Is this fashion's Men-Too moment after Abercrombie & Fitch allegation

There were the half-naked male models and pretty girls hanging around nonchalantly by the entrance, the so-called 'greeters' enticing customers into stores that resembled nightclubs – poor lighting, pounding music and the pungent smell of Fierce, the house cologne.

And there were the brand's preppy but provocative black and white advertising campaigns which were shot by the celebrated fashion photographer Bruce Weber and featured, before-they-were-famous stars such as Jamie Dornan, January Jones, Jamie Bell and even Taylor Swift.

What teenager could resist? It was hardly surprising that in its heyday in the early 2000s, for many young people, fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch was the epitome of cool.

Its hyper-sexualised cachet in America was so great that when the first European flagship store opened on London's Savile Row in 2007, it sold £140,000 of stock in the first six hours. That was a lot for branded T-shirts and low-cut jeans. 

'You could literally write Abercrombie & Fitch in dog **** on a hat and sell it for 40 bucks,' claimed a company insider, bluntly.

The company's astonishing success made a business icon of its American chief executive, the tirelessly driven, if eccentric, Mike Jeffries. Even as his own face became distorted by plastic surgery, he made clear he didn't want ugly people buying his clothes – and didn't care who knew it.

Jeffries was 47 when he was hired in 1992 by retail mogul Les Wexner, a close friend and business partner of the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, to turn around Abercrombie, an old but struggling brand that originally sold sporting goods to the smart set.

He triumphed with a wildly successful formula that hinged on sex appeal – semi-naked, all-American boys and cheerleader types – and made him one of the most powerful people in the fashion industry.

By 2006, profits had soared to around $2 billion. Jeffries, described by the company as its 'heart and soul', earned as much as $71 million a year, making him one of the highest paid executives in the world.

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He was undoubtedly odd – his obsessive compulsive disorder so intense that he went through revolving doors twice, never passed employees on stairwells, parked his Porsche every day at precisely the same angle and had a pair of 'lucky' shoes he had to wear when reading financial reports.

He insisted on wearing his Abercrombie 'uniform' of blue jeans, polo shirt and leather flip-flops, even in the depths of winter at the company's HQ in Ohio.

Some of his eccentricities – such as his insistence on crew aboard the company's Gulfstream jet having to be scantily-clad male models wearing Abercrombie polo shirts, boxer briefs and the company's scent – and his weakness for cosmetic surgery raised eyebrows, but the business world overlooked them in a man they regarded as a retail genius.

Now, however, the gilded world of Jeffries, who left the company in 2014 when its share price was faltering but is today still estimated to be worth $300 million, has come crashing down after he and his longtime British boyfriend, Matthew Smith, were charged this week with operating an international sex-trafficking ring.

In what has been hailed as the MeToo moment for men, Jeffries, now 80, and Smith, 61, were arrested at their home in Palm Beach, Florida, along with an alleged confederate, James Jacobson, on the orders of federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

From at least late 2008 to early 2015, Jeffries and Smith allegedly spent millions of dollars to operate a 'massive' sex-trafficking and prostitution operation that they went to great lengths to keep secret. Prosecutors say they shelled out 'prolific' amounts of money on staff to move dozens of vulnerable young men around the world – including the UK – for elaborate but lurid 'sex events' for the sexual gratification of themselves and their friends.

The young men, alleged victims of 'coercive, fraudulent and deceptive tactics', were falsely told that attending these depraved events would earn them lucrative modelling contracts and also warned that not complying would damage their careers.

The two men and Jacobson, a 71-year-old employee who allegedly acted as their 'talent' spotter and recruiter, face 16 criminal charges including sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

The charges relate specifically to 15 unnamed victims, as young as 19 at the time, although prosecutors say there were many more.

Jeffries and Smith have previously denied any wrongdoing via their lawyers. A lawyer for Jeffries says his client would respond to the accusations in court rather than via the media.

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Jeffries was freed on $10 million bail and required to wear an ankle bracelet but Smith remained in custody on the grounds that, having a UK passport, he was a significant flight risk. The alleged 'sex events' were often held at a mansion home of Jeffries and Smith in The Hamptons, Long Island, but also in London, France, Italy, Morocco and St Barts in the Caribbean, where venues included some of the world's most famous five-star hotels.

Prosecutors say those men were sexually exploited in the most obscene ways imaginable. Jeffries' staff plied them with alcohol, muscle-relaxing drugs known as 'poppers', lubricants and Viagra before insisting they take part in sex acts to which, say prosecutors, they sometimes did not – or were unable to – properly consent.

Instead of sizing them up for modelling work, Jeffries and Smith allegedly personally 'injected men in their penises with a prescription-grade erection-inducing substance for the purpose of causing the men to engage in sex acts in which they were otherwise physically incapable or unwilling'.

In a gruesome indictment, the victims were also required to use sex toys and have their genitals shaved. Jacobson, a man who reportedly wears a snakeskin sheath on his nose to hide the fact that much of it is missing after botched cosmetic surgery, is accused of being the middle man, interviewing and 'trying out' young men by requiring them to perform sex acts on him first.The three defendants allegedly used burner phones to communicate secretly, required victims to sign non-disclosure agreements and to give up their phones along with their wallets and clothes when they attended the sordid sessions.

The accused also allegedly employed a security company not only to stop the men leaving the 'sex events' until they'd decided they were over but also to keep watch on them and intimidate any who threatened to expose them, say prosecutors.

'Aspiring fashion models knew that a place on one of Abercrombie's iconic ads could be the ticket to success,' said Breon Peace, the US Attorney for Brooklyn, announcing the charges.

'While Jeffries was the CEO of one of the most recognisable clothing retailers in the world, he was using his power, his wealth and his influence to traffic men for his own sexual pleasure and that of his romantic partner, Matthew Smith.'

If convicted of the sex-trafficking charge, the most serious offence, the defendants face a minimum of 15 years behind bars and a maximum of life imprisonment. Abercrombie & Fitch said in a statement: 'We are appalled and disgusted by the alleged behaviour of Mr Jeffries, whose employment with Abercrombie & Fitch Co. ended nearly 10 years ago.

'Speaking up and coming forward is not easy, and our thoughts remain with those who have bravely raised their voices as part of the federal investigation.'

In October last year, one of Jeffries' accusers, actor David Bradberry, filed a civil lawsuit against Jeffries, Smith and Abercrombie & Fitch, alleging Abercrombie's support of Jeffries enabled the former CEO to 'successfully rape, sexually assault, and coercively sex traffic' him and others.

The lawsuit also accused the company of ignoring Jeffries' degraded behaviour, including his use of company funds to pay his victims 'hush money'.

Bradberry was one of eight men who spoke out in a BBC Panorama documentary last year which played a significant part in the decision to prosecute.

According to the BBC, event itineraries recovered from the accusers' digital data showed Jeffries and Smith had hosted sex parties in such five-star hotels as Claridge's in London, La Mamounia in Marrakesh and the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the south of France. There, young men said they were directed to have sex with Jeffries and Smith or with each other.

To many people, the idea of grown men not being able to simply say 'no' might be much harder to accept than if the victims were women – especially as one of Jeffries' accusers conceded, 'nobody had a gun to my head'.

And yet, just like the young actresses targeted by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, they say they were naive, often financially struggling and desperate to succeed in a notoriously competitive and abusive industry.

Some said that when they were finally confronted with what was required of them at a Jeffries' party, they felt intimidated and isolated, and, with so many of the pair's cronies on hand, unable to refuse.

Bradberry, who is gay, told the BBC he was 23 when he was introduced to Jacobson in 2010. After being assured that various stars had launched their careers at Abercrombie, Jacobson 'made it clear that unless I let him perform oral sex on me' [I] would never get to be introduced to either the company or Jeffries. Although the noseless Jacobson was a 'creepy old dude', he complied and was given around $500 for his time.

He says he was later given an Abercrombie gift card to buy an outfit and invited to a supposed casting at The Hamptons home of Jeffries and Smith (where household staff told the BBC they became suspicious about their employers when they were told to leave on Saturdays for what were clearly going to be parties).

Bradberry claimed that, in a room where other men were having sex, Jeffries forced him to take a drug that made him light-headed. Security guards wearing Abercrombie clothing watched as he was then raped by Jeffries and other men, he said.

He alleged that, like the other men, he was paid $2,500 in cash and then taken to other events in the South of France and London where he was again sexually assaulted. He never got the Abercrombie contract he'd hoped for.

According to Bradberry, 'dozens and likely over a hundred young models' were victims. He estimates at least several hundred people, from the flight bookers to the body shavers, were involved in an operation he described to the BBC as a 'slickly-oiled machine'.

Another alleged victim who spoke out at length on Panorama was Barrett Pall, an ex-model from California.

He said that in 2011, when he was 22, he was recruited to his abusers' circle by an older model and flown from Los Angeles to New York where a personal groomer came and shaved his entire body because, he was told, 'that's how they like the boys'. Pall, who is also gay, said that as the newest face, he was presented to Jeffries as the 'grand prize' but was so nervous he threw up. 'I was not a human to any of these people,' he said. 'I was a body. I was being presented to someone to do what they wanted with.'

Jeffries and Smith liked their 'boys' to be straight, not gay, say prosecutors. One of the straight ones, Alex, a struggling young model and father, told the BBC he was promised $5,000 to strip for the pair and friends at a particularly big Jeffries gathering in a villa at La Mamounia hotel in 2011.

Overwhelmed by the bacchanal – which involved some wearing exotic costumes and others swimming naked in a gold-tiled pool – he retreated to a back room and went to sleep.

Alex said he woke the following morning and suspected his champagne had been spiked. He later discovered he was HIV positive.

Jeffries and Smith didn't respond to the documentary's shocking claims but Jacobson said: 'Everybody went into everything I know about with their eyes wide open. There was never any coercion.'

Bradberry's lawsuit isn't the first to hit Abercrombie as a result of Jeffries' controversial time there. In 2004, the company agreed to pay a hefty $40 million (without admitting guilt) to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed it had discriminated against black, Hispanic and Asian workers because Jeffries preferred a Caucasian look. Two years later, Jeffries – who was once married and has a son, although he's been separated from his wife for years – gave a rare media interview which caused a stir.

'In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then the not-so cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids,' he said. 'We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don't belong, and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.'

Then, in 2012, the company settled a lawsuit – this time alleging age discrimination – brought by the former pilot of Jeffries' Abercrombie jet.

He revealed there were strict rules, contained in a 47-page manual written by co-accused Matthew Smith, insisting the male flight crew wear only polo shirts and boxer briefs, as well as black gloves for handling silverware and white for laying the dining table.

According to company insiders, Smith was powerful at Abercrombie when his boyfriend Jeffries ran it, despite not being an employee.

Some company staff described the mysterious Smith, of which little is known beyond he has an MBA in entrepreneurial management from America's Wharton Business School and ran an organic hair product salon in the 1990s, as a 'handsome, polished Brit' who was more laidback than the highly-strung Jeffries.

However, others complained he was an exacting and pretentious perfectionist who would haul staff over the coals simply for using what he regarded as the 'wrong font' in a presentation paper.

Smith and his lover now have more to fret about than typography, as the fashion world finally has its 'MenToo' movement.