Engine Failure: I Went to the AlphaTauri Livery Launch

That Time I Had to Wear Real Clothes

Howdy, hi, hello. Welcome to Engine Failure, a culture newsletter that dives into what the fuck is really going on in Formula 1. It’s written by me, Lily Herman.

*Jonathan Van Ness voice* CAN YOU BELIEVE that this is the 60th issue of Engine Failure?! LMAO WHAT???? To honor that, I did something very hilarious within the context of this newsletter and my general stance on F1 media: I went to AlphaTauri’s combo livery launch/New York Fashion Week event.

On the topic of the 60 issues, I'll address one thing I get a lot of questions about: There isn't currently an official archive for all things EF; I just have the auto-generated Mailchimp one that only goes back a certain number of emails. There are things in the works (both a short-term fix and a long-term solution), but they'll take some time considering how far-reaching EF is. That said, every email includes links to the previous three newsletters, so I know people have sort of found their way back through that. Anyway, I don’t have much else in terms of EF announcements and housekeeping this week, so let’s jump into the ~evening of intrigue~.

Let’s Talk About the AlphaTauri Livery Launch

Friends, rarely do I get to truly gloat about being 100% right about something, but a year ago, I started yelling on Instagram Stories about how Abercrombie is the perfect brand to partner with F1 teams on merch. They’ve already created some great NBA and NFL collections that were trendy, and even more importantly for the purposes of this newsletter, they were featured on both the men's and women's sections.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I received word over the weekend that the company was doing a McLaren collaboration. I went to check the site and…found that the three shirts available were all only in the men’s section and only came in men’s sizing. (We'll get to why I'm not linking to said merch in a second, because y'all know I'm normally a Citations Bitch™.)

Before I go on a very classic EF rant ‘n’ analysis combo, let me dive into a slightly lengthy history of Abercrombie & Fitch, a brand that sends shivers down the spines of Millennial American women who are still recovering from the body dysmorphia and eating disorders given to them by The Culture of the Aughts™. (I still can’t believe the media tried to convince us back then that Jessica Simpson was fat during this appearance. Fuck everyone involved with that travesty.)

Anyway, in the pantheon of trendy shit for preteens and teens in the 2000s, Abercrombie & Fitch was at the top of the food chain. Back then, the org had 18-pack-abbed models standing outside some locations to take photos with customers, absurdly expensive prices, the strong smell of an Axe-ridden locker room (except it was whatever Abercrombie’s signature scent was), clothes that only fit people who had B-cup boobs at most, and workers who acted like they were paid to ignore you. Oh, and it had a total asshat as its CEO. Simply put, Abercrombie was inaccessible on purpose, like many pre-recession 2000s brands in America; it aimed for its prime customer to be the popular kid, and it wanted non-popular kids (hello, me!) to think that wearing this clothing would somehow make them cooler; Abercrombie also simultaneously made everything so ill-fitting on 95% of bodies that they served as a reminder that you'd never be That Girl™ no matter how hard you tried.

Of course, this POV on the American teen consumer didn’t work forever. A&F eventually started to tank as styles and preferences changed; values shifted among younger consumers. (Also, if you really want to learn more about all of this, there’s a whole Netflix documentary on it.)

As such, the brand has spent the past several years trying to redefine its style, customer profile, and overall vibe. Abercrombie now aims for a slightly older consumer (I once read the current CEO describe it as trying to create the perfect wardrobe for a young woman going away for a long weekend), and clothes are more about elevated, timeless basics. It expanded its size ranges (to a certain extent) and let out its seams a little bit, though like many companies in the industry, there’s soooooo much room for improvement. But all of these slow pivots have paid off: The brand has a lot of fans on platforms like TikTok (beloved F1 WAG Lily He even wore one of its viral dresses to a Grand Prix last year), and anecdotally speaking, many women I know in their late twenties and well into their thirties curse the fact that A&F's CurveLove jeans are so damn comfortable.

All in all, Abercrombie has been making strides. It has its issues and a previous reputation that’ll likely never quite go away, but it’s proven that it’s able to listen to customers (at least some of the time) and adapt.

Now that we understand why this A&F matters, I’m ready to talk about these “only F1 shirts in the men’s section that then sold out in 0.1 seconds” shenanigans.

First of all, gender binaries in fashion (and in life, let's be honest) are bullshit, so we didn’t even need the whole “men’s” and “women’s” apparel thing in the first place. Plenty of other outlets have already discussed the phenomenon at large, so I don’t feel the need to dive too far into it here. Like, you're telling me that Abercrombie couldn't sell unisex T-shirts or something at the very least? Really?

But on top of that, the idea that Abercrombie and McLaren thought to only produce merch for the men’s section of the website is absurd in The Year of Our Lord 2023. Abercrombie — as well as McLaren — were in a truly excellent position to capitalize on the sport’s bevy of female fans (both long-time ones and newer ones). The merch was cute ‘n’ simple! You could easily dress it up or down depending on what you wanted to wear with it! It’s faux-vintage in the way people like nowadays! But instead, the company clearly signaled (like so many other brands) that it believes only men are interested in Cars Going Vroom™. Talk about embarrassing.

Plus, McLaren is still desperately trying to peace out from its latest villain era, especially post-Daniel Ricciardo exit and post-Zak Brown musical chairs fuckery, and the team's partnerships division could’ve really used a win here. They would’ve looked cool (in a very basic capitalist way, of course) amid all of the sport's sexist bullshit.

Maybe there’s a women’s collection in the works and/or the supply-chain side of things hit a snag. Perhaps this was McLaren’s choice and Abercrombie simply went along for the ride — or vice versa. We don’t know the specifics; we just see as consumers that it was avoidable and disappointing. And to make matters more UGH, I got an email about 24 hours after placing my order saying that the McLaren items I purchased were on backorder and they couldn't guarantee I'd ever get them (I can, of course, cancel for a refund if I want); considering I've already heard from more than a few other people who had the same problem, it appears that Abercrombie and McLaren somehow drastically underestimated how popular this collab would be and what the rollout should look like.

In a surprise to almost no one, all three McLaren T-shirt listings have already been removed, at least on the U.S. side of the equation. It’s clear people wanted this merch really badly, and I guarantee you that women made up a large swath of consumers who bought it even if the company's antiquated gendered delineations tried to suggest it wasn’t for them. Overall, it never ceases to be (cynically) hilarious to me how badly Formula 1 needed these demographics (women, and in this case, Americans, though the line was also reportedly available in Europe) to grow and yet continues to be wholly unprepared for us now that we've arrived.

Anyway, it appears that F1 is dedicated to filling my disillusionment quota before the season even kicks off. Mission accomplished!