Rianna Croxford
(BBC) – More men have come forward to the BBC accusing the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch and his British partner of sexual exploitation. Some allege they were abused, and some that they were injected with drugs.
Luke says he was shocked as he was guided into Mike Jeffries’ presidential suite in a hotel in Spain. “It was like a movie set of an Abercrombie store,” he recalls of the event in 2011. “And I thought we were going to do a photoshoot.”
He says the room was dimly lit with erotic photos of men’s abs adorning the dark walls. In the middle, a group of assistants dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch uniforms – polos, blue jeans and flip-flops – were casually folding clothes on a table, pretending to be shop workers, he says.
Then aged 20, Luke says he had been offered the chance of being in a company advert if he flew from his home in Los Angeles to Madrid to meet the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F).
Luke says the proposal had come via a modelling website from a man who said he worked as a talent scout and executive assistant for Mr Jeffries – then head of the billion-dollar teen retailer.
Warning: This story contains accounts of sexual violence
In the suite, he says Mr Jeffries’ assistants began engaging in role-play, encouraging him to act as a shirtless greeter, a hallmark of A&F stores at the time. Luke says he remembers the talent scout saying: “Now I have two very important guests, and these are going to be the customers that you need to impress and entertain because they’re going to be buying a lot of clothes from you.”
