Do you miss over the knee socks and jelly sandals? Are a pair of shiny pair of disco pants calling to you? Do you yearn for the perfect skater skirt? Well, you’re in the right place. This week, we dive into the complicated legacy of American Apparel with writer Madison Huizinga.

Under the American Apparel Influence: The Rise & Fall of the It-Girl Brand

Writer Madison Huizinga dives into the complicated legacy of American Apparel. You can read more from Huizinga on her Substack, Cafe Hysteria.

In middle school, I remember forcing my mom to drive me into downtown Seattle so I could buy a pair of high-waisted denim shorts. My mom was, understandably, a bit annoyed - why couldn’t she just drop me off at our local mall? They sell denim shorts at Hollister, PacSun, and, even Old Navy.

She just didn’t get it. I wasn’t in search of any old pair of high-waisted denim shorts. I was in search of American Apparel high-waisted denim shorts, and the nearest American Apparel was in the city. I was only thirteen at the time, but owning a pair of American Apparel shorts would bring me closer to this magical world I saw online: one defined by a raw, raucous kind of coolness. Somehow both grimy and glossy, athletic and sexy. To be associated with American Apparel was to have the highest suburban status: an alternative, nonchalant kind of popularity. A vibe that said, “I’m above this whole high school thing, I’m going to an art show later” or “I knew about the Arctic Monkeys before they released AM.” I had to secure at least of drop of it.

Like many suburban kids, I learned what American Apparel was via Tumblr - the premiere blogging platform of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Before Pinterest and Instagram, Tumblr was where young people flocked to conceive a particular online identity and matching visual aesthetic. Users reblogged found images from across the web: screenshots from old Hollywood movies, Lana Del Rey lyrics, grainy photos of the beach, and promotional photos borrowed from the era’s most cutting-edge brands. Of these brands, American Apparel undeniably reigned supreme.

“My first Tumblr was basically pictures of American Apparel ads and pics inspired by American Apparel ads,” shares Ana, an early fan of the brand. “What I liked about the whole ‘American Apparel vibe’ was that it seemed effortless, it was different from other brands famous at the time, such as Zara and H&M, that tried so hard to convince you to buy [products]. American Apparel was just cool and it didn’t care about convincing you of anything.”

On the surface, American Apparel wasn’t necessarily reinventing the fashion wheel. The company was founded in 1989 by Dov Charney, a Canadian who became obsessed with the all-American t-shirt. In its early days, American Apparel became known for producing simple, ethically made t-shirts and hoodies in an array of colors. It was the photos included in the brand’s ad campaigns that would set American Apparel apart - placing them in a category of their own.

The typical American Apparel advertisement featured a flash photograph of a young beautiful girl posing suggestively against a white wall or on a white duvet cover, typically wearing a t-shirt and short shorts, a high-cut bodysuit with knee-high socks, or simply a bra and underwear. Her hair was typically tousled and she was wearing little to no makeup. Her cheeks contained a natural, rosy flush. American Apparel images were famously un-retouched, portraying a more unfiltered, messy kind of beauty.

“The women who were being photographed were all extremely hot but were presented in a way that was less airbrushed and a little bit more realistic. I remember appreciating that part of it,” says Jax, a writer and early fan of online American Apparel content. “It was a very unsanitized way of presenting merchandise compared to the way people traditionally advertised. It was like this club you wanted to be in and you wanted to see yourself in those settings.”

The simple format of the advertisements also made them easily replicable - making it possible to access the American Apparel world even if you lived far away from one of the stores. As such, Tumblr users would often take photographs of themselves imitating the American Apparel look - all they needed was a blank white wall, a camera phone with a flash, and to dishevel their hair a bit. Some users would simply post a flat-lay photo of the iconic AA paper shopping bag on their bedspread - that alone could garner thousands of reblogs. This user-generated content served as a kind of earned media campaign for the brand - an early form of influencer marketing, without needing to pay any of the influencers.

“As a Latina and Italian woman, it was also the first time I had seen a brand showing models that were outside of the beauty canon,” says Virginia, an American Apparel fan, regarding the diversity the brand showcased across its advertisements. “It was really eye-opening.”

American Apparel portrayed itself as a kind of progressive new frontier: a brand that proudly manufactures all of its products in the U.S. - in Los Angeles, of all places - and pushes back on unrealistic beauty standards that have long harmed women. In her memoir Strip Tees, Kate Flannery, an early American Apparel employee, recalls being sold the idea that American Apparel was “a revolution” by one of the company’s recruiters. “This is a revolution…And not just a revolution in manufacturing, but a fashion revolution, a sex revolution. A revolution in advertising, industrialization, globalization!” she remembers being told.

This progressive exterior served as an effective veneer, glossing over the scandal and misconduct that will befall the company. In 2014, Dov Charney was removed from his role as CEO after an investigation found that he had mismanaged funds and knowingly allowed an employee to post nude photos of a female staffer on the internet. Just ten years prior, Jane magazine reporter Claudine Ko reported that Charney masturbated in front of her while she was interviewing him for a profile, resulting in a string of lawsuits against the founder. The company would declare bankruptcy in the years that would closely follow.

Flannery’s 2023 memoir offers a closer look at the disturbing, erratic ship that Charney helmed. She writes about catching Charney hooking up with an American Apparel model in a dressing room and exclusively hiring female employees in their teens and early twenties. Many of these girls were sent around the country to scout other employees - often solely based on appearance and “vibe” - where they were precariously housed in coed “company apartments.” “Dov girl” became shorthand for Charney’s “girlfriends that are on the payroll.”

Without even meeting Dov Charney directly, many former American Apparel employees can speak to the chord of griminess that ran through the company culture.

“They asked me literally zero questions at my American Apparel interview besides ‘Can I take a picture of you?’” Gaby Del Valle tells me, a former employee at the SoHo and Williamsburg locations in New York. Overall, Del Valle describes her experience as “a typical bad retail job,” being paid just above minimum wage and skimped on promised commission.

There was an exacting control over the image of the girls representing the brand. “We got in trouble for wearing non-American Apparel anything…that also extended, in my experience, to bras because they didn’t sell underwire bras,” Del Valle tells me. She recalls herself and her coworkers being asked to change their bras and socks on occasion.

Ali Kriegsman modeled for the brand to make extra cash one summer in college. She recalls standing behind a curtain at the American Apparel factory in Downtown LA and throwing on whatever clothing items were passed her way. One time, without warning, she was given a string bikini. “I was like ‘Hi, so I’m not prepared,’” she says, referring to her bikini grooming. “And they’re like ‘That’s the look…we don’t want you ‘prepared.’”

Many female employees were sent to stand outside the stores and hand out flyers to attract customers. “You would just go out in your skater dress, side boob out, and be like ‘Come in the store! We have a DJ!’” says an anonymous former employee from the Toronto location.

“They knew what they were doing, like, putting young girls outside in skater skirts handing out flyers,” Del Valle says.

Many former employees were unsurprised when American Apparel’s bankruptcy and sexual harassment scandals broke. Kriegsman recalls a friend of hers feeling uncomfortable about his girlfriend modeling for the brand and interacting with Charney. “He told me that he seemed like a creep,” she recalls.

Others felt emboldened to leave the company following the scandals breaking. “There’s a point where you have to remember your personal honor code…and this place doesn't reflect that,” an anonymous former employee told me. “I don't want to be the American Apparel girl anymore.”

American Apparel shut down all stores in early 2016. It would only take Dov Charney a few months to found Los Angeles Apparel: an LA-based clothing company known for its high-quality t-shirts and sweatshirts. The brand touts its “sustainability,” though some ethical concerns have been raised about factory working conditions and personal misconduct. If you drive through any street in West LA, you’ll likely come across one of the company’s many billboards, featuring a girl posing suggestively in a high-cut bodysuit. Sound familiar?

American Apparel, the company, may be dead, but its influence persists - and not just through Los Angeles Apparel. American Apparel, in part, kicked off the trend of DTC brands putting sustainability at the forefront of their marketing - walking so Reformation and Everlane could later run. Without AA, we would likely have far fewer brands touting their “elevated basics” (see: Abercrombie & Fitch’s rebrand). There are glimpses of American Apparel’s unrefined messy party girl in today’s “indie sleaze” revival, as well as the visuals attached to Charli XCX’s renowned Brat album.

“I appreciated that they didn’t retouch me,” Kriegsman says of her AA modeling photos. “I look at them and I’m like ‘Oh, I was so beautiful…They captured me so beautifully.”

Having reached so many at such an impressionable age and through such an unconventional avenue, it’s impossible to ignore the mark American Apparel made on hundreds of thousands of young people, whether they even shopped at the store or not. American Apparel has informed how so many conceive their personal styles - we’ll likely see its influence endure in quiet and boisterous ways as trends cycle and recycle.

At its height, American Apparel operated over 250 stores worldwide and reported an annual revenue of $650 million. Today, its once highly-coveted clothing items (skater skirts, disco pants, jelly shoes, etc.) find themselves on overstocked thrift store racks. Del Valle says that she recently found an American Apparel dress at Goodwill - a black bodycon garment with mesh cut-outs that she desperately wanted in college.

“I’ve literally never worn it, but I bought it because it was like $3. And I was like ‘this is meaningful to me.”

Are we ready for the resurgence?

@treasurextrove

Clothes from the 2010’s: The American Apparel disco pant of 2012. I always wanted a pair and decided to heal my 22 year old self. Also my ... See more