everywhere. I had to take them off and practice in my socks. My family still gives me grief about it.
RE: Fact #49 (Debutante Ball’s High Participation Fee) – Charity balls are cool, and so are costume balls. But the best? The ones just for fun.
My balls are always jiggling around, left and right. I think my big balls deserve some pampering every night.
RE: Fact #5 (Neiman Marcus’ Exclusive Clientele) – That place I worked at? It would’ve folded after Covid if it wasn’t for a handful of customers. Lucky me, I was deemed “essential” after just a week of what felt like the end of the world. I still remember shipping a ten-thousand-dollar dress during the second week of the pandemic – crazy times!
So, what was the big shopping craze all about? Clothes and shoes, right?
I’ve met some seriously wealthy young people who, get this, don’t even know how to do laundry! They wear clothes once and toss them. Seriously, never worn again.
And then they whine that their dads only give them $7,000 a month, while their best friend gets $12,000! Can you believe it?
Probably just super fancy shoes and clothes. One guy buying five $7,000 suits brings in way more cash than 150 guys buying a couple of $200 shirts.
RE: Fact #48 (Louis Vuitton vs. Chewy Vuiton) – US parody laws let you use other people’s trademarks for parodies—that’s why Weird Al can cover songs without permission. He usually asks anyway, just to be nice, and most artists say yes.
RE: Fact #14 (Luxury Goods as Investments) – Back when I lived in Hawaii, I saw loads of Japanese girls hitting Oahu with extra-empty suitcases. They’d splurge on UGG boots from the fancy downtown shops, chill on the beach in nice hotels for a few days, then head home. The way I figured it, they could resell those boots for so much more that their whole trip was paid for. It’s basically arbitrage, I guess, but this reminded me of that.
Luxury stuff’s way cheaper in the EU and US, even with taxes. So, people in Asia get funding to go to France or the US, pretending to be tourists, to buy tons of luxury goods and resell them back home.
They’re smuggling stuff, basically to avoid paying taxes. No judgment, but that’s the long and short of it.
RE: Fact #12 (Lincoln Town Car’s Limousine Legacy) – So, Lincoln doesn’t make the Town Car anymore.
RE: Fact #40 (Gucci’s Counter-Branding Against Snooki) – I totally forgot about Jersey Shore!
We’re all giving it a go.
I was hoping the Jersey Shore cast would suddenly shout “…and scene!”, revealing they’re secretly a Danish improv group. Still waiting!
RE: Fact #32 (A&F Pays Jersey Shore Star) – Ten thousand dollars? Seriously? That’s not enough to really hurt a national clothing brand.
RE: Fact #26 (Hemingway’s A&F Gun Purchase) – So, A&F used to be like a fancy REI, before it got bought and changed.
RE: Fact #11 (Steinway’s Military Victory Piano) – This, like those ice cream barges, really shows how the US fought WWII in a totally different way than other countries. I mean, the Brits had tea kettles in their tanks, but did anyone else have such “luxuries”? Did other armies do anything like the USO shows, for instance?
RE: Fact #7 (Payless’ Luxury Store Prank) – My mom had her own little shop, and she’d get these gorgeous cashmere scarves for three bucks each. She tried selling them for eight bucks, but nobody bought them. Then, on a lark, she bumped the price up to eighty bucks – and they flew off the shelves!
It was the same with her sewing. Twenty bucks for a repair? People complained. A hundred bucks? They were thrilled!
See, cheap stuff makes people think it’s cheap, but a higher price tag makes them think it’s high-quality. It’s not always true, but it happens a lot.
That taught me a big lesson: business is way more about people’s heads than it is about the bottom line.
Thanks for sharing your stories!
One more thing: Yeah, a lot of “influencers” are kind of… well, you know. But we’ve all bought something that was total junk, but looked amazing in the ads. If a magic trick can fool you, good marketing can too!
RE: Fact #46 (Gucci’s Historic Tax Settlement) – Giving away $1.4 billion sounds like an admission of guilt, even if they say they didn’t do it.
RE: Fact #25 (Preservation of Jackie’s Chanel Suit) – My mother-in-law, she was young, working at the Archives, and she always talked about the time Jackie Kennedy showed up with the suit in this big box. She told that story for years, exactly the same way every time. I don’t know how much of it was actually true, but one thing she never left out: they only got a quick peek, but there wasn’t a hat in the box.
Nobody knows where that hat ended up. Her old secretary, Mary Barelli Gallagher, said she gave it to Jackie’s Secret Service guy. She passed away recently; she’d kept mum about it for years. She also wrote a pretty bitchy book about working for Jackie.
RE: Fact #38 (Jefferson’s $500,000 Wine Mishap) – Man, that waiter had it rough. I’ve had terrible days at work, but nothing like breaking a half-million-dollar bottle of wine!
Yeah, a $225,000 mistake? I’ve seen worse. I once clipped a hangar with an Embraer 175 while taxiing—new winglets from Brazil cost around $250,000! My punishment? A warning, a drug test, and three days paid vacation. That’s why companies get insurance.
RE: Fact #35 (Versace Dress Inspires Google Images) – Jennifer Lopez’s green dress was pretty revealing.
RE: Fact #4 (Victoria’s Secret’s Marketing Shift) – Pink spandex, 24 inches of it. Pretty hot, huh?
RE: Fact #32 (A&F Pays Jersey Shore Star) – It would’ve been smarter to ask for way more money and threaten to act even worse in nothing but A and F.
RE: Fact #8 (Limousine’s Aristocratic French Origins) – So, that’s why cars made outside the Limousin area can’t be called limousines – they have to be called “long cars.”
RE: Fact #9 (Apple Learns from Ritz-Carlton) – So, my problem with Apple stores—and this is just my opinion, of course—is kinda like this: The whole concierge thing is great, if it’s done right. But it’s supposed to be optional! You can totally just leave a fancy hotel and do your own thing. Apple seems to have missed that part. I go in knowing exactly what I want—say, a Mac mini—and I have to wait in line, talk to someone, explain myself… it’s like they’re making it hard on purpose! It’s ridiculous; it’s as if the Ritz wouldn’t let you leave unless you checked in with the concierge first.
RE: Fact #4 (Victoria’s Secret’s Marketing Shift) – Years ago, my wife and I went to this place, and it was mostly women, though we saw a few other couples. Then, right before Christmas, I was at the mall waiting for someone, and the store was all women – not a single guy.
RE: Fact #15 (Supreme’s Logo Controversy) – Supreme’s ripping off designs! Can you believe it?
Their logo should say TWAT; wearing their stuff makes you look like one.
Seriously, suing? They think they’re some big shot company or something?
RE: Fact #44 (Luxury Building Rejects Mariah Carey) – There’s a co-op near Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. When Mr. Rogers first tried to buy an apartment there, they turned him down. They didn’t want anyone famous who’d draw a crowd.
Nah, I’m good.
I saw a YouTube video about how Logan Paul’s fans are driving the neighbours crazy with all the noise and mess. And those influencers living there? Total jerks.
RE: Fact #4 (Victoria’s Secret’s Marketing Shift) – Columbus, Ohio? Turns out, it’s the panty capital! Go figure.
RE: Fact #15 (Supreme’s Logo Controversy) – What’s even better is that Kruger just sent back a blank email with a Word doc called “fools.doc” that said: “What a ridiculous mess of uncool jokers. My work’s all about this kind of silly stuff. I’m waiting for them to sue me for copyright.”
About the Supreme lawsuit, she said it was hilarious. She thought it was funny that these supposedly cool, independent people were suing each other over money. That’s the kind of thing her work is about. Her three-sentence reply was her way of responding on their level. It had nothing to do with Supreme “ripping her off”—they’ve done that forever, and she doesn’t care.
RE: Fact #6 (A&F CEO’s Controversial Remarks) – Word on the street at A&F is that Michael Jeffries is a real jerk. Beyond the whole thing about firing his 55-year-old pilot for not looking the part, apparently Abercrombie & Fitch doesn’t donate unsold clothes to charity because it’s bad for their image—they just burn them. I don’t know for sure if that’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
RE: Fact #43 (Ritz-Carlton’s $2,000 Employee Empowerment) – So, my buddy works at the Ritz, right? That two grand is legit, and he mostly uses it to treat customers to free drinks and food. He’s pretty selective about who he does it for, and it’s not like he’s constantly covering up for hotel screw-ups.
One time, he heard these two guys—one a big-shot businessman staying at a nearby hotel—were chatting business poolside. He comped their $600 bill, gave them awesome service, and a few minutes later, they had a manager out there planning their yearly convention. Now, the Ritz gets their business every year – we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in banquets and stuff.
And yeah, I may have scored a couple free poolside drinks myself. 😉
RE: Fact #22 (De Beers Battles Lab Diamonds) – I’m a millennial, and I’m happy to be putting the diamond industry out of business.
RE: Fact #18 (Rigby & Peller Loses Warrant) – Seriously, would you want everyone knowing about your bra fitting? Doubtful, right?
RE: Fact #43 (Ritz-Carlton’s $2,000 Employee Empowerment) – I work at the Ritz-Carlton, and yeah, we have a $2000 budget to make things right for guests or smooth over problems. I mostly use it for stuff like champagne and strawberries for anniversaries or birthday treats—I even handwrite a card. After a while, all the celebrations blend together. You rarely get a thank you.
But then, you meet some amazing people who are blown away by the whole luxury experience. And then there are the jerks who know we have that $2000 and abuse it. They’ll complain about anything—I’ve even had someone pull the “housekeeper broke the glass” stunt.
It’s great to have that power, but it also means people take advantage. I think the hotel gives us that money to avoid paying managers. It’s cheaper to let us deal with complaints instead of calling in a manager for every little thing.
They tell us to use our best judgment—or go with “the punishment fits the crime.” Find a hair in your food? Free meal, and breakfast’s on us! A $200 dinner costs us $35, while a $65 breakfast is only $4.50 for the hotel. The limit’s based on what the guest pays, not what it costs us.
How do they manage to give everyone a $2000 bonus?
RE: Fact #42 (Tom Cruise Saves Ray-Bans) – Using Tom Cruise to sell stuff isn’t exactly brain surgery.
RE: Fact #38 (Jefferson’s $500,000 Wine Mishap) – That’s how people pull off insurance fraud.
Want me to break something else?
RE: Fact #28 (Allegra Versace’s Inherited Wealth) – Donatella had the smallest piece of the pie, and she always seemed a little shady.
RE: Fact #41 (A&F’s Workplace Discrimination Lawsuit) – Wow, I didn’t know that. That’s gross.
RE: Fact #6 (A&F CEO’s Controversial Remarks) – Wow, he’s really not attractive.
RE: Fact #2 (Puma Loses D&G Lawsuit) – That reminds me of when Marvel went after City of Heroes, claiming they let players rip off their superheroes. The judge tossed it out because every example Marvel gave was actually made by *their own people*! The judge basically said there was no proof of any real copying.
RE: Fact #45 (Rockefeller Tree’s Swarovski Topper) – That’s a bit much.
RE: Fact #14 (Luxury Goods as Investments) – Anyone want to buy some tulips?
RE: Fact #16 (Burberry Burns Unsold Merchandise) – It’s way overpriced; the name’s 90% of the cost. I mean, yeah, it’s “worth” whatever someone’s willing to pay, but those buyers are clueless.
RE: Fact #44 (Luxury Building Rejects Mariah Carey) – It’s not just for fancy folks; a regular coop can do the same. They don’t even need to explain why they say no.
RE: Fact #26 (Hemingway’s A&F Gun Purchase) – TIL: Abercrombie & Fitch has been around forever, and they used to sell guns!
RE: Fact #5 (Neiman Marcus’ Exclusive Clientele) – When I was eighteen, I walked into a Neiman Marcus with a grand in my pocket. Saw these killer crocodile pants and thought, “Screw it, I’ll buy them!” Then I saw the price tag: almost ten grand. Yeah, I left.
RE: Fact #10 (Lead Crystal’s Hidden Health Risk) – Lead glass – was it ever as clear as that picture? It’s weird how lead paint is so opaque, but lead glass is usually clear.