American Apparel’s Millennial Crisis—Could It Come Back From the Brink?.
With every turn in the saga that is American Apparel, experts wonder when the Los Angeles company will give up manufacturing in the U.S. and move offshore. LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A day after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Los Angeles-based American Apparel announced Tuesday that the New York Stock Exchange is suspending trading in the company’s stock immediately and beginning the process of delisting its common stock.California became the fifth state to allow doctors to prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients. “In the end, I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death,” said Gov.
Few people were tearing their fuchsia halter leotards or their ‘lapis’ blue spandex mini dresses in mourning at the news on Monday that American Apparel had filed for bankruptcy.In honor of American Apparel’s bankruptcy, we thought we’d run down a list of “times (ousted) CEO Dov Charney was skeezy as f*ck.” Sadly, that topic was far too broad because there was just too damn much source material. American Apparel said it has received a notice from the NYSE informing it that the exchange determined that “the company is no longer suitable for listing…” The pre-dawn announcement by American Apparel comes one day after the company filed notice in U.S.
Over the years, Dov’s admitted to walking around the office in his underwear, is rumored to never flush his toilet, has masturbated at pretty much any time he feels the urge, and is accused of basically sexually harassing and/or assaulting everyone he’s ever known. The company was bruised by the megalomania and sexual misconduct of its founder, Dov Charney, but it was finally done in by a simple fact: Nobody is buying its clothes anymore.
It’s a milestone for the “death with dignity” campaign, which picked up momentum when Californian Brittany Maynard went public with her decision to move to Oregon and end her life, rather than succumb to terminal brain cancer. That is mostly down to the actions of Dov Charney, American Apparel’s founder, who a female reporter said had masturbated in front of her, and who allegedly forced female employees to perform oral sex on him. That’s what makes us a really important company and a company that needs to thrive and be saved.” Company executives have consistently pointed out the benefits of manufacturing in Los Angeles.
He was finally ousted in 2014 after an internal investigation revealed that he did nothing to stop an employer from posting naked photos of an ex-employee who had filed a suit claiming Charney had forced her to perform sex acts. Feinstein was like a walking DEEZ NUTS joke — not actually very funny, but entertaining enough that you either dismiss him as harmless or vote for him for president. Not only does American Apparel prominently tout its wages for employees on billboards, but it can respond to trends in the market and rush new products to stores quickly. Of course, there was also American Apparel’s “controversial” advertising—a great catch-all descriptor for the many examples of merchandising strategies that were offensive in a host of different ways.
American Apparel employs about 4,600 sewing and manufacturing workers in Southern California. “Their brand is too heavily predicated on the U.S. manufacturing,” said Josh Arnold, an equities analyst and contributor to financial site Seeking Alpha. “They have backed themselves into a corner. I don’t think there is any circumstance that would make that change happen.” American Apparel workers used to earn an average of about $12 an hour, but many have said that slowing production has pushed down their pay to about California’s minimum wage of $9 an hour. The ’80s and ’90s nostalgia that defined the company through the start of the millennium went stale by the time its target demographic of teens and twentysomethings aged into grown-up clothes. Adding to the distasteful marketing, in the wake of the many fatalities and massive wreckage of Hurricane Sandy, American apparel attempted to turn a profit with a special online discount, SANDYSALE.
When it evolved from a T-shirt manufacturer into a complete clothing brand in 2003, American Apparel sold itself on made-in-the-U.S.A., sweatshop-free ethics. Despite its many attempts to brand itself as progressive, American Apparel has failed to hold the financial interest of the latest generation of consumers. For all its mannequins with pubic hair and t-shirts with masturbating, menstruating vaginas, Millennials offer a little more than a shrug for American Apparel. “It was cool around 2005 when I was in high school because it was somewhat different, but it’s not like other companies that change every season.
Its signature $52 hoodie was simple enough to jibe with the effortless, unpretentious aesthetic of the mid-aughts, but distinctive enough, with its white draw-cords and zipper tape, to tell the world that the wearer had $52 to drop on a sweatshirt. American Apparel always has the same t-shirts,” Andrea Koenker, a friend who is a 26-year-old nonprofit fundraiser in London (who grew up in California), told the Daily Beast. Anecdotally, I haven’t noticed any significant differences in American Apparel offerings since I walked into one in 2009 to buy a red spandex halter dress for a Halloween costume and then again earlier this year to try their very high-cut bathing suits. “It’s not that they [American Apparel] has changed. Retailers like Zara, H&M, and Forever 21 have quickly scaled up their global footprints in recent years—in H&M’s case, at the rate of one new store opening per day. Once the plan is approved and American Apparel emerges from bankruptcy, it would be a private company. “The debt structure was the biggest impediment that we have.
The customer has changed, and it hasn’t kept up with producing new things the customer would be interested in,” said Paula Rosenblum, the co-founder and managing partner of Retail Systems Research, a retail industry research group. Rather than marketing a signature style that makes slight shifts with each season, fast-fashion outlets grab trendy new looks from upscale designers, remake them nearly line for line in Bangladesh or Indonesia, and deliver them within weeks to stores across the globe, where they sell for indecently low prices. When you have over $300 million in debt and are paying $35 million-plus in interest rates, it’s not a sustainable business model,” Chief Executive Paula Schneider said.
That could be problematic for any retailer, but it is especially so for one that targets a specific demographic—and especially a young one. “They really haven’t changed their store design or their product,” said Steven Frumkin, the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Dean of the School of Business and Technology. “They started with a customer base much younger than the 25-35 age group, but that’s where their customers are today. Meanwhile, American Apparel stuck to its solid-color legwarmers and bodysuits, ignoring youth fashion’s swing away from the understated and toward the embellished. Long nails, cheeky makeup and jewelry, psychedelic prints and textures, fringe and fur—other brands had fun with the ways girls make themselves up to look like women, but American Apparel kept manufacturing clothes and ad campaigns that make women look more like girls, in figure-skater halter dresses and pleated skirts. Daily Pilot Rapids return: The New Melones Reservoir is at about 10% capacity, but some folks see a silver lining: the reemergence of rapids. “Look above us now.
And the brand wasn’t able to deliver the higher quality that its higher prices would suggest. “They’re not the only company doing the American-made thing,” Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, told me. “That whole sector has really exploded in the last five years. Loeb likened American Apparel’s situation to that of Benetton, another clothing company that was once considered the height of cool with the young’uns but failed to last. More important to them is the price and quality of the garment. “Millennials are having a hard time getting a job,” said Lloyd Greif, chief executive of Los Angeles investment banking firm Greif & Co. “The last thing they are worried about is, ‘Hey, I want to pay $10 or $20 more for a garment that’s made in America.'” Young shoppers are interested, however, in buying apparel that is made in factories with good working conditions, Greif said.
To a clueless adult, most of its neon sportswear would seem barely distinguishable in design from the basic offerings at Walmart or Sears, but to image-conscious teens with an eye for trends and some disposable income, American Apparel’s signature hues and silhouettes were unmistakable. The age-appropriate consumer of today doesn’t want what American Apparel is selling—or at least not for its price. “H&M has the exact same clothes, and it’s at least $30 cheaper. Its stores sold retro fashions I did not, at first, believe anyone would actually buy—I remember seeing racks of high-waisted pants on sale back when it still seemed inconceivable that the style formerly known as “mom jeans” could ever make a comeback. But to stay right with its fad-chasing demographic, brands have to come in one step ahead of mainstream trends every single time, an ever-more-difficult proposition in the fast-fashion race. You could say their stuff is better quality than Target or Old Navy, but if you’re not going to wear it for five years, then what’s the point?” said Rosenblum. “At the time when American Apparel was cool, its customers were willing to spend [on these basics].
American Apparel’s bread and butter—selling a few well-made basics in a rainbow of bright colors—was ill-suited for adaptation; when zany prints and elaborate ornamentation came into fashion, the brand didn’t move fast enough. It’s no secret that fast fashion stores, which are characterized by relatively cheaply-priced garments and fast style turnovers (sometimes, only a manner of weeks), are ruling retail. That year, near the end of my time in college, it seemed like most of the students I knew who still shopped at American Apparel were going for spandex minidresses and sweatbands to fill out their superhero Halloween costumes. Rabbi Jacob Pressman served at Temple Beth Am for more than 35 years. “There is no Jewish Los Angeles as we know it without Rabbi Jacob Pressman,” Rabbi Adam Kligfeld said. H&M, Forever21, and Zara are succeeding while former U.S. teen mainstays American Apparel, Urban Outfitters, and Abercrombie and Fitch are faltering. “The Millennial consumer is one who doesn’t want to spend,” said Loeb. “Maybe they’re afraid they won’t have a job.
And as other retailers, such as Target, Forever 21, and Charlotte Russe, expanded their markets by launching plus-size lines in recent years, American Apparel doubled down on its commitment to tiny clothing made for tiny bodies: crop tops, shimmery hot pants, and thong leotards, none of which could realistically fit anyone who’d be a size 10 at any other store. It was hard to put everything that I love about California all in one illustration so I cherry-picked some important things that stood out when I thought of my beloved state,” Adoff said. The Save Valley Village lawsuit accuses City Council members of flouting state law when they approved a condominium development on the site on Monroe’s former home. They’re not necessarily easy to categorize because they are cautious, but they are also willing to make a reasonable, occasional splurge. “A Millennial consumer might buy four fashion items for a total of $60 but then hold out for that one great item at $99.
Until 2009, the company didn’t even make clothes up to its own distorted version of an XL, which it unveiled in an off-putting, tone-deaf rollout that called for “booty-ful” models who “need a little extra wiggle room where it counts.” (Speaking of booty-ful consumers, my editor informs me that even American Apparel’s baby sizes run small.) Meanwhile, hypersexualized ad campaigns with barely-if-at-all-legal models haven’t exactly fallen out of fashion—and I doubt they ever will—but after years of exposure to POV shots and pubic hair, for much of the public, American Apparel’s once-shocking ads have lost their frisson. That could mean dropping $34 on a pair of shiny peach leggings or $42 on a plain black turtleneck catsuit is likely too expensive and yet too mass-produced ordinary for a younger consumer set. He will be in Tulare County to meet with students, politicians and Latino leaders. “What better time to have a high-profile Latino leader than Hispanic Heritage Month in a county where the majority of residents are overwhelmingly Latino,” even if they “generate low voter turnout as a community,” said Ruben Macareno, chairman of the Tulare County Democratic Party. Why do I still buy the brand, besides the fact that it’s responsible for the single best pair of dress pants I’ve ever had the pleasure of wearing?
Visalia Times-Delta Legislative disappointment: A state senator who authored a bill that would have outlawed drones from flying near fires called Gov. After a few too many poly-blend H&M tank tops turned sheer after a single run through the washing machine, and after a few career moves left me with a more livable salary, I decided to wean myself off of most fast fashion. Jerry Brown’s decision to veto the law “dumb.” The governor rejected the bill, saying the state’s criminal code is becoming overly complicated. “I think it’s dumb. I still shop at H&M every now and then, but I’m trying to buy more top-quality brands at secondhand stores and get my cheaper basics at places with decent labor standards.
Ted Gaines said. 89.3 KPCC LAPD shooting: A man shot and killed by Los Angeles police had thrown a beer bottle through the rear window of a squad car, leading the officers inside to believe that they were being fired upon. If American Apparel stands a chance at resurrection, it should continue scaling back its operations to focus on making better-value garments and retire some of the old prints and styles that no longer register as cool. San Diego Union-Tribune Plot foiled: Police believe that a group of male students planned to go on a shooting rampage at their high school near Yosemite National Park. But in his hometown? “Not once during our afternoon in his hometown of Orinda, a posh suburb east of San Francisco, does anyone recognize him.” California Sunday Magazine On guard: A 20-pound French bulldog takes her protection duties seriously. At the California Asian Business Summit, AT&T spent $50,000 to be the event’s “diamond” sponsor. “It was a chance to shore up diversity cred with the fastest-growing consumer market in the United States.” Orange County Register San Francisco will have areas of low clouds, with temperatures reaching 68 degrees.
San Diego will be partly sunny and 75. “My husband, Joe, and I moved with our then four daughters to Inglewood in spring 1963, moving in October to Hawthorne.