How can american apparel survive

American Apparel was not bothered. No, these were not girls you would see walking during Paris Fashion Week. In one ad, Kelley, an American Apparel employee, is pictured posing for an array of photos, in one she wears just a thong. Sometimes, people are made uncomfortable by this, and it occasionally causes an unfortunate reaction. The results were trailblazing. All of the ads shared a candid, amateur vibe — evoking the snapshot aesthetic that Lisette Model pioneered and which Terry Richardson and Juergen Teller had a strong hand in bringing to the mainstream.

A far cry from the polished, traditionally glamorous ads that big fashion houses were putting out at the time, there were no glammed up models, professional sets or recognizable faces. Instead, there were a lot of beds, couches, and white walls, and provocatively posed models that looked like the girl next door. You will not bump into an American Apparel model working the register at the store nearest you. But as usual, American Apparel was not deterred by the criticism.

In fact, it thrived on such controversy. But there was something else at play. This was quite different from what other brands were portraying at the time. To uphold this image, employees were vetted as intensely as the subjects of its ad campaigns. Potential employees were required to include photographs with their applications and Charney reportedly approved or vetoed each and every one.

Also that year, the brand became the subject of a U. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation, which found that about 1, of its Los Angeles factory employees were not authorized to work in the U. The company would go on to fire roughly 1, employees thereafter. The situation did not look up much for Charney, personally, or for the company from this point forward. While American Apparel welcomed a new president, former Blockbuster, Inc.

Charney became the subject of yet another sexual harassment lawsuit and a separate racial discrimination lawsuit in , both filed by former employees. The decision not to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy resulted in board members, Mark Samson and Mark Thornton, leaving the company.

The resounding position — amongst the analysts, at least — is that the brand should distance itself from Charney, who was very publicly suspended from the company in , with its board of directors citing an ongoing investigation of alleged misconduct. He was ultimately fired in December after an investigation found him to have engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with employees and to have misused company funds. A clean break from Charney or as clean as possible a break would allow the brand to begin to build itself back up.

In fact, it is quite multi-faceted. In short: it has considerable debt and far too little cash to keep up. As previously noted, its rapid retail expansion, which has been costly, is partially to blame. As American Apparel grew and achieved an array of accolades, such as filling the slot of the largest t-shirt manufacturer in America or Charney being named an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year, it followed largely the same model in terms of the manufacturing and merchandizing of goods.

In fact, for many years, American Apparel offered only a couple of handfuls of different styles of shirts, sweatshirt, shorts, etc. These recognizable products would become iconic items in the American Apparel repertoire — so much so that they are still being sold in stores to date.

This proved to be a strength for the brand for quite a while. In addition to the appeal of its classic American Apparel styles that consumers could count on being in its stores season after season, the price was also a sweet spot for shoppers, and thus, for American Apparel. However, for the most part, it has not deviated from this strategy in any considerable way, and its model has become outdated. As of January , at least one lawsuit was still pending according Los Angeles Superior Court records.

But in the past three years, the company has faced huge debts, costly legal battles involving its founder, and a drop in sales. American Apparel did what any company does in these moments: turn to private investors for help. Eventually, Charney was ousted by his own board. There was a cultural shift that hampered American Apparel, too. The economic downturn was hard on the fashion industry as consumers cut back on spending.

And brick-and-mortar stores have struggled as online retailers bite into their sales and target demographics. After going bankrupt twice, the company was bought by Canadian retailer Gildan Activewear in early When Gildan relaunched American Apparel later that year, its name was the same, but key aspects of its identity were missing; its guts were different. American Apparel is a good case study for this phenomenon; the brand has changed under Gildan in very clear ways.

On a surface level, it looks similar to what it was before: The brand still sells its most iconic styles, and its Instagram still features the high-flash photography for which the brand was known though its newest photos lean more toward soft, natural light. Its tone, once cheeky and fairly smutty, has been transformed into a message of empowerment — the idea is that shoppers can still look sexy in a bodysuit or colorful, skintight pants, but on their own terms. And American Apparel, once a champion of domestic manufacturing, is no longer wholly made in America.

Everybody sells a T-shirt. Having a strong brand means you can sell a blank T-shirt as a premium product. American Apparel was known for colorful wardrobe basics, a strict practice of manufacturing in the United States, and ultra-sexualized advertising imagery. High energy and outspoken, Charney was an unconventional CEO in every way. For a long time, he managed to hang onto his business despite a reputation for inappropriate behavior.

That reputation was magnified by a article in Jane magazine saying that he masturbated in front of reporter Claudine Ko, and it resulted in a string of sexual harassment lawsuits. Charney stayed on as a consultant to American Apparel after his firing, and waged a legal battle for control of the company. So began one attempt to make over a company with a tarnished reputation and slumping sales. But in October , American Apparel filed for bankruptcy , weighed down by debt, and a year later, Schneider too was heading out the door.

Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In November , the company filed for a second bankruptcy. That year, Charney founded another basics brand called Los Angeles Apparel. It relaunched its website in August , and though it looked very much like the old American Apparel, it was Gildan under the hood. When Boohoo acquired and rebooted the bankrupt Nasty Gal, it, too, looked fairly similar on an aesthetic level.