After more than 20 years with Abercrombie & Fitch the (now former) CEO of the fashion manufacturer and retailer, Mike Jeffries took a routine conference call with executives - and then just stopped showing up for work.

These reports come from the current issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. The piece discusses the decline of the company, its tone is set by the magazine's cover which parodies the company's provocative marketing campaigns...

The piece recounts details of his departure: "He never showed up. Early the next morning, Arthur Martinez, the former CEO of Sears and the chairman of the Abercrombie board since early 2014, called the senior executives into a meeting. He told them that Jeffries was leaving and the company was looking for a new chief executive ... No one saw Jeffries in the office again, and he couldn’t be reached for comment."

The company later released a three-sentence statement which was attributed to Mr Jeffries, which read: "It has been an honour to lead this extraordinarily talented group of people. I am extremely proud of your accomplishments. I believe now is the right time for new leadership to take the company forward in the next phase of its development."

It was an remarkably brief goodbye from the man who had turned the company into a global brand. Jeffries became CEO in 1992 when Abercrombie was struggling - by 1999 it was a billion-dollar company.

At its most successful, Abercrombie & Fitch sold itself as an exclusive brand. The company's own literature has described itself as “the essence of privilege and casual luxury,” and a “combination of classic and sexy [that] creates a charged atmosphere that is confident and just a bit provocative.”

One designer told New York Magazine that there was a "fetishistic attitude" toward the brand within the company - workers were asked to try to embody the brand's aesthetic.

Mike Jeffries wore Abercrombie ripped jeans and flip flops to work. He dressed top-to-toe in the brand up until his last day.

The company's fortunes had turned, however, before he left - the aspirational brand went out of fashion with young shoppers. Sales had been falling for 11 straight quarters. The company reported major sales decreases in 2014 - although Irish shoppers have been out of step with this trend and sales here have actually grown.