Founded in 1892 in Manhattan by David T. Abercrombie, A&F had been an elite outfitter of sporting and excursion goods. It struggled financially from the late 1960s until it was purchased by The Limited in 1988 and repositioned, under the management of Mike Jeffries, as the aspirational "Casual Luxury" lifestyle brand in present form.

Especially since 1997, the company has consistently kept a high-profile in the public eye - both positive and negative - due to its type of advertising (including its own film and magazines), its philanthropy, and its involvement in legal conflicts over branding, clothing style and employment practices.

The Abercrombie & Fitch company headquarters, or "Home Office", is located in New Albany, Ohio. Home Office is designed as a campus of sorts, and is referred to as such. The company's merchandise distribution centers (1,000,000sq.ft) are located exclusively on campus to help ensure brand protection. Also on campus are mock-up stores, one for each A&F brand, where store layout, merchandise and atmosphere are determined.

The company also has a European office in Milan, Italy.

The following are key corporate officials:

The company uses "brand representatives", now called "models," for store customer service. The models had been required to buy and wear Abercrombie & Fitch apparel but may now wear any no-logo clothing as long as it corresponds with the season. An "Impact Team" was created in 2004 to control merchandise within each store and maintain company standards; "visual managers" are responsible for forms, lighting, photo marketing, fragrance presentations and to ensure models comply with the "look policy". Lawsuits have been filed against the company due to alleged discriminatory employment practices. In 2004, in Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores (see Legal issues & Controversy and Criticism below), the company was sued for giving desirable positions to white applicants, to the exclusion of minorities.

On April 14, 2005, Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California granted final approval to a settlement of Gonzalez v. Abercrombie & Fitch. The settlement requires the company to pay $40 million to several thousand minority and female plaintiffs who charged the company with discrimination. The settlement also requires the company to institute a range of policies and programs to promote diversity among its workforce and to prevent discrimination based on race or gender. The consent decree governs the recruitment, hiring, job assignment, training, and promotion of Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, and abercrombie kids employees. A monitor will regularly evaluate and report on the company's compliance with the provisions of the consent decree. These provisions include:

The official logo of Abercrombie & Fitch is the moose.

A&F is known for its racy marketing photography, rendered to grayscale and featuring outdoors, beach, or mountain backdrops, with common elements of semi-nude males and scantly-clad women.

A&F casts only store employees for marketing campaigns. Casting directors from the home office travel to key A&F regional stores in the United States and to London to hold "casting calls" for employees aspiring to become the next "A&F New Face".