American Apparel, Inc.
Established 1989Founded in 1989 by Dov Charney, American Apparel is one of the largest apparel manufacturers in North America. After its experience as a wholesale brand, selling blank T-shirts to screenprinters, uniform companies and fashion brands, the company moved into the retail market in 2000.
Well-known by their provoking billboards, showing pubic hair and nipples, American Apparel is above all unorthodox. Convinced that affordable clothing does not have to come from Asia, Carney decided not to outsource its labor. He built his factory in Los Angeles and employed illegal immigrants. Not to cut costs (he paid them double the minimum wage plus health insurance), but to criticize the US immigration policy. In 2015 the board decided to let controversial CEO Dov Charney go, because of sexual harassment charges.
American Apparel was the first to introduce the deep V-neck as a basic in their collection. The Deep V is ideal to wear underneath a shirt – because it is invisible when the top buttons of a shirt are opened – but it is also worn in the open by hipsters, male or female, who were tired of the existing ‘sexless’ crew neck and V-neck shirts.
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