American Apparel Essay

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American Apparel is a story of rags to riches and back to rags. It rapidly grew into one of the most well known and most controversial clothing companies in the world. The company began with a simple goal, making a profit selling local and ethically-manufactured blank t-shirts, sweatshirts, and jeans that were moderately priced. American Apparel managed to disturb the entire fashion industry with it’s unique identity, constantly pushing the envelope with its controversial methods of branding. The logo-free garments became an iconic uniform for young liberal adults. How could this company quickly become a symbol of what is cool and edgy and equally as fast file for bankruptcy?

The company call began in Canadian, Dov Charney’s boarding school dorm room in 1989. It started off with him importing Fruit of The Loom t-shirts to Montreal, Eventually, with a $10,000 loan from his father, he decided to drop out of Tufts University and make the …show more content…

It was a unique and unusual advertisement for American Apparel, as it contains smiling employees that are fully clothed. The ad features the names of the women and their start date working at the company. This advertisement was very timid compared to previous ads. This was one of the attempts of the new CEO, Paula Schneider, to changing American Apparel’s image after previous CEO Dov Charney’s scandals. The company was financially strained and this was an attempt to revamp it’s image in order to help it. The advertisement reads “Women have always been in charge at American Apparel. In fact, women make up 55 percent of our global workforce (sorry, guys) and an even higher percentage of our leadership and executive roles.” The company burned itself a strong reputation for a company that objectifies woman in it’s adverts and a CEO who does the same behind the scenes. Paula Schneider wanted to keep the edginess of the company, yet try new branding and merchandising

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