These Are the Last Abs You'll Ever See at Abercrombie & Fitch

NEW ALBANY, United States — Nine months ago, Abercrombie & Fitch began a great purge of its ubiquitous abs.

Hoping the shift in marketing would win back teen shoppers, Abercrombie's billboards and website started featuring clothed models instead of bared, tanned, sculpted male torsos. Sexy photos stopped appearing in Abercrombie's investor presentations. And the shirtless armies of identical sandy-haired male models who greeted customers at new Abercrombie stores put their clothes back on.

Abercrombie's ab elimination is nearly complete, but there's still a lone, rippling holdout: the company's “Fierce” cologne.

Bottles of Fierce, the “signature fragrance of Abercrombie & Fitch” (and the inescapable scent that wafts through Abercrombie stores), continue to feature a shirtless male model, his hands pulling down on his waistband, his sinewy torso on full display. His head is cut off by the bottle's cap. He has no face. He is just abs.

There's a reason Abercrombie made an exception for cologne bottles after scrubbing abs from the rest of its business. A person familiar with the company’s marketing plans says Abercrombie kept the shirtless model on its cologne because the image fits the provocative sensibilities of the fragrance industry.

Cologne brands under famous fashion houses have long used sexualized packaging to sell fragrances—Jean Paul Gaultier, for instance, offers a bottle of cologne (called LE MALE) in the shape of a man sporting a hefty bulge below the belt. Television and print ads for cologne are often racy, featuring models in provocative poses and plenty of sexual tension. In 2007, Tom Ford raised eyebrows for running a print campaign that featured a naked female model with a bottle of cologne wedged between her breasts.

Abercrombie has never taken Fierce's promotion quite that far. But the cologne, which was launched in 2002, has always adhered to a seductive, ultramasculine aesthetic.

On its website, Abercrombie calls Fierce "the world's hottest fragrance" and "a symbol of masculinity and great American achievement." At $54 for a 1.7 oz. bottle, the cologne also promises success with the ladies: "The clean scent of fresh citrus will grab her attention and warm musk will keep her interested." Fierce even comes in the form of a $64 candle, for shoppers who want the aroma of their homes to evoke an Abercrombie store.

The company has been intensely protective of the Fierce brand in the past. In 2009, it sued Beyoncé over the Fierce name, claiming that a deal for a Sasha Fierce fragrance line with beauty products manufacturer Coty violated Abercrombie's trademark. Coty later said it never meant to use the Sasha Fierce name on its fragrances.

By Kim Bhasin. Edited by Katie Drummond.