Ive always been skeptical of American Apparel, the L.A.-based chain that sells plain clothes that claim to be sweatshop free, marketed to hipsters through often creepy, sexed-up photos of supposed real people, sold in stores that claim to be community galleries.
Before opening actual stores, AA sold blank T-shirts in bulk to bands who, concerned about selling merch made in sweatshops, could print their logo/image/photos on them to sell at shows. When stores proper started opening, a big deal was made about the companys political mandate: cool (overpriced) clothes with a conscious. However, it quickly became apparent that the politics of AAs notorious, obnoxious owner, Dov Charney, were disingenuous.
While its true that AAs clothes are manufactured in downtown L.A., where employees earn about $12 an hour on average (as opposed to most of the U.S.s clothing, which is manufactured in countries where labour can be exploited for much lower wages), AA is hostile to employees organizing for job security and against the speed of work and layoffs. When employees tried to form a union, the company unleashed an intimidation campaign that mirrored the aggressive union-busting techniques of other major manufacturers (this may not be surprising considering that Charney got his first real job when he crossed a picket line to work during a postal workers strike.)
And then there are Charneys sexist antics, which have been widely reported. This includes the companys exclusive hiring practices in its stores, Charney masturbating in front of a reporter interviewing him for Jane magazine, and three sexual harassment suits filed against him by former female employees.
Theres more, and some of these issues and contradictions about AA are covered in a great spread in Clamor magazine.
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seven comments
I've always been put off by the full-page ads AA runs on the back of the free community papers here in MTL. They have a sort of lo-fi do-it-yourself-porn feeling to them that I guess is supposed to come off as playful and sexy, but it creeps me out. My friend always points out that the women they use in the ads, while definitely conventionally hot, have "normal", non-model bodies. Okay, so, yay? Regular people can be sleazy too? I guess that's cool, but it also weirds me out how they always focus on the ethnicity of the person, who is usually an AA employee - "Zoe is an Iranian-Finnish bombshell who works at our L.A. factory and likes to rollerskate in the nude in her free time" or whatever. It's like everyone can come together to overcome our differences in the name of trendy clothes and, like, good times man! Something about the whole thing just smacks of, well, marketing genius. I have to hand it to them, I guess.
Anyway, thanks for posting this, Nicole. I'll go read that Clamor article now, where they'll no doubt say the same things I have, only more articulately.
Posted by Anna
October 16, 2006, 10:31 AM
Nicole- so very glad you posted about this. Not only do the AA ads strangely focus on the ethnicity of their scantily clad DIY sweaty porn-esque posed employees, they also occasionally mention the age of the young nubile in question:
"Zoe the bombshell is 18. No really- she looks 14 but we promise she is of age. We looked at her ID before we took this exploitive picture of her in just her (our) panties to make sure we weren't breaking any child pornography laws."
Hmmm. I have long (perhaps misguidedly) felt good about buying my tees from the "ethical" AA, but it would be great if someone could find an sweat-shop free alternative to this kind of sweaty sexpoitation. Any ideas?
Posted by Stacey May
October 16, 2006, 5:08 PM
Musicians Against Sweat Shops released a statement withdrawing their support of AA. Sadly, the link pointing to other union-made clothing companies doesn't seem to be working.
Now published an article last year claiming Charney was "de-emphasizing the sweatshop-free angle because it's 'passé.' " Since then I think the phrase "sweatshop-free" has disappeared from their ads, though I don't have one around to check. Interestingly, the Now article also has ambivalent commentary from Bitch editorial director Andi Zeisler. In summary: I don't agree with much of what they're doing, but at least they're honest about what they do, and there aren't many other no-sweat companies with stylish designs.
Finally, knowmore.org's massive report on American Apparel. I'm still working my way through it myself, but what I've read so far is utterly fantastic.
Posted by Wesley
October 16, 2006, 11:03 PM
Most of what I think about AA has already been said, but I just wanted to add my "thank God people are still investigating this loathsome company." The Andi Zeisler quote is weird because I don't feel like AA is upfront about what they're doing at all - I feel like they pretend to the max to be progressive and uphold progressive values, when in actuality they're about as traditional as it gets, if you consider the fact that the exploitation of women has been our social norm since well, forever.
Two aspects of their ads that are as inane and thoughtless as they are bigoted is how:
1) they go on and on about their "real" models - what the heck is a real model? Aren't all models real? Or does Gucci use fembots in their ads? When you deconstruct their "cutting edge" lingo, it's often meaningless.
2) more often than not, the ads only list the race when the model is a person of colour, preferably mixed. Being half English and half Chinese myself, I am so relieved to discover that if all else fails, I could have a thrilling career thrusting my thong-clad crotch in front of a camera.
Posted by Thea
October 17, 2006, 7:28 PM
Hiya,
I work for American Apparel and came across this so I thought I'd add in my two cents.
One of things we strive for at American Apparel is transparency of the company -- if anybody wants to come visit the factory and talk to people and ask questions, feel free to do so.
As for the Clamor article, I would highly recommend that you read this and the subsequent comments posted on there -- it is rather lengthy but an interesting read. http://clamormagazine.org/blog/archiv...
To answer Thea's question:
Unlike virtually everyone else in the fashion industry, we don't use professional modeling agencies, which are famous for exploiting underage models. We, by contrast, choose to shoot pictures of my colleagues and our friends and family wearing our clothes.
Posted by Lisa
October 18, 2006, 2:20 PM
[...] Okay, cheesy tactics aside, I want to say that it’s been real inspiring to hear the reports of so many folks in the Shameless community on how they’re try to make conscientious consumer choices, whether it’s organic local food, sweatshop-free clothing or cruelty-free makeup (or the choice not to buy at all). In a society where dollars speak louder than most things, I think there is definitely a lot that’s worthwhile in basing your decisions on what to buy on how to tread lightest on the world, environmentally and labour-wise. [...]
Posted by Shameless Magazine - for girls who get it » karl
November 4, 2006, 2:25 PM
I saw the mention several times of not having options to purchase from. Well, My primary and most important role in our company is sourcing sweatshop free and eco friendly apparel to sell to our clients for our printing of their designs. We only print on sweatshop free apparel. Originaly, we refused to carry American Apparel because we are a woman owned screen printing studio. When I asked designers of DYI clothing lines why they do all of their printing on AA they honestly told us, we'd rather not support them but they've done such a great job marketing them selves as the only hip sweatshop free line that having the AA tag in our shirts gives us instant street cred...it makes people feel good about purchasing our designs on tees. My partner and I decided we would rather educate our clients. We now offer AA to those who truly insist on it but we 1st show them Alternative Apparel, Royal Apparel, Alstyle, Bella, Jerzees, Eco wear, Continental. Alternative has awesom designs and has become so popular in my industry that they are developing a retail line so that you will all have an alternative to AA. Don't get me wrong, they have some items that we simply love because they offer so many color options but when we can educate clients to the other companies we do with such excitment at being able to assist other companies doing good in growing their business!
Posted by American Canvas Screen Printing Studio
October 23, 2007, 10:01 AM
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